Key:surface:material

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surface:material
Description
Describes the material of a surface. Show/edit corresponding data item.
Group: properties
Used on these elements
should not be used on nodesmay be used on waysmay be used on areas (and multipolygon relations)should not be used on relations (except multipolygon relations)
Requires
Useful combination
See also
Status: in use

surface:material=* describes the material of the surface=* of an object. The values of the tag are described on the main page material=*

Usage

The surface of an object describes the general surface such as general texture but doesn't include any other information about the material. Certain surfaces such as surface=asphalt have a consistent material. Others, however, can be made for a variety of materials and conversely, the same material can be used for different surfaces. For example, surface=paving_stones can be made out of material=concrete, brick or any other stone. Conversely, material=granite exists as bare surface=rock but also processed as sett, paving_stones and unhewn_cobblestone.

Comparison with material=*

Altogether, the key is a duplicate of material=* but with an added specifier that the tag describes the surface only. Data consumers should therefore treat both tags as one and the same, possibly giving surface:material=* a higher priority since that tag is less ambiguous than simple material=* which may refer to other objects.

Compare surface:colour=* which has a similar distinction as colour=*.

Possible tagging mistakes

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