[OSM-talk-be] Boundary admin levels

[Kurt Roeckx]

On Thu, May 29, 2008 at 05:53:10PM +0200, Ben Laenen wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> we need to decide on the proper values in the table at 
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Key:boundary#Admin_level_values_for_specific_countries
> once (even though we don't have a proper source for these boundaries 
> yet...). I've filled it in with these values for now:
> 
> 
> 1: not used
> 2: national borders
> 3: not used
> 4: regions (Flanders, Wallonia, Brussels Capital Region)
> 5: communities (Flemish, French and German community)

As far as I know communities are not based on were you live, just what
language you speak.  It's based on the person, and not the place he
lives.  I don't think you can map it, so I don't see a point.

On the other hand, there are 4 language communities, the Dutch, the
French, the bilangual Brussels-Capital and the German, and each
municipality belongs to one of them.

> 6: provinces (Antwerpen, Brabant Wallon, Hainaut, Liège, Limburg, 
> Luxembourg, Namur, Oost-Vlaanderen, Vlaams-Brabant, West-Vlaanderen)
> 7: administrative arrondissements (map for Flanders at 
> http://web.archive.org/web/20070202234322/http://binnenland.vlaanderen.be/verkiezingen/kaarten/indeling_arr.jpg 
> and for Wallonia at 
> http://environnement.wallonie.be/zones_prevention/arrondissements.jpg)
> 8: municipalities
> 9: deelgemeenten/sections de municipalité

This can already be difficult to map properly.  When things got split
(in 1976/1977?) some parts of the old village got changed to an other
municipality.  But you can probaly figure something about based on the
old and new borders for the municipalities.

> 10: not used
> 
> 
> For 10 we could maybe use the quarters of each municipality. I know the 
> city of Antwerp divides the districts into smaller quarters, but I 
> don't know if other municipalities do the same, so I haven't filled 
> that in yet.

I think below 9 there can still be different levels, like hamlet and
suburb, but I think we lack proper rules on when to use what.  And I
think most of them don't really have clearly cut lines.

> I've put communities one step lower than regions (even though the 
> Flemish community is bigger than the Flemish Region, since it includes 
> Brussels Capital Region) so that may be a discussion perhaps, but I 
> generally see the communities being less important than the regions.

See my comment above.  It doesn't make sense, the Brussels Capital
Region is not part of the Flemish community, but people from both
the Dutch and French community live in the Brussels Capital
Region.



Kurt