[OSM-talk] Historical Data in OSM database

[Lester Caine]

Andrew Errington wrote:
>> It would be more logical to have the date construction started be
>> >  start_date, and the date construction completed be completed_date.
>> >  Having the completion date tagged as start_date doesn't make sense.
> I agree.  We have this 'opportunity' in Korea to record the start and end
> dates for construction of bridges, tunnels and buildings.  This
> information is often visible on a plaque on or near the structure:
>
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Korea_bridges
>
> At the moment there is are 'temporary' tags to record this:
>
> construction_start_date=2003-05-09
> construction_end_date=2004-12-09
>
> Since there are only a few instances of it they would be easy to change.
>
> I asked on the tagging list if there was a better way to do this but we
> didn't really reach a conclusion.
>
> I think 'start_date' on its own is insufficient, and really not the right
> tag to mean 'construction has ended and people started using the
> building/structure/whatever'.  However, if it's defined that way then it's
> fine, but we then need a way to tag the start of construction.

My take on things relates to routing and so ANY way that has a start_date or an 
end_date should basically be ignored if it is outside the current time frame. So 
when a new bridge opens to traffic then that should be the simple start_date. 
construction_start_date then also makes sense, but so does route_approved_date 
and some others relating to the development process. I'm not sure that all of 
the potential dates are really necessary, but if the information IS available, 
then it would be nice to be able to include it?

-- 
Lester Caine - G8HFL
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