[OSM-talk] place=country/nation/state

[Martin Trautmann]

Iván Sánchez Ortega wrote:

> I really like the NUTS system, as it is politically neutral, and balanced
> between different countries. IMHO, OSM should have a similar classification
> system.

NUTS is ok for certain statistical classification - but it may add on 
one hand levels just by population which will cause splits which are not 
known within the country itself. On the other hand the split of NUTS may 
follow the same structures which are given within the country - but they 
will add abbreviations which are still not known within the country.

This does conflict with existing levels within the country. Take e.g. 
Germany and Austria. They use hierarchical number systems, such as
01 Schleswig-Holstein (a federal state in Germany, two digits, 16 states)
01001 Flensburg (a district / Landkreis, here the northmost in Germany, 
five digits)
01001000 Flensburg (the community / Gemeinde - here the same as the town)

The German system is called "Amtlicher Gemeindeschlüssel", the Austrian 
is "Gemeindeschlüssel". Switzerland and Belgium use different, 
hierarchical level number systems and levels.

> The downside of NUTS is that it is only well-defined for the EU. For the rest
> of the world countries, a parallel classification would be needed.
>
> Anybody care to draft something for a feature proposal?

There are both for language and country the proper ISO standards. For 
levels below I suppose that you have to adopt each national system.

That's why the [[OpenGeoDB]] has three approaches here:

first: a basic static classification system by levels which may be 
filled more or less completely:
             DE                AT             CH
country     en:Germany        en:Austria     en:Switzerland
             de:Deutschland    de:Österreich  de:Schweiz
state          Bundesland        Bundesland     Kanton
gov. region    Regierungsbezirk   -              -
district       Landkreis         Bezirk         Bezirk
offices        Amt
municipality   Gemeinde          Gemeinde       Gemeinde
...

second: the (optional) type name, such as "Amt", 
"Verwaltungsgemeinschaft", "Stadt", ...

third: a "part of" relation, what is part of what

- Martin