I normally use the name of the body of water, e.g. Foo Pond gets water=pond and Bar Lake gets water=lake. It's not clear to me that they have a distinction beyond customary naming, and in my area there are ponds bigger than lakes, though usually the lakes are larger. If there is no distinction beyond size, I agree that these tags are redundant, much in the way that place=island and place=islet are: the comparative size can be obtained from the geometry.
On Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 12:30 AM Joseph Eisenberg <[email protected]> wrote: > The tag water=pond was added with a large number of other types of > "water=*" in 2011, but it has a poorly defined description. > > "A pond <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pond>: a body of standing water, > man-made in most cases, that is usually smaller than a lake. Salt > evaporation ponds should be tagged with landuse > <https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:landuse>=salt_pond > <https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:landuse%3Dsalt_pond>, open-air > swimming pools — with leisure > <https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:leisure>=swimming_pool > <https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:leisure%3Dswimming_pool>." > > So it might be artificial, like a landuse=reservoir or water=reservoir, > but smallish. Or it might be natural like a water=lake, but smallish. > However, nothing on the water=lake page defines a lower limit for the size > of a lake. > > This is a shame, because all the other values of water=* are clearly > defined as only natural, or only artificial, and waterway=* features are > also clearly divided. Furthermore, the original lags landuse=reservoir and > landuse=basin were also clearly artificial, while lakes were natural. > > But the biggest problem is that there is no way to define a lower size for > a lake or reservoir, or an upper size for a pond. And the size of the area > is easier available from the geometry of the feature, so it doesn't need to > be mentioned in the tag. > > I think the best option is to deprecate water=pond and suggest using > water=lake for natural lakes, even small ones, and use water=reservoir or > water=basin (or landuse=reservoir or =basin if you prefer) for the > artificial ones. > > -- Joseph Eisenberg > _______________________________________________ > Tagging mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging >
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