Proposed features/Seaway

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Seaway for sea transport related features like ports
Status:	Proposed (under way)
Proposed by:	dieterdreist
Tagging:	seaway=port, cargo_port, cruise_port, ferry_port, fishing_port
Applies to:
Definition:	a key for features related to the navigation at sea
Drafted on:	2017-02-21
RFC start:	2017-02-21

Proposal

This is a proposal to introduce a new key with a sea transport related scope. This can currently be seen as kind of brainstorming (feel free to add your own ideas, also on the discussion page), although you are invited to already use these tags if you find them helpful.

Rationale

Currently there is an appearent lack of tagging structure in this field. Features can be found in keys like seamark=* or implicitly by looking at landuse (industrial=*, a landuse subtag), but, with few structure and some gaps in the scheme, we currently miss a lot of interesting information and details about the infrastructure for navigating the seas (e.g. compare global tag usage numbers of airports to those of seaports).
This could have also been something in an established key like man_made=* or amenity=*, but if you look at the whole OSM tagging scheme, you can see that all similar (transportation infrastructure related) features have their own key: highway=*, railway=*, aeroway=*, aerialway=*, waterway=* and it seems logical to introduce the missing link for sea based transport.

Tagging

Use the key seaway=* with one of these values port, cargo_port, cruise_port, ferry_port, fishing_port (see below for more information) and add other relevant tags like:

• name=* for the name of the facility
• ref=* for numbers and letters used as identifiers

If you are not sure which case applies or for combined ports, use seaway=port for the combined port/as a generic port and use different objects to tag the specific parts. Add subkeys according to the kind of facility you are dealing with (see below).

Passenger ports

tag	description	foto
seaway=ferry_port	for ferry ports and ferry terminals.
seaway=cruise_port	for cruise ports and terminals.

Useful subkeys

• ferry_port=yes/stop/terminal (in case of the port being both, an intermediate stop and a terminal, use terminal and add the details in the ferry route relations)
• cruise_port=yes/home_port/terminal/port_of_call home_port for the home port of a cruise route, terminal for a route endpoint (not being a home port) and port_of_call for a port where cruise ships take intermediate stops. Use home_port in all combined cases where it is a home port for at least one ship, and similarly terminal if it is not a home port but a terminal.

terminal, home_port, stop, port_of_call could also be roles in the routes, if they are mapped. For combined ports use the most important function for the main tag (seaway=*_port) and add the subkeys for further detail.

Cargo ports

Use this tag for all kind of cargo ports: seaway=cargo_port

Add properties to describe the cargo handling capabilities:

tag	description	foto
cargo:container=yes/no	port can handle standard cargo containers
cargo:bulk=yes/no	port is able to handle bulk cargo, i.e. stuff that isn't packaged, typically granular)
cargo:liquids=yes/no	port for the handling of liquid cargo
cargo:gas=yes/no	port for the handling of gaseous cargo
cargo:break_bulk=yes/no	port is handling break bulk cargo, stuff that has to be handled individually, e.g. cars, bags, boxes, barrels, crates, drums
cargo:heavy-lift=yes/no	port can handle heavy-lift cargo, e.g. plant components

See also

• amenity=ferry_terminal established tag for ferry terminals
• leisure=marina established for marinas

Fishing ports

tag	description	foto
seaway=fishing_port	for a fishing port by the sea.

Use historic=fishing_port for historic fishing ports that are not used any more.

Inland ports

Use inland_port=yes/no together with a seaway=* port type (see above) for inland port facilities that handle ocean-going vessels.
Use waterway=port for inland ports like river ports and ports at lakes for river traffic, such as barges and other shallow-draft vessels

External Discussions

On the tagging ML: [1]

See also

• leisure=marina
• Harbour overview page
• the Seamarks/Seamark_Tag_Values "specialist tagging"

Comments

Please comment on the discussion page.