[Talk-us] Fwd: Spot elevations collected as natural=peak and name=Point (height in feet)

[Kevin Kenny]

OOPS - meant to send to the list, not the originator...

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Kevin Kenny <kevin.b.kenny at gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Mar 9, 2019 at 9:49 AM
Subject: Re: [Talk-us] Spot elevations collected as natural=peak and
name=Point (height in feet)
To: Joseph Eisenberg <joseph.eisenberg at gmail.com>


On Fri, Mar 8, 2019 at 11:02 PM Joseph Eisenberg
<joseph.eisenberg at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Natural=peak must be a local high point, so it has to be at least a
> few meters higher than the surrounding land. A natural=peak does not
> have to be the highest point of a mountain, but it has to have some
> topographical prominence. Not all spot elevations on USGS are of
> peaks, some are just a visually prominent part of a ridge, and other
> are saddles.

Once again, map the object, then tag the elevation.

The maps don't ordinarily show spot elevations that aren't associated
with an object that can be recovered in the field. If it's a trig
point, we have tagging for that. If it's a saddle, we have tagging for
that. If it's a highway intersection, tag ele=* on the node and add a
note=* to indicate that the elevation is associated with the
intersection. If it's the surface elevation of a waterbody, we have
tagging for that. If it's a destroyed benchmark, then don't map it (or
give it place=locality without a name if for some other reason it must
be mapped). If it's an object of a kind we haven't discussed, then
let's discuss that kind of object rather than arbitrarily discussing
tagging of spot elevations.  Tagging spot elevations out of context
will serve only to get in the way of integrating with third-party
photogrammetric, radar or lidar data sources - and I think we're all
agreed that OSM is *not* the right place for fine-grained elevation
information.

There are peaks where the elevation is the name in common usage.
Certainly, anyone chronicling the history of the Vietnam War would
recognize Hill 875, Hill 881 or Hill 943 as place names. Even though
those names started out simply as spot elevations on a map, they have
subsequently been written upon the land in the blood of soldiers.