User:ZeLonewolf/Proposal/Protect class
This page is the beginning of a proposal to improve the current usage of protect_class=*.
Proposal
- OSM deprecates some values of protect_class=*, the tag boundary=national_park and the key iucn_level=*.
Tagging Changes
| Tag | Action | Description |
|---|---|---|
| protect_class=* for values 1, 7-99 | Optionally Deprecate | These values optionally deprecate. If the area otherwise meets IUCN Protected Area Category criteria, replace with an applicable protect_class=* value (1a, 1b, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6). If the area is only for recreation, delete this tag. |
| iucn_level=* | Deprecate | This key is replaced with protect_class=* for values 1a, 1b, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. |
| boundary=national_park | Optionally Deprecate | This key is optionally deprecated, replaced by boundary=protected_area + protect_class=2. |
While many parks have multiple uses, add a protect_class=* tag if the area meets the IUCN definition of conservation areas. Note that IUCN Category VI covers a wide variety of protected areas including protection of natural resources. Consider areas tagged boundary=protected_area + protect_class=* are primarily for conservation / protection of natural resources. For all other types of boundary=protected_areas, omit protect_class=*, implicitly indicating these parks (as protected areas) are primarily for human recreation and enjoyment, though still include conservation / protection of natural resources.
Guidelines for conservation areas
The boundary=protected_area + protect_class=* tags are used to mark protected or conserved land or water on which development is prohibited or strictly limited. These areas are often known as "open space" and are set aside for purposes of:
- Conservation or preservation of a land or water area for the sake of recreational, ecological, environmental, aesthetic, or agricultural interests
- Preservation or conservation of a community or region's rural, natural or historic character
- Managing a community or region's growth in terms of development, industry, or natural resources protection or extraction
Open space designations may be urban, suburban, or rural; they may be actual designated areas of land or water, or they may be zoning districts or overlays where development is limited or controlled to create or maintain undeveloped areas of land or water within a community or region. They may be publicly owned or owned by non-profit or private interests.
Below are other terms often associated with conservation:
- Reserves
- Preserves
- Greenways
- Greenbelts
- (Wildlife) Refuges
- Conservation areas
- Management areas
- Wildernesses
- Land Trusts
Rationale
- The older boundary=national_park tag conflicts with the newer boundary=protected_area + protect_class=2. Deprecating boundary=national_park allows the community to adopt a single convention for tagging national parks. Additionally, the boundary=national_park naming convention is ambiguous as to whether it applies to areas like State, Provincial, County or Regional Parks and is semantically unclear whether to tag such entities with boundary=national_park, boundary=protected_area, or leisure=park.
- The protect_class=* values 7 through 99 have the following downside issues:
- While the other values (1a, 1b, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6) are derived from the IUCN classification system, this portion of the numbering system was arbitrarily defined by OSM wiki editors.
- The numbering scheme doesn't follow the convention of English-language naming for tags. The lack of rendering on these values causes widespread tagging for the renderer using tags leisure=park and leisure=nature_reserve in incorrect ways.
- Most of these values are rarely or never used and have not been vetted by the proposal process.
- Some of these values are redundant with existing tagging, specifically:
- protect_class=11 through protect_class=14 are already serviced by the existing IUCN protection categories protect_class=5 and protect_class=6.
- protect_class=16 is already serviced by military=danger_area. In addition to military hazards, this tag has achieved de facto usage for non-military hazard areas.
- protect_class=22 and protect_class=98 are already serviced with the established historic=* and heritage=*.
- protect_class=24 is already serviced with the established boundary=aboriginal_lands. Both of these tags render identically (in Carto, possibly other renderers).
- protect_class=25 is already serviced with the established military=* and landuse=military.
- A number of the protect_class=* values are described in vague terms and likely used arbitrarily.
- The tag protect_class=1 has no definition and is not defined by IUCN, yet it has over 5,000 usages, Officially deprecating this value allows validators to flag cases of this ambiguous tagging.
- The iucn_level=* tag is infrequently used and is redundant with protect_class=* values 1a, 1b, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Further, the description in Key:iucn_level describes the tag as redundant with that key. By standardizing IUCN levels to the more commonly-used protect_class=*, OSM achieves one tagging scheme for these data and minimizes re-tagging. The Carto renderer does not currently render iucn_level=*[1], so deprecating this tag will not affect rendering.
- Grouping all categories of parks under boundary=protected_area allows data consumers to access park data by querying a single tag. Currently, data consumers must apply a complex combination of boundary=*, protect_class=*, and leisure=* values to query all types of parks presently extant in OSM.
Taginfo Deprecation Analysis
Proposed is to gradually deprecate boundary=national_park and replace it with boundary=protected_area + protect_class=2. While boundary=national_park is more widely used than the individual protect_class=2 value, boundary=protected_area is widely adopted, and far more widely used than boundary=national_park.
| Deprecate | Replace with | |
|---|---|---|
| boundary=national_park | boundary=protected_area | protect_class=2 |
Further proposed is to deprecate iucn_level=* in favor of the more common protect_class=*.
| Deprecate | Replace with |
|---|---|
| iucn_level=* | protect_class=* |
Tagging Examples
The following examples are intended to demonstrate the usage on various types of protected areas. For brevity, these examples exclude other tags such as access=*, wikidata=*, etc., that would also be used with these areas:
A national park
A small, urban, city park, where the entire park is manicured parkland
A state park park with camping, fishing, athletic fields, etc
- Within the bounds of the park, specific nodes or polygons (for areas) tagged with leisure=* as needed
- ...
A nonprofit-owned conservation area that allows visitors
A state/province watershed protection area
- name=Manitoba Provincial Reservoir Clean Water Protection Area
- type=boundary
- boundary=protected_area
Features/Pages affected
| Page | Required changes |
|---|---|
| Tag:boundary=national_park | Mark this tag as deprecated. |
| Key:iucn_level | Mark this tag as deprecated |
| Tag:boundary=protected_area | This page will need a comprehensive re-write in the event this proposal is Approved. |
| Key:protect_class | Remove usages of protect_class=* values 1 and 7-99. Move description and national-specific usages of the individual protect_class=* values to protect_class=*.
Remove references to boundary=national_park as a synonym for value=2. This page will need a comprehensive re-write in the event this proposal is Approved. |
| Key:protection_title | Remove boundary=national_park from the required tags list. |
Validation
OSM recommends that validators report warnings under the following tagging conditions.
| Under this condition | Warning |
|---|---|
| protect_class=* combined with leisure=park | Conservation areas should not be tagged with leisure=park |
| protect_class=* without boundary=protected_area | Key protect_class requires boundary=protected_area |
| protect_class=* with values outside of 1a, 1b, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. | Valid values of protect_class are 1a, 1b, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 |
| protect_class=1a with leisure=nature_reserve. | Tag protect_class=1a is inconsistent with leisure=nature_reserve |
| iucn_level=* is present | Key iucn_class is deprecated; use protect_class instead |
| boundary=national_park is present | Value national_park is deprecated; use boundary=protected_area and protect_class=2 instead |
| leisure=nature_reserve with access=no or access=private | Tag leisure=nature_reserve is used on an area without public access |
Alternate Approaches
- Deprecate protect_class=* in favor of iucn_level=*. The advantage of this class is that the key name "iucn_level" is much clearer in conveying its purpose when compared to protect_class. The disadvantage is that protect_class=* is already widely used and renders in Carto. If this approach were adopted, changes would be required to the render as well as a significant amount of re-tagging of existing conservation areas.
- Deprecate protect_class=* entirely and replace it with a new key that uses plain English descriptors of the IUCN conservation categories, such as iucn_category=strict_nature_reserve, iucn_category=national_park, or iucn_category=natural_monument. The advantage of this approach is that plain English values are easier for mappers to understand and don't require a lookup table. The disadvantage of this approach is that all lands currently tagged with protect_class=*, including values 1a, 1b, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 would need to transition to a new tag. In addition, it is a challenge to map IUCN Category V to a single value, as protected_landscape_or_seascape is too long at 31 characters.