[OSM-talk] Hierarchy of places

[David Earl]

On 28/11/2008 11:25, Kenneth Gonsalves wrote:
> On Friday 28 November 2008 04:44:54 pm David Earl wrote:
>> city - town - village - hamlet hierarchy.
> 
> and, just to add to the confusion India has the following official 
> classifications
> 
> Metro - Municipal corporation (metro cities)
> Other Municipal corporations (cities)
> Municipalities (towns) - here there are 3 grades
> Town Panchayats (almost towns) again 3 grades
> Village panchayat unions (big villages)
> Villages panchayats (small villages) - some of them having as few as 3-4 
> inhabitants!

That's true all over the world (US "cities" are just incorporated 
settlements and can have only a few dozen inhabitants, UK "cities" are, 
loosely, those with Cathedrals and more strictly those with medieval 
charters, and bears no relation to population).

It's the same discussion as we have had many times over, though, between 
"official" classifications for highways and their representation on the 
ground. In general, the consensus there has been that its what we see 
that counts not what the authorities say, and that official 
classifications have different tags.

In other words, "city" in OSM's vocabulary is not the same thing as a 
city in various local official interpretations. Perhaps using the word 
city (or trunk for highway etc) has created unintended value judgments, 
or the conflict has only become understood since they became widely used.

It's a bit like Parangay again: a settlement of a few hundred people is 
a "village" in OSM, and if that is what the Malay word means then it is 
also a "village". "village" in that context is not to be equated 
directly with the English word "village" in the sense of thatched 
cottages around a green with people playing cricket and refreshement 
provided by the pub alongside: that is only one example of an OSM 
village I think.

OSM place classifications are defined by size, though I think most of us 
use local knowledge as well, but rarely official classifications as 
these aren't helpful in expressing what we want to express. They may be 
helpfully tagged in a different way though, as we (I think) decided for 
highways where the official differed from the local.

David

David