[Talk-GB] Rockall

[Colin Smale]

On 2020-06-15 23:14, barry b wrote:

> Hi Folks, I made the below changes to rockall.

Thanks for engaging! 

> The changes i've made are 
> 1) Changed Rockall from Island to Rock 
> 2) Removed the Administration boundary 
> 
> 1) Rockall is not a island.  You could debate its a rock or islet but it cant sustain human life. 
> References: 
> 1) Wikipedia calls it a islet 
> 2 https://www.kildarestreet.com/wrans/?id=2011-03-24.365.0 [1] Irish Government call it a rock 
> 3)https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/97923/response/262438/attach/html/3/0109%2012.pdf.html - Uk Government call it a islet  
> 4) The hint is in its name 🙂

OSM knows about islets - tagged as place=islet (as opposed to
place=island) 

> 2) The reason for removing the administration boundary is i wanted to remove the EEZ around rockall.( The big circle) 
> From a visual point of view this looks off. it implies there is an island or county there. But more importantly it is incorrect

Changing the data "incorrectly" to achieve a desired appearance on a
particular map is rather frowned upon in OSM; we call it "tagging for
the renderer". So any arguments that it "looks off" tend to be declared
null and void... The underlying data needs to be correct, and if it
still "looks off", then it's the visualisation that needs fixing. It
even has its own wiki page:
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tagging_for_the_renderer 

> Firstly even according the the UK. The EEZ wouldn't be 200nm, it would be 12 - https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/97923/response/262438/attach/html/3/0109%2012.pdf.html [2]

As I read it, it makes it clear that the territorial waters extend to
12nm, and the EEZ to 200nm from the baseline; for this latter purpose
Rockall is ignored as it "cannot sustain life" etc (although it is
covered by that 200nm EEZ) but Rockall itself and the 12nm territorial
sea around Rockall are claimed as UK territory. 

> Secondly. No country accepts the EEZ and is considered international waters. 
> Several countries claim it Iceland, Denmark , UK and Ireland. 
> 
> In the coming months this rock in the middle of nowhere could potentially turn into a larger issue with the UK exit from the EU as Iceland, Ireland and other EU country all fish here 
> Last summer there was a standoff with the UK Navy and fishing boats. The Irish Navy have also regularly patrol the area in protection of fishery 
> 
> I can give a list of references to show the EEZ recognized, but i don't think that helpful 
> 
> I don't know the exact procedure here. I feel i didn't do it right.

Don't worry too much about "not doing it right", just about everybody
here has "been there done that got the t-shirt". 

It's exactly because this is/could be controversial that we need to
tread carefully. We did this recently with Crimea for example. OSM needs
to remain strictly neutral and tends to follow the international
consensus and/or the actual, verifiable status "on the ground". 

Colin 
  

Links:
------
[1] https://www.kildarestreet.com/wrans/?id=2011-03-24.365.0
[2]
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/97923/response/262438/attach/html/3/0109%2012.pdf.html
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