[OSM-talk] Some guidelines on Africover data?

[Joseph Reeves]

Great, thanks Grant,

Good to see that my line of thinking was pretty much the same as
yours; I just wanted to double check on consensus before inadvertently
wrecking anything.

Cheers, Joseph



On 30 March 2010 13:25, Grant Slater <openstreetmap at firefishy.com> wrote:
> Hi Joseph,
>
> I've been cleaning up some of the Africover, mostly bound within the
> DRC borders.
>
> The import seems to have been fairly messy.
>
> <snip>
>> There is no source tag on the data that exists, only an AUTO_ID tag;
>> an example way can be seen in 37424303 [3], although many more exist.
>> I'm guessing that the AUTO_ID refers to a Africover reference system
>> that has survived the import, whilst OSM specific tags need to be
>> applied.
>>
>> Is there any reference available for telling what such ways should be
>> tagged as? I'm worried that some may be rivers, in some cases possible
>> dupes [4]. With a list to refer to, could ways such as this be tagged
>> as highway:road or waterway:river, source:Africover when found?
>> Leaving the AUTO_IDs would seem to be a good idea for now.
>>
>
> I generally replace the AUTO_ID with a highway = road. The AUTO_ID is
> now worthless data to have in the OSM system, we have moved on from
> the original import. I'd say add source=Africover on the ways if you
> like. Best to strip it on nodes. The amount of GPS (GPX) data coverage
> is improving, especially in Southern Africa, so always compare. I
> always give existing data preference over Africover. If the Africover
> data feels VERY wrong, I think it is best to remove it rather than
> disrupt future (local) mapping efforts.
>
> Some of the ways also seem to be railways. Many Central & East African
> railways are being revived due to renewed interest in Africa's mineral
> wealth and Chinese interest.
>
> I tag with brain activated :-) Even Landsat helps. Some major African
> cities do have Yahoo! aerial imagery.
>
> Regards
>  Grant
>