[Talk-us] Planning to import NHD data for VT's White River (Subbasin 01080105). Seeking advice on making import community friendly.

[Scott]

Hello All,

I have been working on preparing the Natonal Hydrography Dataset (NHD -
There's an OSM wiki page for this source) data for the White River (
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=43.68435&lon=-72.3982&zoom=16) in Vermont
for import to OpenStreetMap. In general, this seems to be a good candidate
for import, as there has not been a lot of work done in mapping the water
features in this region.

I have read the NHD wiki pages as well as the pages on importing. I have in
particular read that imports can be detrimental to the OpenStreetMap
community, and would like to do my best to reduce and/or avoid this affect
as best as I can. I think the most important thing I can do is to try to
make sure the results follow K.I.S.S. principles, so here is what I am
doing so far:

- Features have been simplified before conversion to OSM to remove many
excessive points, particularly in small streams.
- Split areas into what I think are manageable chunks. No ways with > 350
nodes, 5 ways > 300 nodes, < 20 ways with > 200 nodes. I have double
verified that the Shapefile to OSM conversion tool does not introduce
duplicate nodes.
- A minimum of unnecessary tags will be used. Tags common to the entire
dataset will instead be placed on the dedicated import users' wiki page.
- Multipolygon relations with only outer ways have been substituted with
single closed ways/areas.


Additionally, I have
- sent messages to all users who have added potentially conflicting
water/river features in the area I will be importing to. The responses I
have received thus far have been basically positive or neutral.
- taken note of the few features which would potentially overlap in NHD and
am taking steps to avoid uploading those parts of the data, in favor of
keeping user mapped features.
- checked my converted OSM data against both the Bing aerial imagery and
the OpenStreetMap/Mapnik tiles available in JOSM to ensure that the data
makes sense and that rivers will not overlap roads, etc.
- kept a record of the process I am following, to be placed on the
dedicated users' wiki page.


So, basically I am looking for thoughts and advice on how to ensure this
import will be a success, not just after importing, but in the future. I am
particularly interested in pointers on how to best facilitate future
modifications and enhancements by other mappers and myself.

Additionally, I would be happy to make my converted and modified data
available to someone for review, if any one is interested.

Thanks a lot!

Scott
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