[OSM-talk] [tagging] Feature Proposal - RFC - waterways/ditch

[Tristan Scott]

the Waterway=Drain tag has this description:
A Drain is an artificial waterway used for carrying storm water or
industrial discharge.

To me, that seems unrelated to the ditches I have in mind:
they don't carry storm water - normally the water table won't move
much in a storm (at least in the UK) and the ditches stay were they
are. They contain natural rainwater or saltwater from the marshes.
Secondly, they don't really drain so much as just sit there - the
fields around stay wet, the water doesn't really move. They're used as
fences as much as somewhere to connect field drains to.
here's a pic that seems to illustrate what i have in mind:
http://web.ncf.ca/bf250/images/odditch.jpg

It strikes me that tagging as drain loses the information that drains
are usually empty unless draining something (like a storm) and also
tend to be channels for water movement rather than just sort of long
thin ponds, though I suppose we must lose information somewhere to
avoid tag congestion.
Maybe modifying and clarifying the scope of the drain tag would do?
Thoughts?

Tristan

2008/9/1 Andy Robinson (blackadder-lists) <ajrlists at googlemail.com>:
> Tristan Scott wrote:
>>Sent: 01 September 2008 3:37 PM
>>To: talk at openstreetmap.org
>>Subject: [OSM-talk] [tagging] Feature Proposal - RFC - waterways/ditch
>>
>>This is a request for comments (my first, so let me know if i've done
>>it wrong!) on my waterway/ditch.
>>http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Proposed_features/Ditch
>>
>>mainly as there's a large area of marshes around where I live, and the
>>canal waterway tag is completely inappropriate for the still overgrown
>>drainage ditches (too wide to jump, too overgrown and narrow to
>>navigate, and not even remotely canal-like)
>>I can get organised with a picture of the ditch if that's necessary.
>>Note that ditchs are occasionally "slubbed" out, but every ditch i
>>know of is more than 50 years old - so it's not as if they're
>>seasonal.
>>
>>oh, and they're on Ordnance Survey maps as thin blue lines, if that's
>>relevant.
>
> Map Features has always had a waterway=drain tag which was always intended
> for drains and ditches. I've been using that when I come across one.
>
> Cheers
>
> Andy
>
>
>



-- 
Tristan Scott BSc(Hons)
Yare Valley Technical Services
01603 858441
07837 205829