[Talk-GB] Vacant, abandoned, ruined and damaged buildings and buidings under construction

[Peter Miller]

Not strictly a question for talk_gb however I don't subscribe to either talk
or to talk_us so possibly people here will have some ideas.

I have been looking into how to tag the operational status of buildings. I
suggest that the default should be 'operational', ie that someone is
productively using the building for its intended purpose.

What about a vacant building (which is secured but not being used for any
productive purpose)? or as is the case for many buildings in Detroit where I
am supporting some mapping one which has been abandoned, by which I mean
that thw owner has left it and it is open to the elements or one which is a
ruin which, for example a building which is burnt out but is still standing.

I would like to express that this is a ruined house or an abandoned school
etc so can't really use the building tag itself.

I see that this issue has already been extensively discussed on the wiki in
the past but what I don't see is any usable conclusion.
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Comparison_of_life_cycle_concepts

I notice that in Haiti there are 784 buildings with an 'earthquake:damage=*'
tag, 20 with earthquake_damage=*, 3 have condition=sunken, 3 have
paho:damage=*.

It seems to come down to either:

*=operational/construction/vacant/damaged/abandoned/ruin etc where * might
be status/lifecycle/other...

or

abandoned=yes, ruin=yes.

Given that a building won't often be more than one of the above then I
suggest the first option is better. If a building has multiple simultaneous
conditions, ie damaged and also operational then one can use the
operational=yes tagging in addition to *=damaged.

Personally I am relaxed about what tags are used and if they are later
changed by some robot, I just want to have a way of capturing the status for
now so we can produce some themed maps by building status for what has been
described as the 'slow Katrina' that has taken place in Detroit over the
past 20-30 years during which time 1.1million people have left the city and
a ruined house can be bought for $500.


Regards,


Peter
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