On Tue, Aug 4, 2020 at 12:59 PM Christoph Hormann <o...@imagico.de> wrote:
> I am not saying that OSM should only record physical geography. I am > saying that natural=coastline is a physical geography tag and should be > defined based on physical geography criteria. If there is no consensus > about this we can end the discussion because if we cannot even agree on > basic conceptual separation on that level (i.e. that we separate the > mapping of the physical extent of surface water cover on this planet > from culturally defined elements of the geography) we can close up shop > right away. > Your straw man looks to be quite flammable. A water polygon remains a water polygon whether its boundary is `natural=coastilne`, `waterway=river`, `natural=water` or whatever. Nobody is arguing over the physical extent of surface water coverage. The precise line at which a river becomes a lake or the ocean is and will always be indefinite. We are arguing about how broadly or narrowly to draw it. Your argument is that the first dam or waterfall is the only 'objective' way to place it. That may be true: it's the first bright line. Nevertheless, in practice, it gives a much broader definition of the World Ocean than seems reasonable - placing the line hundreds of km from the commonly understood river mouth in many cases. I'm arguing that both cultural considerations (generally speaking, people do not call tidal inland riverbanks 'the coastline') and practical considerations (a much longer coastline further complicates the already horrible situation for coastline rendering) both militate in favor of putting the coastline as far downstream in the estuarine environment as is practicable. Nothing in my argument changes the physical extent of the mapped water surface by one centimetre. It's simply saying that for any indefinite boundary, there is no single right answer. Deference to the local cultural definitions, provided that they don't warp the indefinite boundary beyond any reasonable physical interpretation, is most likely warranted. -- 73 de ke9tv/2, Kevin
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