[Tagging] dry swamps

[Warin]

On 12/2/23 02:23, Tod Fitch wrote:
> In the deserts of the southwest United States there are features that 
> could probably use similar help in tagging. In California they usually 
> have “Dry Lake” in the name (assuming they are named). At least one in 
> Arizona has “Playa” (Spanish for beach or shallow) in its name. From 
> your description, they may get water more often than the “dry swamps” 
> you write about but the tagging is similarly unclear.
>
> At present the Wilcox Playa in Arizona is tagged with:
>
> intermittent=yes
> name=Willcox Playa
> natural=water
> note=This area is dry, not water or wetland.
> type=multipolygon
> wikidata=Q8003532
> wikipedia=en:Willcox Playa
>
> While a California example is tagged with:
>
> name=Soda Dry Lake
> natural=mud
> wikidata=Q81309
> wikipedia=en:Soda Lake (San Bernardino County)
>
> This could be an interesting discussion and maybe we can arrive at 
> tagging that works outside of Australia as well as accurately describe 
> your dry swamps.
>
>

Australia too has 'dry lakes' the most famous is Lake Eyre, Relation: 
Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre (North) (253952) 
https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/253952#map=8/-28.343/137.592

I'd not describe it as a dry swamp as it lacks plant life due to the 
salt that is present when dry and the depth of water when wet. I 
describe it as a 'salt lake' and there are many of them in Australia. 
Presently tagged

alt_name =    Lake Eyre (North)
ele    = -15
intermittent  =   yes
name  =   Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre (North)
name:de  =   Eyresee
name:hu  =  Eyre-tó
natural =    water
old_name    = Kati Thanda
salt  =   yes
water   =  lake
wikidata   =  Q179970
wikipedia  =   en:Lake Eyre


I think I'd add the tag surface=salt just to drive home the point.

  I think a 'swamp' (wet or dry) should have plant life.


Another Australian link 
https://wetlandinfo.des.qld.gov.au/resources/static/pdf/resources/fact-sheets/profiles/new-profiles/29113-05-arid-swamps-web.pdf



>
>> On Feb 11, 2023, at 2:07 AM, Warin <61sundowner at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> The ‘dry swamp’ has no apparent way to tag it. These will not be 
>> found in Europe, just as you don’t find deserts there.
>>
>> They have occasional water, not seasonal, not yearly but, say, 
>> between 5 to 20 years they have water. As such they do not satisfy 
>> the OSM swamp definitions at all.
>>
>> Seehttps://theconversation.com/why-a-wetland-might-not-be-wet-103687for 
>> more on their characteristics, at least in Australia. OSM has access 
>> to a imagery source in Australia that maps them, so OSM has a legal 
>> source for them. What is needed is a tag for them, say, 
>> ‘natural=dry_swamp’???
>>
>> There are ~ 4,000 of these ‘natural=mud’ mapped so far that are in 
>> fact ‘dry swamps’. Note that the tag natural=mud  wiki says “This tag 
>> should not be used for areas with intermittent water cover which are 
>> water covered or completely dry most of the time.” So this tagging is 
>> incorrect as they are dry most of the time…
>>
>>
>> There are more in existence but not mapped.
>>
>> Samplehttps://www.openstreetmap.org/way/ 
>> <https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1143825454>1143851993 
>> <https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1143851993>
>>
>>
>> Any thoughts?
>>
>>
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