Basic points to consider while Mapping Nepal with GMM

[Yatri]

Some suggestions to Map makers who are eager to map Nepal:
To make consistency in Mapping Nepal and maintain uniqueness of our
Maps, Please try to consider following points:

1. Put Nepali name typing in Nepali unicode>copy and paste in 'Add
more name' along with English Preferred Name to each edit if
possible). Following link can be helpful: http://www.google.com/transliterate/nepali
2. Put Postal code to each feature. If the exact postal code of the
location is not found, try with nearest or district postal code.
(Following link can be helpful: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_postal_codes_in_Nepal
2. Try to mark public interesting feature first, which has publicly
importance and keeps meaning to both: Local users plus Global- Google
users. (Like: Schools/colleges/Universities, Hospitals/ Health posts,
Post offices, Government offices, NGO/INGO offices, Local parks etc.)
3. While drawing roads: Try to choose whether road is National Highway
or Local Highway, or a simple local road. Edit with necessary
attributes and put official Name of the road if known otherwise leave
blank.
4. While marking political edits like: City/Town/Village or Locality/
sub-locality neighborhood, Please follow the guidelines delineated in
Mapping Nepal forum which is set and published on Google. Following
link can be helpful:
https://sites.google.com/site/mappingnepal/guidelines/matching-nepal-s-political-features-with-gmm-features
*Avoid putting personal information on the map. If anything comes
with difficulties and issues, Please always report to Nepal Mapping
forum and discuss with other fellow mappers.
Thanks.

Keep mapping!
Cheers!
-Yatri:)

[Keshav]

Hello Raju jee,

Now you have access to Mapping Nepal Site, please add new page to the site with your suggestions and you can elaborate the process with examples there.

I've stickied your post on Mapping Nepal discussion group.

Keshav

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[Raju Basnet]

Thanks keshavji,

I'll do that.

Cheers,

Yatri

[Rajeev Thapa]

In regards to item #3 "Try to choose whether road is National Highway
or Local Highway", do we ever use "Major Artery"?  I just started using this since 'Regional Highway" seemed a bit grand for some of our roads that connect different regions (but they weren't local roads either.)  If the consensus is to use only National Highway, Regional Highway, and local road, I'll stick to that and change my Major Artery roads to Regional Highways.

By the way, does anyone know why our regional highways show up in orange?  They only turn into yellow if zoomed into at the 5km range.

Cheers!

[Keshav]

We should use roads as per following

National Highway - that connects 1 or more districts
Regional Highway - that connects 1 or more towns, VDCs

Major Artery - To be used only within a city e.g. Ring Road in Kathmandu Valley
Minor Artery - To be used only within a city e.g. Satdobato-Lagankhel,  Koupondole-Jawalakhel roads etc.

Local Road - any road that doesn't fit above

Please have a look here https://sites.google.com/site/mappingnepal/guidelines/mapping-roads and in the Google Sheet (has speed limits list) too.

Colour used to show a particular type of road changes as per the zoom level so that one type of road gets highlighted depending upon the zoom level.

Keshav

[Rajeev Thapa]

Oops!  I have a lot of Major Arteries to change to Regional Highways in that case!

Thanks for the response & guidelines-

Regards,
Rajeev

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[Rajeev Thapa]

One other thing regarding the colour of the highways: why is it that Nepal's Regional Highways show up as orange at the 50 km and 100 km zoom level while those of our neighbours (including Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan) show up as yellow?

My original question probably was not stated well: it seems as though our Regional Highways should always show up as yellow as soon as they show up just like those of other countries.  Ours only turn yellow after we zoom in to the 5 km range.  Is this something that we asked Google Maps to do?

On Mon, Apr 18, 2011 at 6:15 PM, Keshav <krm...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Keshav]

Can you please provide links so that I can see if the changes are ready required or not?

[Rajeev Thapa]

As soon as I saw the guidelines you provided last night, I went into GMM and immediately changed all the Major Arteries I had connecting 1 or more towns to Regional Highways.  Some of them are still pending approval.  I can still provide the links if you like though. 

[Raju Basnet]

Hi, Rajeev

Kindly provide the link please!

Thanks for your interest. Do invite other Nepal mappers whom you know and are mapping at the moment.

cheers!

[Keshav]

Hi Rajeev,

Some part of "Regional Highway" you have drawn have speed of 50 km/hr some 40 km/hr.  If some section of road is not smooth and you've reduced speed to 40, its ok but you need to write in description field about the speed and road condition otherwise we should put the speed value to some standard value depending upon the type of road National Highway 100 km/hr, Regional Highway 80 km/hr  - see  http://goo.gl/ejo0C and the Google Docs sheet.  The speed set for a road has to be reasonable as it is used to show time duration required for travel as well as to help decide on which road to suggest for routing. 

Keshav

[Rajeev Thapa]

Hi Raju & Keshav,

Thanks for the feedback and guidance!  I will try and do all of this on the weekend (providing links as well as checking the speed & descriptions).

Cheers!
Rajeev

[Rajeev Thapa]

Hi Raju,

Here are some roads which I converted (or converted back to) regional highways:
1. http://www.google.com/mapmaker?hl=en&fll=26.817637,86.65947&fr=0.012257,0.013733&mpp=34.112423&gw=39&ll=26.84429,86.63887&spn=0.136927,0.351563&z=12&iwloc=0_0&fid=4174486585480357917:8780584035881842090
2. http://www.google.com/mapmaker?hl=en&fll=27.027324,86.086807&fr=0.02446,0.027466&mpp=68.072639&gw=39&ll=27.128202,86.065521&spn=0.273164,0.435333&z=11&iwloc=0_0&fid=4173720490700086223:9084586273577545060
3. http://www.google.com/mapmaker?hl=en&fll=26.768909,86.790619&fr=0.024523,0.027466&mpp=68.247879&gw=39&ll=26.870018,86.756287&spn=0.273792,0.435333&z=11&iwloc=0_0&fid=4174517462535734875:13836164230750577708
4. http://www.google.com/mapmaker?hl=en&fll=27.354692,85.2388&fr=0.048768,0.054932&mpp=135.719681&gw=39&ll=27.606888,85.292358&spn=0.543967,0.870667&z=10&fid=4173502280252775765:13915332528012834857&iwloc=0_0
5. http://www.google.com/mapmaker?hl=en&fll=28.294103,82.034912&fr=0.024182,0.027466&mpp=67.297920&gw=39&ll=28.419183,82.077484&spn=0.269941,0.435333&z=11&iwloc=0_0&fid=4150084128624664445:18130734830273940361

There may be others that I have forgotten.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  Meanwhile, I will be sure to invite friends to help map Nepal!

Happy Mapping!
Rajeev

[Rajeev Thapa]

Hi Keshav,

Thanks for the feedback!  I agree with you and will certainly try and be consistent with regards to the speeds.  This kind of discussion is exactly why I was trying to find the "mapping-Nepal" group so that we could all be on the same page, so I am delighted!

While most of the speeds for a given road type should be the same as much as possible,  I think that we will have to use some judgment in regards to setting speeds of certain regional & national highways.  The reason why I say this is because much of what we call a "Highway" in Nepal differs quite a bit from what one would consider a highway in the west.  Many times, our national highways, as you know, are based on their importance to a region versus the quality or size of a road.  For example, the Karnali Rajmarg is definitely a "National Highway" (Highway 13) based on the fact that it is the only access to the Karnali region. 

However, saying that the average speed on the Karnali Highway should be 100 km/hr since it is a National Highway would be unreasonable since much of that road is little more than a shelf blasted out of the sheer rock cliffs above the Karnali River.  In fact, it was even featured on an American TV show (something like "The World's Most Dangerous Roads" - it's on YouTube if you want to check it out).  It showed how it takes at least two people to navigate that route:  one to drive the actual vehicle and the other to walk in front of the jeep and remove large stones or, alternatively, fill in huge potholes. 

This is where we have a bit of a juxtaposition between speeds and road types for our country: if I decide to classify a road by saying that it connects two towns, then it is a regional highway based on our guidelines.  However, if I base it on the condition of the road (and, many times, it will be little more than a dirt road), then it should be a major artery.  This, in fact, is what triggered my original inquiry on the subject that started this thread: I had been making roads as "major arteries" because they were fairly small and rough and should therefore be of lower speed.  However, we then said that if a road connects two towns, it should be a regional highway, so I went back and changed them to that classification- without changing their speeds since many should not be driven at 80 km/hr. 

If we are, indeed, to follow the Google Docs sheet that you provided, that means that many of the roads connecting our different towns should actually be major arteries in order to bring them into the correct speed category.  This is fine with me- however, it would then break our guideline of using major arteries only within a given city.

Hope this makes sense!  I will try and go back and add in the description as you have advised to explain why lower speeds have been posted for certain roads.

Please keep the feedback coming and I will be more than happy to change either the speed or the classification of a given roadway based on your and everyone's input.

Happy Mapping!
Rajeev

On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 5:58 PM, Keshav <krm...@gmail.com> wrote: