[Tagging] dry swamps

[Warin]

On 17/2/23 12:13, Matija Nalis wrote:
> On Sat, 11 Feb 2023 21:07:22 +1100, 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.
> I see few options. If it happens more regularly, map as:
>
> - If it happens more regularly, map as: natural=wetland + intermittent=yes
>    there even exist few cases of "wetland=dry", so you may add that (or something similar) too.
>    
>    Yes, I know that "natural=wetland" tag talks about "seasonal", but note the "intermittent=yes" changes the meaning of
>    the main tag significantly. There are even things which are normally (without intermittent tag) ALWAYS full of water
>    (like rivers and lakes), but intermittent=yes changes what they are:
>    
>    https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:intermittent
>    
> - if they very rarely (if ever) become waterlogged, mark them whatever they are currently (or most of the time).
>
>    After all, you wouldn't mark say Fukushima as wetland, because due to its location and climate it is prone
>    to tsunami and flood disasters.
>    
>    So, if there are trees, mark as natural=forest. If grass, landcover=grass. If no vegetation then natural=desert. etc.
>    Add human readable description=* mentioning the rare floods when it becomes swamp.


Some deserts have vegetation. And they are still deserts even with 
vegetation. Some deserts are not sand, and they are still deserts. It is 
not the land cover that make a desert.

Dry/arid/ephemeral swamps are still dry/arid/ephemeral swamps even when 
they are dry. It is not the vegetation alone that makes a 
dry/arid/ephemeral swamp.

>    
> - see what other similar features in the region use, and copy/paste that.


In one part I have previously tagged one of them, thinking it was a rare 
thing I used a square peg in a round hole... but 4,000 of them in one 
state of Australia, with more of them in other parts of Australia and 
yet more in other parts of the world I think that means there should be 
suitable tags for them not some stop gap tagging.