Talk:Tag:man made=spoil heap
Why a New Tag?
This duplicates the landuse=landfill tag which also applies to "mining waste" (see sample image there). Instead of man_made=spoil_heap, better use a subtag: landuse=landfill + landfill=slag_heap / spoil_heap / whatever (see taginfo). --Fkv (talk) 08:49, 19 April 2016 (UTC)
- Many spoil heaps are still visible, but are not in use any more. Therefore landuse=landfill is not appropriate, because the present landuse is not landfill any more (it can be forest instead for example). I tag them with disused:landuse=landfill and man made=spoil heap. Autharite (talk) 12:15, 31 August 2017 (UTC)
- In that case, the spoil heap is as disused as the landfill, because the spoil_heap *is* the landfill. Remember that "disused" does not mean "vanished". That's why I prefer disused=yes instead of the disused:* namespace (which is really just used to hide tags from the renderer). --Fkv (talk) 13:31, 31 August 2017 (UTC)
- I agree that this is a bit of a duplicate, but it would be fine to tag man_made=spoil_heap + landuse=landfill on the same feature, with or without disused=yes. The spoil_heap tag will make it clear that this is mining waste specifically. --Jeisenbe (talk) 13:20, 7 September 2019 (UTC)
- Why do you believe that man_made=spoil_heap is more specific than landfill=spoil_heap? --Fkv (talk) 13:48, 7 September 2019 (UTC)
- I don't. I wasn't aware of the tag landfill=spoil_heap but actually it looks like a good option: https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/tags/landfill=spoil_heap - there is also slag_heap and mine: https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/keys/landfill --Jeisenbe (talk) 13:59, 7 September 2019 (UTC)
- Why do you believe that man_made=spoil_heap is more specific than landfill=spoil_heap? --Fkv (talk) 13:48, 7 September 2019 (UTC)
Combination with landuse=landfill
According to overpass-turbo, man_made=spoil_heap has been combined with landuse=landfill 583 times - this is over 30% of current usage. The page landuse=landfill mentions that mining waste is one of the types of landfill, in the examples, so shouldn't landuse=landfill be listed as a combination with this tag, for spoil heaps which are being actively used? --Jeisenbe (talk) 07:11, 25 September 2019 (UTC)
- @Jeisenbe: Honestly, this is no rational argument at all. It's a vague suggestion even you don't really seem to follow.
- Do landfills commonly contain "mining waste"? Or is there any authority classifying "mining waste" sites as landfills? I've never heard of such facts.
- Kind regards--Hustler (talk) 04:57, 11 October 2019 (UTC)
- @Hustler:, The definition of tags in OpenStreetMap is not based on a certain outside authority, or on the dictionary definition of a word, but on how the tags have been used by mappers. That's why I linked to the examples on Tag:landuse=landfill#Examples which mentions "mining waste" as a category of landfill, and has this photo: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:Otvalporod.jpg - this has been there since May 2015, over 4 years: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/w/index.php?title=Tag:landuse%3Dlandfill&direction=next&oldid=1156781. --Jeisenbe (talk) 11:49, 13 October 2019 (UTC)
Relevance to other types of spoil material
Often in the American Southeast, spoil islands or spoil piles are a byproduct of canal digging or excavating a lake and are often sandy material, rather than rock. Can this tag be broadened to include other materials? Much obliged. --Valerietheblonde (talk) 20:27, 13 March 2020 (UTC)
- According to wikipedia, a "spoil heap" or "spoil tip" is " a pile built of accumulated spoil – waste material removed during mining," and the description on this page has always been limited to mining waste. I see that in American English sometimes the word "spoil heap" is also used for waste material from any excavation, but that is not how it has been used in OpenStreetMap up until now. Instead, I would suggest using landuse=landfill for an area of landfill made of sand, rocks, soil or any other material, if it is active, or consider disused:landuse=landfill or abandoned:landuse=landfill if this the "spoil pile" is no longer used, but is still clearly visible in the landscape. If the spoil pile is unvegetated sand, you can map the extent of the sand area with natural=sand, and any steep embankments can be mapped with man_made=embankment. --Jeisenbe (talk) 02:52, 14 March 2020 (UTC)