Mapping settlements best practices

[john whelan]

In Africa where we see small groups of huts clustered with other groups typically 100 meters apart some mappers will map each small cluster some draw a much larger landuse=residential covering perhaps a dozen small groupings.

When validating I accept either but I suspect the multiple small landuse=residential is much more useful than the more sparsely populated larger method but it is only a suspicion.

If it is, is there somewhere where we show the "best practice" method for mapping these settlements?

http://tasks.hotosm.org/project/1396#task/2151 is an example of one.

Thanks John

[Ralph Aytoun]

I have also had some reservations regarding the use of landuse=residential to indicate the presence of settlements and communities.  In the case of formal towns this is still a useful tool but when it comes to loose rural communities in areas like Africa this leads to areas the size of large towns with a few scattered groups of houses.... this encompasses far more landuse=farmland than it does residential land.

Because of the difficulty for new and inexperienced mappers trying to decide what is a farmyard and what is not a farmyard the tendency has been to ignore this tag in favour of landuse=residential ... A tendency to which I agree is the better of two evils.

If we look at the short description of landuse=residential "Predominantly houses or apartment buildings" (Map Features) it starts to make sense to just encompass the individual small parcels of land that the buildings occupy rather than trying to indicate a large swathe of land that we "presume" to be belonging to a single community group.The longer description "An area of land dedicated to, or having predominantly residential buildings such as houses or apartment buildings" and "The extent of the area should mark the boundary of known residential use, not the extent of the whole town or village."  (Wiki) 

The practice of trying to indicate a town, village or community using the landuse=rural area has led to the erroneous addition of name=* being tagged to it 290 250 times (source: Tag Info) rather than on a node inside the landuse=residential area.

There is another tag that combines with landuse=residential which is residential=rural (Wiki) which has been used 174 188 times (Tag Info) 

and described as "used to specify residential areas with low-rise residential buildings (buildings with tag building=house). It is usual

for each house has its own fenced allotment with yard and/or garden". This would help to support the practice of mapping the individual

clusters of buildings as opposed to a large swathe of unpopulated land.

This then also helps with the later improvement of the map when landuse=farmland is added and does not overlap or clash with the residential 

areas.

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