OpenStreetBrowser/Category list
Introduction
OpenStreetBrowser's 'categories' are a very useful way to see what is mapped in OpenStreetMap – for instance allowing us to list all rivers, to highlight religious buildings, to view bus routes, and many other things. This page lists the different categories and provides a short explanation of each.
OpenStreetBrowser categories can be edited by registered users. The details on this page may therefore be out of date if the category has been edited. Category editors can help by editing this page to keep it up to date.
You may also find the full instructions page, and the category tag information page useful.
A brief background... OpenStreetMap is made up of a set of simple lines, shapes and points, each with associated tags. A line might be tagged waterway=river, or waterway=canal, or highway=road. It's these tags which make the information useful. OpenStreetBrowser's categories inspect this information using some simple rules – different rules for each category.
Layout... At the top of the page are categories which are ready for use and which are listed by default when using OpenStreetBrowser, and lower down are those found with the 'More Categories' link, some of which may be under development.
Explanations usually explain first the use of the category, then briefly the rules it is based on, and finally what it displays.
Please note that this page is for a short explanation only. Detailed or technical notes, or conversations, all belong on the category's talk page.
Leisure, Sport and Shopping
(See sub categories below.)
Gastronomy
'Gastronomy' is useful for finding food related amenities. The rules select objects tagged as amenity=X where X is a value like bar, barbecue, biergarten, cafe, casino, fast_food, food_court, nightclub, pub, restaurant. Icons are displayed.
Shopping
'Shopping' is useful for finding places to buy things – not just shops but vending machines. The rules select a very broad range of shopping related objects. Icons are displayed.
Leisure
'Leisure' is useful for finding places where a broad range of leisure activities take place. The rules select objects with a very broad range of leisure related tags. Icons are not displayed for most of these.
Sport
'Sport' is useful for finding locations where sport is played. The rules select objects tagged with sport=X where X is one of many possibilities. Icons are displayed for some sports.
Services
(See sub categories below.)
Communication
(See sub categories below.)
Internet access
'Internet access' is useful for finding public internet access locations. The rules select objects tagged with internet_access=X where X can be one of many possibilities. Icons are displayed for wireless access.
Phone
'Phone' is useful for finding public telephones. The rules select objects tagged as amenity=telephone. An icon of a telephone is displayed.
Post
'Post' is useful for finding post offices and post boxes. The rules select objects tagged with amenity=post_office or amenity=post_box. An icon is displayed (a post horn or a letter).
Financial
'Financial' is useful for finding banks, bureau de change, and atms. The rules select objects tagged with amenity=X where X has the value bank,bureau_de_change, or atm. Icons are displayed for these.
Emergency services
'Emergency services' is useful for finding police, fire services, hospitals, emergency phones, fire hydrants. The rules select a objects tagged with a variety of specific values representing these things. Icons are displayed.
Health
'Health' is useful for finding hospitals, nursing homes, dentists, doctors, pharmacy. It is also for finding vet services, and baby hatches. The rules select objects tagged with amenity=X where X is a value representing one of these services. Icons are displayed.
Educational services
'Educational services' is useful for finding schools, pre-school establishments, and further education establishments. It's also for finding libraries. The rules select objects tagged with amenity=X where X is college, university, library, kindergarten, preschool, school. Icons are displayed for some of these.
Public services
'Public services' is useful for finding a very broad range of services, buildings, and amenities. It includes things like public buildings, government buildings, recycling centres, clocks, drinking water sources, toilets, and many other amenities. The rules search for a broad range of tags on objects. Icons are displayed for most amenities.
Touristic services
'Touristic services' is useful for finding places for tourists to stay or to find information. The rules select objects tagged with tourism=X where X comes from a list of specific values. Icons are displayed.
Culture and Religion
(see sub-categories)
Culture
'Culture' is useful for finding a broad range of culture related locations including arts centres, museums, studios, theatres, cinemas, galleries, artworks and even fountains. The rules select objects tagged with a range of specific 'heritage' and 'amenity' tags. Icons are displayed.
Religion
'Religion' is useful for finding places of religious worship, and also burial grounds and graves. The rules select objects tagged as a place of worship for christian, jewish, muslim, and sikh religions. They also select objects with specific burial related tags (including crematoriums). Icons are displayed for most of these. Places of worship icons vary according to religion.
Historic
'Historic' is useful for finding a broad range of locations known as sites of past events, or where buildings or other structures are very old. The rules select objects tagged historic=X where X is one of a range of values including castle, archeological_site, wreck, battlefield, monument, ruins, wayside_cross, wayside_shrine, icon, memorial, unesco_world_heritage, and finally simply historic=yes. Icons are displayed for many of these.
Tourism
'Tourism' is useful for finding some specific tourism related locations. The rules select a small number of specific tags as follows: tourism=X where X is theme_park, zoo, attraction, viewpoint, and lastly the simple tourism=yes. A red/orange sun/star icon is displayed for all but zoos, which are indicated by an elephant icon.
Transportation
(see sub-categories)
Individual traffic
(see sub-categories)
Amenities
'Amenities' is useful for finding car-related amenities, such as services, garages, car sharing, fuel stations, and repair shops. The rules select a range of specific tags. Icons are displayed for many matches.
Routes
'Routes' finds some very specific route networks. The rules select tags 'network=e-road' or 'network=!e-road' or route=detour.
Street furniture
'Street Furniture' finds a selection of road-related map features, such as roundabouts, bridges, fords, level-crossings, traffic lights/signals, and so on. The rules select a range of highway=X tags where X has specific values.
Public transportation
(see sub-categories)
Amenities
'Amenities' finds a small selection of transportation related features – taxi locations, ticket counters, and subway entrances. The rules select the specific tags for these features. Icons are displayed.
Routes
'Routes' finds a broad selection of public-transportation routes – for railways, subways, buses, trams, ferries, and so on. The rules are based on finding tags 'route=X' where X is an appropriate value. THIS CATEGORY IS CURRENTLY MISSING (April 2013)
Stops & Stations
'Stops & Stations' is useful for finding a broad range of public-transportation stops and stations. The rules select from specific tags for each of these. Icons are displayed.
Alternative (Cycling, Hiking, ...)
(see sub-categories)
Amenities
'Amenities' is useful for finding a broad range of other amenities, such as those related to bicycles, outdoor shops, picnic sites, shelters, and sign/guide posts. The rules select the specific tags associated with each of these. Icons are displayed.
Routes
'Routes' finds hiking routes and international, national, local cycle routes. The rules are based on selecting tags 'type=route' with route=X where X is 'bicycle' or 'hiking'
Other
'Other' is useful for finding pipelines and powerlines. The rules search for 'power=line' 'power=minor_line' and 'man_made=pipeline' THIS CATEGORY IS CURRENTLY MISSING/BROKEN (April 2013)
Agriculture and Industry
(see sub-categories)
Agriculture
'Agriculture' is useful for finding farms and areas where things are grown. The rules search for the tag landuse=X where X is allotments, farm, farmland, farmyard, greenhouse_horticulture, orchard, vineyard.
Power
'Power' is useful for finding electricity generation related locations. The rules search for the tags power=X, where X is generator, station, substation. A lightning/electricity icon is displayed.
Works
'Works' is useful for finding industrial land. The rules search for the tag 'landuse=industrial'. An icon is displayed.
Construction Sites
'Construction Sites' is useful for finding existing and potential construction sites. The rules search for tags landuse=X where X is brownfield, construction, greenfield, and also for 'highway=construction'
Railway
'Railway' is useful for finding a range of railways – trams, railways, subways. The rules mainly search for 'railway=X' tags where X has a specific value.
Resource Extraction
'Resource Extraction' is useful for finding specific locations – of quarrys, salt_ponds, and mineshafts. The rules search specifically for tags indicating these specific things.
Disposal
'Disposal' is useful for finding landfill, wastewater plant, and recycling amenities. The rules search for these specifically.
Military
'Military' is useful for finding military uses of land. The rules search primarily for tags 'military=X' where X has a range of values including simply 'yes'.
Places
(see sub-categories)
Places
'Places' is useful for displaying the areas of and names of continents, countries, cities, states, regions, towns, villages, islands, and farms. The rules select place=X tags where X has specific values. The names of these locations are displayed.
Street directory
'Street Directory' is useful for finding primary highways and residential roads. The rules search for the tags 'highway=primary' and 'highway=residential'
Residential Areas
'Residential Areas' is useful for finding some residential areas. The rules select the tags 'landuse=residential' and 'landuse=allotments'
Natural Formations
'Natural Formations' is useful for finding/displaying a very wide range of natural features, including oceans, seas, mountains, rivers, islands, springs, reservoirs, cliffs, grass/meadow, woods, marshes, caves, coastline, and so on. The rules are based primarily on tags 'landuse=X' and 'natural=X' where X has specific values. Icons are displayed for many points.
Administrative Areas
'Administrative Areas' is useful for finding the boundaries of such areas. The rules are based on tags 'admin_level=X' where X is a number indicating the significance of the border (i.e. whether international, local etc).
Categories accessed using 'more categories' link
Category explanations should include information about the status of the category – is it ready for use, under development, etc.
Bus shelters
'Bus shelters' is useful for displaying simply these locations. The rules search for the specific tag 'amenity=shelter' with 'shelter_type=public_transport'
Category status: Ready for use
Websites
'Websites' is useful for finding anything mapped which includes website information. The rules search for the tag website=X or contact:website=X where X has any value. A globe icon is displayed.
Category status: Ready for use
postal_code areas
'postal_code areas' searches specifically for the tag boundary=postal_code This is rare tagging in OpenStreetMap and this category will not currently be useful for most users. Other ways to tag postal codes are in use.
Category status: For specialist use? Needing to be improved?
Way Conditions
'Way Conditions' is useful for providing information about specific features of 'ways' (roads, tracks, paths). It shows where the surface is cobblestones. The rules search for the tag surface=cobblestone and sub-categories (see below) are available for more information.
Category status: Under development? Broken? One use only?
way_light
This category is not available.
way_surface
This category is not available.
Highway
'Highway' lists all roads, paths, tracks and so on. The rules search for the tag highway=X where X is any value.
Category status: Ready for use.
Christmas Map
'Christmas Map' is useful for finding mapped Christmas trees and Christmas markets. These are relatively rare. The rules search for the tags xmas:feature=market or xmas:feature=tree
Category status: Specialist/unusual use only.
Mate Kat'e
'Mate Kat'e' finds uses on the map of the tag drink:club-mate=*
Category status: This may be advertising?
Ridas Briefkaesten
'Ridas Briefkaesten' finds uses on the map of the tag operator=ridas (or Ridas or RIDAS).
Category status: Specialist?
Bicycle Class (Commute)
'Bicycle Class (Commute)' is for finding gradings for ways in regard to their suitability for bicycle use. The rules search for a number of grading systems, but these are currently used on the maps very rarely. Routes with gradings are overlayed with different colours depending on rating.
Category status: Specialist use because tags currently rare.
HOT
'HOT' stands for Humanitarian OSM Team. HOT finds nodes tagged as barriers, and specific camp sites. The rules search for the tags barrier:obstacle_type=X where X is any value, and idp:camp_type=X where X is any value. Icons are displayed.
Category status: Specialist use. Tags mostly in Japan?
Hackermap
'Hackermap' finds a specific tag leisure=hackerspace.
Category status: Specialist.
Dog Map
'Dog Map' finds dog parks, pet shops and vending machines selling 'excrement bags'. The rules look for the specific tags for these things. Icons are displayed.
Category status: Ready for use.
Tsunami
'Tsunami' finds areas tagged as affected by a tsunami. The rules search for areas tagged 'tsunami=yes'. No icon is displayed.
Category status: specialist.
Dechettteri
'Dechettteri' has one sub-category, which does not display.
Category status: broken
Elevation
'Elevation' finds points marked with a height. The rules search for anything tagged with ele=X where X is any value. No icon is displayed. The name and height of the object is displayed in the list.
Category status: Ready for use.
Extract
'Extract' finds a whole range of routes: of roads, railways, waterways, and more. The rules search for a range of tags. A note with this category explains that it's for internal use.
Category status: Specialist.
Brewery map
'Brewery map' finds breweries. The rules search for brewery=yes or microbrewery=yes. An icon is displayed.
Category status: Ready for use.
Wikipedia
'Wikipedia' finds anything tagged as having a Wikipedia entry (mostly in English or German). The rules search for the specific tags indicating this. An icon is displayed.
Category status: Ready for use.
Cycle
'Cycle' finds routes tagged in some specific ways in regard to cycle use, and also bicycle parking. The rules search for highway=cycleway, cycleway=track, cycleway=lane, and bicycle=yes, along with the tag amenity=bicycle_parking. Icons are displayed for bicycle parking.
Category status: Ready for use (with limitations).
Light
'Light' is useful for finding where the street lighting status of a road is defined (either as lit or unlit). The rules search for the tags lit=yes and lit=no (on lines tagged as highway=X where X is any value) and for highway=street_lamp. Roads are highlighted in yellow for lit, and red for unlit, and a yellow dot marks street lamps.
Category status: Ready for use, but tagging may be limited.
Myth Map
'Myth Map' is useful for finding anything tagged as having a myth associated with it. The rules search for the tag myth=X where X has any value. An icon is displayed.
Category status: Ready for use, but tagging limited.
Camping
'Camping' is useful for finding camp sites. The rules search for the tag tourism=camp_site. An icon is displayed.
Category status: Ready for use.
Windmills
'Windmills' is useful for finding mapped wind power generators. It is not designed to find 'windmills' in the traditional sense of the word. The rules search for the tags power:source=wind and power_source=wind (but not for man_made=windmill or man_made=windpump). An icon is displayed.
Category status: Ready for use.
Surveillance
'Surveillance' is useful for finding mapped surveillance cameras. The rules search for the tags man_made=surveillance and surveillance=X where X is any value. An icon is displayed.
Category status: Ready for use, but limited use of tags.
Verlichting (street lights)
'Verlichting (street lights)' is useful for finding mapped street lamps. It has similarities to the 'Light' category. The rules search for the tag highway=street_lamp. An icon is displayed.
Category status: Ready for use, but limited use of tags.
Buildings
'Buildings' is useful for listing building and information about them, and is mainly aimed at residential properties. The rules search for the tag building=X where X has any value. If available information like the house name or number is listed.
Category status: Ready for use.
Maxspeed
'Maxspeed' is useful for displaying speed limits on roads where these have been mapped. The rules search for a variety of tagging using maxspeed. An icon is displayed together with other information.
Category status: Ready for use.
Waterways and Other Water
'Waterways and Other Water' is a group of categories useful for finding information about the use of water for leisure. The category is divided into several sub-categories.
Category status: Ready for use.
All Waterways
'All Waterways' is useful for displaying all inland water, but doesn't display sea areas. The rules search for the tags waterway=X where X has any value, and landuse=reservoir and natural=water. Water is highlighted in dark blue.
Category status: Ready for use.
Whitewater Information
'Whitewater Information' is useful for displaying mapped whitewater paddling routes and information. The rules search for the whitewater tags defined for whitewater sports. Coloured dots and lines are displayed, as is other useful information.
Category status: Ready for use.
Other Paddling Information
'Other Paddling Information' is useful for finding mapped information relevant to paddlers which doesn't fit the other categories, including about shops and non-whitewater paddling. The rules search for a variety of relevant tags. Coloured dots are displayed where information is found.
Category status: Ready for use, but under development/incomplete.
CycleNet (a)
'CycleNet' (id=cyclenet1) appears to be an old version of the category 'Cycle' listed above.
Category status: deletion suggested
Prostitution
'Prostitution' finds mapped information about prostitution. The rules search for a wide variety of tags using a set of sub-categories.
CycleNet (b)
'CycleNet' (id=cyclenet) appears to be an old version of the category 'Cycle' listed above.
Category status: deletion suggested
Missing descriptions
Descriptions are missing for these (some of which are incomplete or badly designed)...
- fire_hydrant (incomplete)
- tourism_hiking (matches tourism=*)
- Campsites (matches tourism=*)
- Barbecue (matches BBQ and drinking water) READY
- klastery (matches place_of_worship=monastery) READY
- Fabric Shop (matches shop=fabric) READY
- Sports (matches amenity=drinking_water)
- Caravan (matches tourism=caravan_site;tourism=attraction) READY
- cat_4f81fa752147c (incomplete duplicate of klastery above)
- highway (incomplete)
- Eletric Charging Points (matches amenity=charging_station) READY
- brothel
- pedestrian (matches crossing=*)
- Czech hiking routes(matches operator=cz:KČT)
- RV Dumpstations(matches amenity=rv_dumpstation) READY
- tourism_hiking (matches tourism=*)
- Drinks & more (matches amenity=bar;amenity=biergarten;amenity=pub) READY
- Recycling (matches amenity=recycling;recycling:clothes=yes) READY
- Whitewater Information (category cat_4eadbb2f986e3 and sub category whitewater_allwaterways should be deleted they are duplicates of categories included in waterways and other water)
- Playground (matches leisure=playground) (duplicate category Playground cat_4f851ce6a058a similar)
- Billa (matches name=Billa)
- Baby swing (matches playground=basketswing;playground=swing)
- Brothel
- Traffic networks(type=network network=road ; type=network network!=road)
- déchet (has one sub-category 'Recycling')
- Findulas has one sub-category Fin_2012 which has one sub-category Fin_Zeltplätze which matches tourism=camp_site)
- Monuments historiques (matches heritage:operator=mhs)
- Hackerspaces (matches leisure=hackerspace (as Hackermap))
- déchett (incomplete)
- Brachliegende Gleise (matches railway=disused)
- Leerstehende und abrissreife Gebäude (matches disused=yes, ruins=yes, abandoned=yes)
- Hydranten (incomplete)
- Stairs (incomplete)
- Stairs2 (matches highway=steps)
- Treppen (matches highway=steps)
- Pharmacies and defibrillators (matches amenity=pharmacy;medical=aed,emergency=aed)
Default categories
The categories below are also listed under 'More categories' even though they are displayed/available by default and need not be selected under 'More categories' (see information about these categories above).
- Services
- Agriculture and Industry
- Culture and Religion
- Transportation
- Places
- Administrative Areas
- Internet access
- Post
- Phone
- Gastronomy