Archaeological Site - Well / Cistern

Communities ישראל (Israel)
1

Hello all

Many cases all around Israel we have Well and Cisterns.

Some are springs that fill an underground chamber with a tunnel, some have a well on top of them, some are cisterns that collect rainwater from tunnels and accumulated aqueducts on the surface of the nearby valleys.

When they are part of an Archaeological Site - how those should be tagged?

Sometimes they also pose a danger as someone can fall in.

2
  • man_made=water_well is widely used
  • man_made=cistern - Is described in the Israel wiki but not globally, but it seems to have some small amount de-facto use.
    -hazard=hole can mark danger, it’s in use but not widely used, and I don’t think it’s currently rendered on IHM. See also the rest of the hazard tags.

It sounds that the Hazard tags might be of some interest to the Israel Hiking Map renderer. @zstadler ?

3

If the water-well/spring/cistern is part of a larger archeological site, there would be a separate element for the archeological site, probably a closed way for its area.

Isolated features would be represented as one OSM element with both types of tags. When the features are not many centuries old, historic=ruins is probably more appropriate.

P.S.,
I’m not sure if you have asked about the differentiation between water-wells, springs and cisterns, but I’ll write my understanding. It is about the “input and output” characteristics.

  • In a spring, water flows out to the surface by themselves, potentially through a man-made tunnel. In a water-well or a cistern, the water is taken out of the ground by a human or a pump.
  • The cistern’s water comes from collecting rain. Spring and water-well water comes from a natural underground source.
4

As seen in other threads, OSM is commonly used to visualize visible map features. I would imagine that hazards like open water holes—where someone could potentially fall in and even die—should also be represented.

In many cases, these features are actually water wells, so the existing tag man_made=water_well can be used. However, a challenge arises when these wells are part of archaeological sites or are located in open areas, where they appear as ancient structures rather than functioning wells. Sometimes they are dry; other times, they contain water.

In some cases, a spring might be connected to a network of such wells, eventually flowing out to the surface. As for cisterns, since they are fully underground and often not visible, they may not typically belong in OSM—unless there’s a visible opening or a potential hazard, such as a person being able to fall in. In such cases, representing them may be justified for safety or contextual reasons.

5

Could not understand how to use the hazard=hole

I cannot find this option, can you help?

6

Most editors have a selection of preset tags, but also allow you to add any tag you like manually. In the iD editor (the one on https://www.openstreetmap.org/), add a point. On the left side, in the tags area where you can add any tag you like, add the key hazard with the value hole.

Note:

  • The tag is not very popular. This is why it has no preset button in the iD editor.
  • Unfortunately, Israel Hiking map decided they will not render hazards because of liability concerns.
  • The tag also doesn’t render on the https://openstreetmap.org map currently.