OpenStreetMap
First Contribution to HOT - Iraq Missing Maps
Sett inn af DougPeterson 26. janúar 2015 á English. Síðast uppfært 28. janúar 2015.I made my first contributions to HOT yesterday. It took me longer to find a project felt I could make good or confident updates to as it did to make the updates. Some of the Africa projects seemed a bit daunting to start with in trying. The updates I made were to #836 - Missing Maps: Displaced communities, Iraq (east).
Although I could reasonably see the roads, I was still challenged in how to classify them. I started with what I thought was a primary and then proceeded down from there. I found inconsistent classification elsewhere in the project so that was not a guidance. I did think that at least some of the roads I classified were too high, for example, the secondary probably should have been tertiary and the tertiary should have been a mix of unclassified or track.
I did find some United Nations Assistance Mission maps housed on the European Country of Origin Information Network site. There were enough different maps for me to confirm that the primary road I had identified would best be still considered that way. However, the rest of the roads I added should probably be demoted, as I was wondering.
Whether these maps are permissible to trace, I will still need to find out. [Update: assume no] I am not sure there is any road tracing value to these. However, some could provide value in terms of waterways. I see a lot of dry stream and river beds on the satellite images. I cannot tell if any water ever flows in them.
08.2002 - UN Assistance Mission for Iraq: Map of the Kalar district
22.07.2003 - UN Assistance Mission for Iraq: Map of the Sulaymaniyah Governorate
[2003 - UN Assistance Mission for Iraq: Road map of the Diyala governorate] (http://www.ecoi.net/file_upload/1222_1190358975_diyala-governorate-road-map.pdf)
2003 - UN Assistance Mission for Iraq: Road map of the north Diyala governorate
Update: Based on the comment and a little searching it seems like the Highway Tag Africa provides closer guidance than the standard Highway tag usage.
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Athugasemd eftir Sanderd17 sett inn 26. janúar 2015 kl. 22:44
Thanks for your contributions.
About the distinction between primary, secondary and tertiary, that classification can’t be decided on the looks of the road, but it needs a broader view to classify it. The difference mainly comes from the difference in importance. Primary roads connect all big cities, secondary roads connect smaller cities and towns, and tertiary roads connect villages to a city or town.
In places where unpaved roads are common, you also shouldn’t just use “track” for any unpaved road. A track is a road for mainly agricultural use. If a road to a village is unpaved, its classification should still at least be unclassified.
So after all, it’s hard to get the classification right when working on a single tile. The most important thing is to trace the roads, so the network becomes visible on the map, and the roads can be re-classified in function of the complete network. Osm is mostly an iterative process anyway.
About those U.N. maps, no, you can’t use them without special permission. The U.N. often gets the maps or data from national or local governments, but that means the local copyrights apply. And in many cases, it’s very hard to figure out if it’s possible to use our not. In most cases, it’s better to look out for US army topo maps. Those are normally more detailed (even if they’re older), and are always legal to use (everything the US federal government makes falls under PD).
Athugasemd eftir DougPeterson sett inn 27. janúar 2015 kl. 00:11
Thanks for your comments. They were helpful.
I had tried looking at other tiles but had seen some inconsistencies in what looked like similar roads, meaning what they looked like physically and where they went. In some cases roads I was mapping did not seem to go anywhere, or at least I could no longer see evidence of the road beyond a certain point. That was behind my comment behind some roads that might be better classified as tracks. I was thinking those might be agricultural roads referred to.
The comment about broader view is definitely valid. Some roads go on without seeming to come to another town. There may very well be another town at the other end and possibly be secondary or tertiary. I can see that the right classification might not be seen until the end of that road is reached. I was thinking they might be better classified as tertiary or unclassified until better connected.
I did look for US army topo maps. Unfortunately the only source I found any was at the University of Texas. In the case of Iraq only maps that Iraq bordered another country on where included. Part of the the area I was working in is included in one map. The data is 1940s and 1950s era. I will see if it is of value.
Athugasemd eftir DougPeterson sett inn 29. janúar 2015 kl. 23:36
…and additionally