West Virginia
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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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West Virginia is a state in United States, North America at latitude 38°30′00.00″ North, longitude 80°30′00.00″ West.
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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.
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
A general road tagging guideline can be found under United States roads tagging. Read carefully before touching any elements!
Interstate Highways
- 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[3].
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 1] 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.
Delta Roads
Delta roads are entirely defunct[4] 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[5]. State Park and Forest roads (depicted right, though generally unsigned on-the-ground) are notated as ref=PFR num[6].
Officially labelled trails, meanwhile, are to be tagged as ref=TR num[5].
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 | Medium to High | 1–11[note 2] | Depends | Depends |
Esri | Statewide | Medium | 2–7[note 3] | Good | Depends |
Esri Clarity Beta | Statewide | 30 cm | 11[note 4] | Good | On |
Mapbox Satellite | Charleston, Huntington and surrounding areas | High | 5 | Good | Off |
Outside Charleston and Huntington | Medium | 2–7 | Depends | Depends | |
Maxar Standard | Statewide | Medium | 2–7 | Depends | Depends |
Maxar Premium | Statewide | Medium | 2–7 | Depends | Depends |
National Agricultural Imagery Program | Statewide | Low | 2[note 5] | Good | On |
WVGISTC Best Leaf-off[note 6] | Statewide (by county) | High | 1–6 | Good | Off |
Note that Mapbox and Esri take the imagery mostly from Maxar.
Deciphering signs
See also
Surrounding states
Notes
- ↑ As spotted by Sterling.
- ↑ The age can be found by the metadata on the particular tile. This applies to the metro area as well.
- ↑ The Esri map viewer is useful for checking the age of a given tile.
- ↑ The Esri Clarity map viewer is useful for checking the age of a given tile.
- ↑ As of May 13, 2021, 2020 imagery in West Virginia imagery is now available, according to the USDA Geospatial Data Giveaway.
- ↑ 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 .
- ↑ The value of network=* should be
US:WV:County
verbatim, not replaced with the name of the county (such asUS:WV:Kanawha
). "County roads" in West Virginia are actually a state-maintained, state-signed system of secondary roads. Shields are identical in all counties. - ↑ Turnbull, Andrew. “West Virginia Highway Classifications and Route Markers”. Retrieved 2021-04-27.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Monongahela National Forest GIS Staff (2010). “Dolly Sods Wilderness” .
- ↑ Unnamed desk clerk at Cedar Creek State Park (2020). Personal conversation.
- ↑ Meng, Christopher. “Add West Virginia high resolution imagery”. Retrieved 2021-05-17.