USGS GNIS
 Part of WikiProject United States.
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The USGS Geographic Names Information System is a database that contains millions of names for geographic features around the world. The system is run by the Board of Geographic Names, a United States Geological Survey group. It is the authoritative set of geographic names for the US. It contains features that are on no other map or spatial database.
GNIS data was bulk-imported in 2009 into OSM, and vast swathes of incorrect data still needs to be tracked down and removed. The fundamental problem with GNIS is that it is a database of "names" and not "features" - if you want to answer the question "where is/was Foobar School" then GNIS will have a coordinate for that name and know that it is/was a school. Unfortunately *all* the GNIS records were imported into OSM without regard as to whether or not that feature still exists, so there are tens of thousands of churches, schools etc that have long since disappeared - pre-dating the Interstate system in many (obvious) cases.
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Editing GNIS Data
Removing historical features
If you come across a feature that no longer exists in the real world, feel free to delete it.
Converting GNIS Nodes to Areas
While the GNIS dataset includes only nodes, some of the features they represent are often better mapped as areas (e.g. islands, parks, buildings). When creating or editing an area that is also represented by a GNIS node, the GNIS node should be deleted and all of the GNIS tags should be copied to the area.
Contributing Fixes
One of the positive features of using USGS's GNIS data set is that they offer a method of feeding changes, additions, and deletions back into the data set by the public. To facilitate this, all nodes were imported with the gnis:feature_id tag that corresponds to the FEATURE_ID column in the USGS database. This is their primary key and allows anyone to submit changes back to the website listed in External Links below. When merging a GNIS-tagged map feature in OSM with a duplicate feature, be sure to include the feature_id tag in the merged feature.
Data Mapping
There is a single FEATURE_CLASS column in the data set that is a key for the type of record and for the OSM tags that were applied. Unfortunately there is no indication in GNIS as to whether the feature still exists, other than the name sometimes having "historical" or similar in it.
| FEATURE_CLASS | OSM Tag(s) |
|---|---|
| Beach | natural=beach |
| Cemetery | amenity=grave_yard |
| Church | amenity=place_of_worship |
| Cliff | natural=cliff |
| Crater | natural=crater |
| Dam | waterway=dam |
| Forest | landuse=forest |
| Geyser | natural=geyser |
| Glacier | natural=glacier |
| Harbor | waterway=dock |
| Hospital | amenity=hospital |
| Island | place=island |
| Park | leisure=park |
| Post Office | amenity=post_office |
| Rapids | waterway=rapids |
| Reservoir | landuse=reservoir |
| School | amenity=school |
| Summit | natural=peak |
| Tower | man_made=tower |
| Mine | landuse=quarry |
| Airport | aeroway=aerodrome |
| Bay | natural=bay |
| Swamp | natural=wetlands |
| Woods | natural=wood |
| Military | landuse=military |
| Plain | natural=heath |
| Building | Various tags based on building name, including
amenity=library, amenity=townhall, amenity=public_building, amenity=fire_station, tourism=museum, and others. |
