[Talk-us] An admin_level for CDPs?

Paul Norman penorman at mac.com
Wed Jan 2 00:30:22 GMT 2013


> From: stevea [mailto:steveaOSM at softworkers.com]
> Sent: Monday, December 31, 2012 12:31 PM
> To: talk-us at openstreetmap.org
> Subject: [Talk-us] An admin_level for CDPs?
> 
> I have been pondering the use of the admin_level key in the USA, and
> have come to the realization that while  values 2, 4, 6 and 8 are
> correct for national, state, county and city boundaries (respectively),
> it is more complicated than that.

One minor point, although I realize your message doesn't actually raise this
issue directly.

People often assume that because admin_level=6 is used to tag counties in
most of the US an admin_level=6 area is the same as a county. Most of the
states have a very similar structure for administrative divisions so most
people don't encounter the other structures. In Alaska as well as other
parts of the world there are no counties. Other administrative divisions are
used, not because they're the equivalent of counties but because they're
what admin_level=6 means locally.

This is perhaps more relevant in the US to cities where there are more
definitions of what they are.




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