[OSM-talk] Surveying

[David Earl]

On 18/11/2007 22:11, Gervase Markham wrote:
> If I were to go out surveying - in this case, in the countryside and 
> villages of Cumbria - is there a definitive list of all the things I 
> should be spotting to make a complete map? I can then create a 
> "Surveyor" plugin XML button definition file with all of them in and use 
> it on my travels.
> 
> I realise that, in one sense, there's no end to the level of detail you 
> could add, but it would be nice to know if there's some consensus on 
> what needs to be annotated to consider the map "good enough".

FWIW, here is what I collect (E&OE). This covers all of Cambridge and 
the majority of South Cambridgeshire, city of Ely, plus a few complete 
towns in High Peak. Not everyone will agree, but the large areas I've 
done are consistent.

- All highways with names. I've used tertiary for unnumbered (on the 
ground) inter-urban rural roads and urban through routes, with 
abutters=residential to distinguish the two. track + 
abutters=residential for unsurfaced residential streets. service for 
roads within industrial estates, science parks etc. as well as within 
car parks. Other urban streets (other than numbered roads are 
residential, except for the occasional unclassified where there is a gap 
in the urban fabric), and unclassified for very minor rural roads
- mini roundabouts, roundabouts and traffic signals
- marked cycleways
- bus stations and detail of park & ride sites
- car parks incl. entrances (highway=service usually)
- connecting urban footways (links between estates etc)
- railways and their bridges
- lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, and their bridges
- churches and other places of worship; cemeteries
- schools, node + area; colleges, university premises; I see someone has 
now specifically outlined most of the college buildings in Cambridge 
too, presumably from yahoo imagery: great!
- pubs, restaurants, filling stations (amenity=fuel), pharmacies, 
doctors surgeries, hospitals, post offices
- significant open green spaces within the urban fabric
- recreation grounds, playgrounds, sporting facilities (incl. golf 
courses), parks
- large retail areas, supermarkets and their parking
- commercial parks and  industrial areas (factories): usually Landsat 
can get the approximate outline if the survey on the ground can get some 
impression of the frontage
- public buildings like village halls (amenity=public_building)
- significant buildings (building=...) like Kings College Chapel, 
Fitzwilliam Museum, large station buildings, mills, castles, shopping 
malls etc where it is possible to determine the approx footprint
- allotments
- woods (with the assistance of npe and landsat to determine outlines of 
observed woods) and orchards
- airports and airfields
- windmills, water towers
- post boxes
- some farms (I wish I'd been more diligent about these)
- military ranges and buildings where possible
- any other more unusual feature of significance

(I've not had to deal with any coastal features in any areas I've done 
yet, nor encountered any power stations for example).

HTH
David