[OSM-talk] Historical Data in OSM database

[john at jfeldredge.com]

One issue is that, if you are mapping a historic road that is located differently from the current-day road, unless you have a series of maps showing each successive change, you can't be sure whether there were additional change steps between what your historic map shows and the current state.  So, for example, if you knew that the current road layout was built in 1950, and your historic road comes from an 1850 map, you might map the old road as having been in place from 1850 to 1950.  However, it might turn out that the area in question was redeveloped in 1900, and then those roads were replaced in 1950.  So, unless you have full documentation of all of the changes, the dates are likely to be speculative at best.

-------Original Email-------
Subject :Re: [OSM-talk] Historical Data in OSM database
From  :mailto:kevin at kevinpeat.com
Date  :Tue Nov 09 07:07:21 America/Chicago 2010


On 9 November 2010 12:46, Lester Caine <lester at lsces.co.uk <mailto:lester at lsces.co.uk> > wrote:
 historic ways that have been overlaid with a new road structure are not very common.

I don't think that is true at all. Everytime a new housing estate is built there are changes to existing highways, new roundabouts, junction changes, etc. If you kept both the old and new in OSM it would be an editing nightmare.
 
OpenHistoryMap is a great idea for a project and if it existed I am sure I would contribute to it but I think mixing that data into current OSM is just a bad idea.

Kevin


 _______________________________________________
talk mailing list
talk at openstreetmap.org
http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk


Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry