On Thu, 12 Nov 2020 at 19:30, Joseph Eisenberg <joseph.eisenb...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Re: is water=* tag needed? > > But since water=pond is not clearly defined as natura/semi-natural vs > man-made, we have a large number of features where the water=* tag is not > providing this information. Since the previous tagging system clearly > distinguished natural from man-made water bodies, this would be a loss for > database quality. > We often do not know if it is natural or artificial. Maybe it's a natural depression in the ground that fills with water. Maybe it was created by man as a water feature. Maybe it's an old quarry that has flooded. Even if it was originally a result of something like quarrying it may have happened so long ago that there are no records. What we can determine (at least in principle) is if it meets criteria for a lake (large size or large waves or has aphotic zones) or a pond. In principle, a suitably-qualified mapper could investigate those things on site. We can accept using guesswork based on size pending fuller investigation. A lake/pond distinction is useful irrespective of whether it is entirely natural or entirely artificial. Determining if it's entirely natural, or deliberately man-made, or an unintended consequence of past human activity is harder. Possible for retention basins that are still in use. Mostly possible for reservoirs, although some reservoirs are based around natural lakes. But historical records are incomplete (and some mappers insist we should never ever make use of historical data to inform our mapping). Maybe we need an artificial=yes/no. -- Paul
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