West Virginia
 Part of United States mapping project.
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V・T・E West Virginia, United States, North America  |
| latitude: 38.5, longitude: -80.5 |
| Browse map of West Virginia 38°30′00.00″ N, 80°30′00.00″ W |
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| External links: |
| Use this template for your locality |
West Virginia is a state in United States, North America at latitude 38°30′00.00″ North, longitude 80°30′00.00″ West.
Getting started
Publicly available resources useful for mapping in West Virginia:
- WVDOT Open Data Portal hosts GIS data provided by the West Virginia Department of Transportation.
- West Virginia Division of Highways GIS County Maps provides general highway maps in PDF format.
- MapWV.gov hosts several static and interactive maps of highways and POIs in West Virginia, many up-to-date.
- West Virginia Property Viewer provides a parcel/address database with reasonably recent E-911 data.
- West Virginia Trail Inventory shows reasonably accurate hiking and biking trail GPS traces.
- West Virginia GIS Technical Center hosts the state GIS Data Clearinghouse.
- DigitalCourthouse.com GIS Map Viewer showing parcels, owner info, and gas well locations. Also has PDF tax maps.
For help with mapping in West Virginia, check out #local-west-virginia in the OSMUS Slack.
Current projects
- Gilmer County (Sterling) – somewhat thorough mapping.
- ottwiz's forest landcover project all over the state
- Named Trails in West Virginia
- [You can add your project that you are working on in West Virginia.]
Road tagging guidelines
Interstate Highways
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- Main article: Interstate Highway relations
Interstate highways should be tagged as highway=motorway and ref=I num (without a hyphen), and their route relations with network=US:I.
Interstate ramps onto or from a motorway should be tagged as highway=motorway_link; destination=* tags should be added according to signage.
US Highways
- Main article: United States roads tagging § U.S. Highways
Most US highways in West Virginia will be tagged highway=primary, though this is not a hard and fast rule; some non-motorway divided highways (such as US 50 between Parkersburg and Clarksburg) are more appropriately tagged as highway=trunk. Controlled-access highways occasionally exist near (relatively) major cities, and should be tagged in the same fashion as an Interstate Highway.
Tag all US highways as ref=US num, and their route relations with network=US:US.
State Routes
Most state highways in West Virginia can be either tagged highway=primary or highway=secondary, depending on the usage; occasional exceptions do exist, such as highway=trunk. Tag all state routes with ref=WV num, and their route relations with network=US:WV.
Do note that the WV Department of Transportation uses the term “trunk” in a different way than OSM does[1].
For example, WV 5 between Glenville and I-79 is considered a trunk road by the WVDOT, but would only be considered highway=primary by OSM standards as it is (relatively) low-volume.
County Routes
Most county highways—technically secondary state highways as they are managed by the WVDOT[2]—are most often tagged as highway=unclassified, highway=residential, or highway=tertiary.
Tag all county routes with either ref=CR num for “whole number” routes, or ref=CR numerator/denominator for “fractional” (spur) routes (e.g. ref=CR 220/7 for the sign displayed on the right); tag their route relations with network=US:WV:County[note 1] and is_in:county=CountyName, where CountyName is, e.g., “Gilmer” or “Harrison”.
Do NOT tag county highways as highway=track; instead, use highway=residential or highway=unclassified, and some combination of surface=*, smoothness=* and/or tracktype=*.
Beware that TIGER can be notoriously inaccurate for county routes, especially small spur roads. Real-world examples[note 2] of such inexactitude include (but are assuredly not limited to): a ten-meter driveway being displayed as “State Route 47” on the latest TIGER overlay; ref=CR 7/3 being erroneously tagged name=County Route 73 in the original TIGER import; and three roads with identical names intersecting each other in the 2016 shapefiles.
Home Access Road Program (HARP)
HARP roads are almost always highway=residential.
Tag all HARP roads with either ref=HARP num for “whole number” routes, or ref=HARP numerator/denominator for “fractional” routes, similar to the county route scheme; tag their route relations with network=US:WV:HARP and is_in:county=*.
Delta Roads
Delta roads are entirely defunct[3] despite the rare sightings of remaining signage.
Do not tag delta roads in ref=*; instead, use old_ref=*.
Park and forest routes
- Main article: United States roads tagging § Tagging Forest Roads
Roads in nature reserves (i.e. parks) can generally be tagged as highway=unclassified or highway=path; use discretion as appropriate.
National Forest Roads will use either ref=NF num for primary forest routes, or ref=FR num for secondary forest routes[4].
State Park and Forest roads (depicted right, though generally unsigned on-the-ground) are notated as ref=PFR num[5].
Officially labelled trails, meanwhile, are to be tagged as ref=TR num[4].
Other mapping information
Please follow OSM Good practices, especially by avoiding using wrong tags to “improve” rendering.
Orthoimagery
| Imagery layer | Coverage | Resolution | Age in years | Alignment | Tree leaves |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bing aerial imagery | Statewide | 11.5-23 cm/px[note 3] | 4–5[note 4] | Varies | Varies |
| Esri | Statewide | 50 cm/px[note 5] | 3–10[note 6] | Good | Varies |
| Esri Clarity Beta | Statewide | 30 cm/px[note 7] | 14[note 8] | Very Good | Varies |
| Mapbox Satellite | Charleston, Huntington and surrounding areas | 3 cm/px[note 9] | 8 | Good | Off |
| Outside Charleston and Huntington | 60 cm/px[note 10] | 5–10 | Fair | Varies | |
| Maxar Premium | Statewide | 50 cm/px[note 11] | 3–10 | Fair | Varies |
| MMAGIC 2022 imagery | Monongalia County | 5 cm/px[note 12] | 3 | Very Good | Off |
| National Agricultural Imagery Program | Statewide | 60 cm/px[6] | 3[note 13] | Good | On |
| WVGISTC Best Leaf-off[note 14] | Statewide (by county) | 5–20 cm/px | 4–9 | Very Good | Off |
Note that Mapbox and Esri take the imagery mostly from Maxar.
Deciphering signs
See also
- Users in West Virginia
- West Virginia (wiki category)
Surrounding states
Notes
- ↑ The most common practice prior to 2022 was
network=US:WV:CountyName, e.g.network=US:WV:Kanawha. - ↑ As spotted by Sterling.
- ↑ Checked from JOSM.
- ↑ The age can be found by the metadata on the particular tile. This applies to the metro area as well.
- ↑ The Esri map viewer
- ↑ The Esri map viewer is useful for checking the age of a given tile.
- ↑ Checked from JOSM.
- ↑ The Esri Clarity map viewer is useful for checking the age of a given tile.
- ↑ Checked from JOSM.
- ↑ Checked from JOSM.
- ↑ Checked from JOSM.
- ↑ Checked from JOSM.
- ↑ As of March 28, 2023, 2022 imagery in West Virginia imagery is now available. Also, USDA Geospatial Data Giveaway early this year predicted that sooner or later it will be updated for the state.
- ↑ The legality of using Dataset 442 imagery on OpenStreetMap is uncertain, at best[7]; proceed with caution.
References
- ↑ West Virginia Code §17-4-1.
- ↑ West Virginia Department of Highways. “As a Matter of Fact…”. p. II-1.
- ↑ Turnbull, Andrew. “West Virginia Highway Classifications and Route Markers”. Retrieved 2021-04-27.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Monongahela National Forest GIS Staff (2010). “Dolly Sods Wilderness”.
- ↑ Unnamed desk clerk at Cedar Creek State Park (2020). Personal conversation.
- ↑ USGS EROS Archive - Aerial Photography - National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP)
- ↑ Meng, Christopher. “Add West Virginia high resolution imagery”. Retrieved 2021-05-17.
