I don't think a landuse tag is sensible, as the salt flats I have in mind (look up some images of Salar de Uyuni to get an impression) are definitely not something human centered. However, it might be a good tag for some of the smaller areas where salt is actually harvested.
The combination of natural=water , intermittant=yes and salt=yes sounds reasonable. I do think it is a bit confusing as the saltiness is more a property of the lake bed when it dries out than of the water when it is filled. Maybe adding that geological=salt_pan could clarify this enough. I don't see how the natural=desert would be wrong because of the outline not coinciding with the deserts' end. In fact, you could argue that the desert does end at the salt's edge; there is a very sudden shift in vegetation and barren-ness there. The "islands" within it are really like oasis in the desert. But even if the argument does hold, why couldn't there be a natural=desert / desert=salt surrounded by natural=desert /desert=sand ? In South Americe, these things are just called Salar, or "salted". That's for a reason: the salt is as much the defining feature here as water is in a lake or tree cover in a wood. So natural=salt_flat might be worthy of existing. 2015-09-30 0:39 GMT+02:00 André Pirard <a.pirard.pa...@gmail.com>: > On 2015-09-29 17:29, joost schouppe wrote : > > Hi, > > I haven't found much about the subject. A salt flat is a large deposit of > salt. They are usually where a river ends in the middle of a desert. Or > where a valley is completely surrounded by mountains, leaving no way out > for any water. So salt starts accumulating as salty waters evaporate. Some > of them rarely see any water, others are inundated every year or might be > under water a lot of the time. Because they tend to be dry most of the > time, and plants tend to dislike pure salt, they tend to look like a desert. > > How should one tag such a thing? I've seen three very different ideas: > > You might find some inspiration by searching for "marais salant > <https://www.google.be/search?&q=openstreetmap+marais+salant>", which is > French for similar areas, but fitted for salt production. The discussions > will take you further to tags as salt_pond, natural=wetland and the like. > As salt is cheap, this is just 2 ¢. €¢. > > André. > > > > -- Joost @ Openstreetmap <http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/joost%20schouppe/> | Twitter <https://twitter.com/joostjakob> | LinkedIn <https://www.linkedin.com/pub/joost-schouppe/48/939/603> | Meetup <http://www.meetup.com/OpenStreetMap-Belgium/members/97979802/> | Reddit <https://www.reddit.com/u/joostjakob> | Wordpress <https://joostschouppe.wordpress.com/>
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