[OSM-talk] Search results for disputed territories (Nominatim)

[Oleksiy Muzalyev]

Hi,

Just wanted to let you know that you are not alone who is making an 
effort to understand how Nominatim database works.

When I try to pull about fifty locations into an XML file with a query 
by the tag *int_name* either from:

http://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search/
or its mirror:
http://open.mapquestapi.com/nominatim/v1/search.php

it returns all but four locations. I tried to rewrite *int_name* tag for 
these 4 locations. Tried to rewrite again, while making sure that I use 
English characters. It does not help.

But when I pull these objects with combination with their respective 
city name, it returns them all right. I am trying to figure out the 
reason of this issue for several weeks already.

Perhaps it will just take some time to understand how Nominatim database 
works. It seems that it is not that simple as an SQL query to say MySQL 
database. The Nominatim database should be very big, and there could be 
some limitations, or delays, ...

brgds
Oleksiy

On 24.11.2014 2:43, maning sambale wrote:
> Hi,
>
> We were informed by our national mapping agency of this concern.  For
> a brief of background,
> the Philippines have several disputed islands with China one example
> is Scarborough Shoal [0].
>
> The Nominatim result assigns it only to Sansha City, Hainan, People's
> Republic of China [1]
>
> To avoid further edit wars, we tagged the boundary as disputed territory [0]
>
> I believe the data is correct having properly tagged in an admin_level
> relation for both countries.
>
> Zambales, Philippines: http://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/1504691
> Sansha City, China: http://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/2833102
>
> I propose that Nominatim either display all the results or none at all
> (saying it is a disputed territory) to avoid confusion.
>
> Furthermore, we already informed our mapping agency of OSMF's
> statement regarding this matter [3].
>
> This post is to inform the wider OSM community  an seek advice on how
> we should best represent and show results for disputed territories.
> We already posted an issue to Nominatim on this matter [4].
>
> Also, this is an appeal to connect to both PH and CN mappers not
> continue reverting each others edits.  We are part of an international
> community and we should not be escalating this border issue any
> further into OSM.
>
> Thanks!
>
> [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarborough_Shoal
> [1] http://www.openstreetmap.org/search?query=Scarborough%20Shoal#map=11/15.1585/117.7653
> [2] http://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/26925523
> [3] http://www.osmfoundation.org/w/images/d/d8/DisputedTerritoriesInformation.pdf
> [4] https://github.com/twain47/Nominatim/issues/202

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/attachments/20141124/474fdb7f/attachment.html>