Buildings

Most parks have a detailed and up-to-date building footpring inventory in their GIS database.

This example covers the most detailed building tagging we encounter.

Building Names

National Park Service employees are only authorized to use the OFFICIAL BUILDING name when publishing ANY mapping data for park buildings. This has created some lively discussion within the OSM community, many of whom feel that other names should be used. There is some consensus within the OSM community that the "signed" building name should be used in OSM data. OSM mappers should note that: Many, if not most, Park Service buildings are not signed. It is NPS policy to minimize the use of signs in parks in keeping with wilderness character; Official park building names are what is used when sharing data with neighboring emergency response jurisdictions. Consider a consumer of OSM data, stuck in park with an injury! If, when on the phone with E911 services, they communicate the wrong building name, the potential for delay of life-saving services is very real, and this scenario has occurred in parks due to erroneous GPS data. Therefore, NPS buildings should be tagged with "Name"

name=Cades Cove Visitor Center

and "Official Name"

official_name=Cades Cove Visitor Center

This allows government agency rendering of OSM Park Maps to keep with NPS policy for building names, yet allow OSM mappers to modify "common" or "aka" building names. However, the NPS prefers that name and official name remain the same, as to minimize any potential hazardous situtions based on building name mis-labelling.

Please do not tag building nodes unless absolutely neccessary! Building amenities, etc...should be tagged against the building itself, not its nodes.