[OSM-talk] Nested areas

[Steve Hill]

Can areas be nested?  i.e. if there is a large amount of farmland with a 
wooded area in the middle, can you just draw a large area for the farmland 
and a smaller area within it for the wooded land, or do you have to make 
sure the areas don't overlap (e.g. by leaving a hole in the middle of the 
farmland).

This applies to many other areas, such as lakes within parks, schools 
within residential areas, etc.

To a human, it is fairly obvious that a small areas which is completely 
enclosed within a larger area should take presidence, but are the 
renderers expected to understand this?

As a side note, I noticed that whilst Mapnik appears to be quite good at 
rendering areas (e.g. industrial landuse) under the ways, Osmarender 
doesn't seem smart enough and areas sometimes obscure ways.  For example, 
the river is obscured by an industrial area here: 
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=51.68998&lon=-3.9007&zoom=16&layers=0B0FT

  - Steve
    xmpp:steve at nexusuk.org   sip:steve at nexusuk.org   http://www.nexusuk.org/

      Servatis a periculum, servatis a maleficum - Whisper, Evanescence