Back in March I posted a diary entry proposing to add basic support for disputed borders point-of-view (aka worldview) to OpenStreetMap. I was able to complete that work, primarily in March, April, May, and June of this year, by adding disputed=yes, disputed_by=*, claimed_by=*, and recognized_by=* tags. More work remains (see below), please contribute!

The open source Tilezen project was updated in June in v1.8 (changelog) to add support for the OpenStreetMap tags (view source). The Nextzen vector tile build now includes that data with circa 2019-July OSM planet file. Props to @Matt for the extensive work this entailed.

I released a new version of the Bubble Wrap map style for Tangram, using the Nextzen source to visualize these changes (PR #277). There’s now a “POV” point-of-view menu in the upper-right corner that will toggle the different visual treatments.

Examples in Kashmir and Taiwan

• Bubble Wrap at Kashmir for borders:
  • zoom 8 with OpenStreetMap data
  • zoom 5 with Natural Earth data
• Bubble Wrap at Taiwan for capital city:
  • zoom 8 with OpenStreetMap data
  • zoom 5 with Natural Earth data

… See full entry

I plan to start tagging more disputed administrative boundary lines in OpenStreetMap with tags for disputed=yes (but will leave the existing dispute=yes alone), adding disputed_by=* on disputed ways, and adding claimed_by=* on their relations to support multiple points-of-view.

I will use a combination of the iD editor and JOSM for this sprint, and use the #disputed_by_claimed_by tag in comment messages. My OSM username is nvk should anyone else want to help out or discuss, please say hi :)

I don’t propose changing default tags for administrative boundaries which already use OpenStreetMap’s on the ground rule – I only propose adding additional tags on the country and disputed features to indicate they are disputed (many are already are tagged this way), and to indicate which countries dispute &/or claim the boundary.

I will follow the schema used in Kashmir for ways and relations tagged for India, Pakistan, and China country boundaries. I will clean up a few errors in Kashmir (missing tags or incorrect country codes), and will then focus on expanding the use of this tagging schema to other disputed areas around the world.

Further work could support which other countries recognize (or have opinions about) the disputed_by and claimed_by points of view. But there isn’t yet a consensus in OpenStreetMap about which approach to take, and the existing tagging scheme I plan to reuse for the basic claimants is also compatible with the main tagging discussions that are still under way for the complicated case. This will allow the OpenStreetMap community and Tilezen in particular to prototype support for making maps with this data (see the Why section below for more background).

… See full entry