[Tagging] plantation=yes?

[stevea]

On Dec 10, 2022, at 12:04 PM, Andy Townsend <ajt1047 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 10/12/2022 18:23, Mark Wagner wrote:
>> As actually used on the map, "natural=wood" and "landuse=forest" are
>> synonyms.
>> 
> Depends on the map - if there are no other tags https://map.atownsend.org.uk will show "landuse=forest" in a lighter green to "natural=wood" (to indicate "forestry"; it also supports "landuse=forestry" too).  If there are other tags (e.g. "leaf_type") it'll use the same colour as for "natural=wood".

At least a couple of things:  round and round goes OSM as the distinctions between landuse=forest and natural=wood have at least SIX "flavors" (documented in our wiki [1] for years), user:Penegal took THREE revisions (over years) to get even a minor flavor of something related to this Approved (as such boundaries [2] are really "a thing" in parts of the world).  I have all but given up on a "globally correct" approach and do what it seems like "others do around here."  Even as I know someone from another part of the world — even a seasoned OSM editor / volunteer / contributor — would be confused by "the tagging around here."

Also, "plantation" means a lot of different things to different people.  In the USA state of Maine, a "plantation" is a particular kind of...well, sorta like admin_level, but not exactly, a kind of "minor civil division" (among admin levels in the USA) [3].  It falls between "unincorporated area" and "town" but you have to pay attention to history and whether something is "organized" and/or "incorporated" under Maine law or a charter of something (like a town charter); it can be complicated (like administrative divisions in pretty much any middle-level jurisdiction on Earth).  I know this isn't what is really "meant" what is being talked about here with the word "plantation" (well, the key as documented in our wiki), but rather a "forest plantation" (for wood / lumber production)...and there seems to be some overlap (in the OSM tagging sense of "plantation") with things like rubber, fruits, orchards, et cetera.  Such topics (keys with multiple meanings) continue to be difficult to tease apart in OSM without making "in this region, we do it like this..." kinds of hand-waving gestures.  Such is the real world of tagging ambiguity we live in.  It isn't terrible, but it does exist.  The best we can do is continue to discuss and document to further clarity and understanding.  This doesn't always disambiguate, but it can (and often does) help.

I don't say all this to toot a sour note.  Rather, I say it because of the difficulty of how sometimes "tagging" meets that truth about language:  words mean different things in different dialects and different parts of the world and different contexts (especially because we use "English" and maybe "UK English," maybe not, as there is Australian English, Canadian English, Singapore English, US English...maybe dozens or a hundred of these dialects?)  And once one context (like "things that grow and are harvested") gets smeared with another (like administrative hierarchies), all bets are off.  The latter doesn't happen often, but it can and does.

When "one single tag" tries to capture "this" (in OSM) but there are also "that and those" (in the real world), we get such collisions.  Luckily, we can discuss these things, document things in our wiki, take votes, Approve some things, disapprove of some things, sharpen our focus on those things, et cetera.  It's a long road, we get there, or at least a bit closer all the time, never really quite with perfection, but I'll take that:  that's "mapping."

[1] https://wiki.osm.org/wiki/Forest <https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Forest>
[2] https://wiki.osm.org/wiki/Tag:boundary%3Dforest_compartment <https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:boundary%3Dforest_compartment>
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantation_(Maine)