[Talk-GB] Tagging overlapping areas using the same landcover

[Andy Street]

I've recently been thinking about how to map areas such as the Forest of
Bere[1] which is an area of woodland comprised of smaller sections each
with their own name. Ideally I think that the forest should be mapped
as a separate entity so that a search for "Forest of Bere" would
return the whole area whilst "Upperford Copse" would return only the
relevant bit.

My initial thoughts were to create a multipolygon (natural=wood,
name=Forest of Bere, ...) using the outline of the smaller areas but
while I'm perfectly happy to overlap landuse (military, park, school,
golf course, etc.) with landcover (woods, water, etc.) I'm not so sure
that overlapping landcover with landcover is such a good idea. There is
also a complicating factor in the form of several woodland clearings
which are currently unmapped. If you speak to people on the ground they
generally consider such areas to be "in the forest" despite the lack of
trees. Perhaps place=locality or place=forest would be a better fit?

Has anyone dealt with a similar issue? I'm hoping that someone will
help me see the wood for the trees!

[1] http://osm.org/go/euoc4tP5--
-- 
Regards,

Andy Street