[OSM-talk] proposed bot edit for surface=granite, surface=marble and similar

[Mateusz Konieczny]

There is noticeable (but not very high) number of surface=granite /
surface=marble and other similar tagging type of stone into surface tag.

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There was some discussion on
https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/type-of-stone-in-surface-surface-granite-and-similar/9424

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Surface=granite blocks distinguishing between

surface=paving_stones
surface=sett
surface=unhewn_cobblestone
surface=rock
etc

surface=granite may be any of following:

Exposed raw rock (surface=rock / surface=raw_rock)
   https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:Half_Dome_ropes_4.jpg

Natural stone machined into a flat surface (surface=paving_stones)
   https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pretty_natural_stone_used_for_paving.jpg

Flattened stone, but still not entirely flat and not covering entire
surface (surface=sett)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Granite_Setts.jpg

Raw cobblestone of natural, uncut, rounded stones.
(surface=unhewn_cobblestone)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ancient_road_surface.jpg

Stones or plates individually arranged in a row, allowing to walk on,
surrounded by an unpaved medium such as grass or water
(surface=stepping_stones)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:River_Rothay_stepping_stones_120508w.jpg
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:Stepping_stones_-_geograph.org.uk_-_832601.jpg

surface=gravel and surface=pebblestone and maybe some other would be
valid.

(note: specific photos above may be not necessarily depict granite, but
`surface=granite` could also take such forms) (if you have a better
photo then improving
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:surface%3Dgranite would be
highly welcome)

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So instead of surface=granite using material=granite would be
preferable.

For example instead of:
highway=pedestrian surface=granite

following tagging would be better:
highway=pedestrian material=granite

This makes space for tagging surface=sett or surface=unhewn_cobblestone
or surface=paving_stones etc

I think that it would be much better to tag and such migration can be
done with an automatic edits.

So I am proposing following replacements:

surface = granite → material = granite
surface = granit → material = granite
surface = marble → material = marble
surface = sandstone → material = sandstone
surface = laterite → material = laterite
surface = limestone → material = limestone
surface = limerock → material = limerock
surface = chalk → material = chalk
surface = basalt → material = basalt

Edits will be not made where there is already material /
paving_stones:material tag with a mismatching info.

Edits will be made where such surface tags are present now or will
appear in future.

There are also surface=steel, surface=aluminium and surface=iron but
these are trickier and not proposed to be edited here (I guess that
leaving surface=metal would be useful and surface=iron should only be
changed to surface=metal as it is really unlikely to be correct)

Why it is useful? It helps newbies to avoid becoming confused. It
protects against such values becoming established. Without drudgery
that would be required from the manual cleanup. It also makes easier to
add missing surface= values

Why automatic edit? I have a massive queue (in thousands and tens of
thousands) of automatically detectable issues which are not reported by
mainstream validators, require fixes and fix requires review or
complete manual cleanup.

There is no point in manual drudgery here, with values obviously
fixable.

This values here do NOT require manual overview. If this cases will
turn out to be an useful signal of invalid editing than I will remain
reviewing nearby areas where bot edited.

Yes, bot edit WILL cause objects to be edited. Nevertheless, as result
map data quality will improve.

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