[OSM-talk] Too much detail, or: mapping every single tree in a park

[Stephan Knauss]

On 27.04.2021 05:02, Skyler Hawthorne wrote:
> I came across this:
> https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=18/42.71889/-73.78869
> Maybe I'm too pessimistic. What does everyone else think? Is there such 
> a thing as too much detail? Where do we draw the line?

Don't worry too much about storage space. a few thousand nodes and ways 
do not slow down any decent hardware.

I draw the line when something does not fit with the quality/accuracy of 
the data source.

This is something I personally consider "too much":
https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=19/18.78679/98.97141

Here a mapper was "drawing" parking lots/motorbike lots.
The available imagery is only the typical lower-resolution satellite 
imagery. With aerials in 10cm resolution, it could be possible to get 
such details. With the current imagery this is too much "imagination".
Checking different imagery sources shows discrepancy in the orientation 
and placement of the parking lots.

https://i.postimg.cc/HxTDDG1b/parking-lots-bing.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/zBpmqdq6/parking-lots-maxar.jpg

But it looks nice on a Carto rendering.

Horrible on other renderings:
https://i.postimg.cc/y6XxZBNC/parking-lots-18-787-98-971.jpg


So level of mapping detail has to be roughly in line with the data 
sources available. High-resolution imagery allows to map into hier 
detail and gives other a chance to verify that mapping.


Stephan