[OSM-talk] South Sudan: Update border from DoS data

[Michael Krämer]

Hi Mikel,

 > I believe this section of the line is the one is dispute, it's in a 
separate file from the State Dept: 
http://rockburger.com/openstreetmap/state/New_Abyei_non-56_line_part.zip

This is the area which seems to be truly disputed - here DoS data 
corresponds to the current situation in OSM.

My question had been triggered by another area further west. In Google 
Maps both borders are dashed [1]. OSM currently uses the one in the 
south, the DoS data the one north. So importing DoS data would move the 
border significantly.

 > Question is, how do we tag this? We need to mark the border as 
disputed politically (but not disputed by editors). Similar lines in 
Kashmir, etc.

The world seems to be full of border conflicts - even in western Europe. 
I have also learned that there is something like an "indefinite" border 
(DR Congo - Zambia partly). So probably the tagging should be able to 
handle some finer distinction in future (disputed, indefinite, de-facto, 
...). As border_type is already used in a different context it should 
probably something like boundary_status.

I also wonder how to take care of this situation in the relations. 
Probably one should enclose the disputed area in the relations for both 
countries. But I don't know if this causes trouble somewhere else.

Michael (User Ohr)

[1] 
http://maps.google.com/?ll=9.31899,24.345703&spn=2.970201,3.532104&t=m&z=8&vpsrc=6