WikiProject Tonga

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VTE
Tonga, Oceania
Wikidata

latitude: -19.794, longitude: -176.458
Browse map of Tonga 19°47′38.40″ S, 176°27′28.80″ W
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Tonga is a country in Oceania at latitude 19°47′38.40″ South, longitude 176°27′28.80″ West.

WikiProject Tonga

A place for coordinating the OpenStreetMapping of the Kingdom of Tonga.

Since noticing that mapping in Tonga was sparse at best, I have started to map my second home. I hope to outline my methodologies and put my decisions to the community for discussion. Mapping is way more fun than documentation but I hope to learn more about editing the wiki and keep it up to date as much as possible, thereby facilitating community involvement.

Villages and towns hierarchy

Given the population of Tonga is significantly smaller than European cities, it was necessary to establish a village and town hierarchy that was suitable to Tonga. People of Tonga generally refer to places outside of the main centres as 'villages' and the main centre as 'town'. This however doesn't provide enough differentiation between the relative size or importance of each village or town. The following rationale was established using the most recent census data for Tonga [1]:

  • Town >=1000
  • Village >=300
  • Hamlet <=299

The notable exception is Kolomotu'a and Kolofo'ou area of Nuku'alofa. Traditionally, these two areas were separate villages however in the modern day there is no distinction between the two. Therefore they were tagged as boroughs of Nuku'alofa; a tagging format I see as more appropriate to their modern function. There are several villages, particularly in the Nuku'alofa area, that are not covered in the census. I have included these as hamlets since they are important areas of the town. As I learn of new hamlets, they fill in the gaps.


Bing imagery offsets

Nuku'alofa CBD & Kolomotua To set the imagery offset by navigating to the Northern corner of the palace compound by the sea. Shift imagery so that the corner of residential landuse sits roughly over the top of the fence pillar visible in the imagery. This offset is only valid for the 'bright' imagery.

Maufanga and Hahake districts I am yet to calculate the offsets for this area however from preliminary checks, it looks to be minimal at this stage.

Images of exactly what I'm talking about to come...