As related to my other posts, I am mapping large water containment features.

When I began mapping, I often mapped embankments & retaining walls used for 
roads and infrastructure, and during that time, the embankment tag evolved to 
support two embankment lines that would denote the top and bottom of the extent 
of the embankments. This was perfect for me, as there are many tollways that 
sit on a large man-made embankments as they cut trough the countryside. Most 
tollways in Japan are elevated on fill to make crossings (via tunnels) much 
easier, as they cross so many existing small roads. mapping the extent of the 
embankments clearly shows the footprint of the tollways through the countryside 
- much greater than any trunk road. 

https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=17/36.33635/139.40197 
<https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=17/36.33635/139.40197> - Kita-Kanto 
expressway near Ota-Kiryu IC & Watarase River


As I mapped the embankments, I started mapping the levee embankments as well, 
as they are not uniform in shape, with natural and man-made features making 
their shape highly irregular on both the top and bottom, the two sets of 
embankments easily outlining these huge features (usually between 6-12m tall 
and 20-60m wide). They usually have a 2-10m wide “top” on the levee. They 
similarly have a huge footprint compared to other features. 

Recently, I realized there is a man_made=dyke tag that is supposed to map the 
“top” of the levee, but there is no documented way to map the *extent* of these 
large flood control features, which feels incorrect.

https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=17/36.23909/139.68483 
<https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=17/36.23909/139.68483> - the extent of 
these levees is much greater than the cycling roads on top. 

I am going to continue to map the extent of these large man-made levee 
embankments as 2 pairs of embankment lines, and I'll now go back and map the 
levee top with a man_made=dyke line, denoting the “levee route”. I’m guessing 
there are 500km of these large levees in the greater Tokyo area alone, with 
more than a thousand km of somewhat smaller ones. 

The levees follow the river through open plains, but their route often is 
constrained occasionally by natural features, where the outer-side of the levee 
is a natural rise for a short distance, but the inner-side is still a 
continuous man-made embankment. being able to separate the almost always 
continuous levee from the extent of it’s two embankments (which merge, 
separate, appear, and disappear) is very useful. 

https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=17/36.23164/139.31544 
<https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=17/36.23164/139.31544> - levees meet and 
end as one river joins another. Their size varies greatly, denoted by the 
embankment lines. 

I feel this should be accepted mapping for extremely large levees, such as the 
ones I am dealing with, where the =dyke way cannot properly express the extent 
of the levee’s breadth and complexity, and the “Top” of the levee is not always 
the center of the structure. 

Is it useful to turn this into a relation? with levee embankment members being 
inner-bottom, inner-top, outer-bottom, outer-top and the man_made=dyke member  
being the “route" of the levee? Maybe it isn’t important to relate them. I 
don’t know.

Thoughts? 

Javbw 

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