When I thought about this dog beach, I asked myself:
Would I rest here for a sunbath? Is it convenient or just a few square meters to squeeze in? Honestly, this “beach” is just a very tiny strip of gravel.
For this example, I would fully agree now - based on your feedback - to not consider a beach since it’s just too small to fit more like 4-5 people.
Referring to your screenshot:
Would you consider this upper left part as kind of “beach”?
It’s difficult to access this gravel bench, but therefore it’s mainly used by locals since the tourists just feel inconvenient to access this spot. We did some parties there already. Of course, it cannot fit dozens of people. Just want to understand, where to draw the line for “too small for a beach” to prevent such inconvenient situations for myself in the future.
Beaches must have a loose surface, e.g. sand, pebbles, shells. There is no such thing as a “grass beach.” As @Hungerburg stated, whether it is being used by humans doesn’t matter.
Just FYI, you are not allowed to use Google Street View when editing OpenStreetMap. Not saying you did this, just for future reference.
In my view beaches must be immediately adjacent to water. It is the action of waves that form beaches.
Thanks for your very detailed feedback.
After studying, I’m still having some comprehension questions
According to the German explanation, it’s defined different.
The condition of the surface doesn’t matter, whether it’s loose or not (like grass).
Translated the German Wiki (natural=beach) explanation back to English:
A beach is a shallow strip of shore in coastal areas or inland waters above the shoreline that is covered with mud, sand and debris. A beach is a shallow strip of shore in coastal areas or inland waters above the shoreline that is covered with mud, sand and debris.
Whereas the English Wiki clearly says “to mark a loose geological landform along the coast”. Should be improved I guess?
Nevertheless, if I got the point, “beach” is supposingly sand, gravel etc. but not grass?
Regarding third party content, I got your message.
Technically, it is direct on the water. Unfortunately I don’t have a own photo showing the situation there. There’s just not the entire “coast line” accessable to the water but only on a few spots, like by using a ladder. As mentioned, this beach/coast line got paved by a little quay wall to prevent the shore from erosion by waves. Is there some more suitable option to be used instead for such paved shores?
This is a community project. If other people think it is possible to have a mud beach or a grass beach we can discuss. I am going off of not only the OSM English Wiki but English Wikipedia: Beach - Wikipedia. Yes, I think we need to improve the definition of a beach on the OSM Wiki.
In my mind the water has to be able to theoretically wash over the beach, for example through through enough wave or tidal action. It may not happen every day, or even every year, but there cannot be a barrier. Beaches are gradually sloped down to the water. In my mind, any steep embankment or wall that necessitates the use of a ladder to access the water means that it is unlikely to be a beach.
If you read the second sentence there, it makes it painfully obvious, that Strandbad translates to beach_resort. And that a lawn separated from the water by a quay wall with ladders is not a beach is not something unique to openstreetmap?
I myself, natively speaking German, have no problem conceiving of a Strandbad without Strand/beach; In my area, not far from yours, this is actually more common than the other, lots of piers in front of the quay e.g. People do not like grassy beaches, they are soft and muddy
I know of one Strandbad, where a sandy beach was created for the small children. I’d have no problem with tagging that a beach. Actually, I did that already.
I guess that was meant for you to assess the validity. @SuperSonic highly likely does not need that.
Right now there’s a new event in Pokémon GO where a certain Pokémon can only spawn at natural=beach (and possibly natural=coastline).
And another one only spawns at natural=wood and landuse=forest.
So it can be that some Pokémon GO players will try to create fake beaches or forests in osm again.
The event itself runs from July 29th to August 3rd, so after this week the possibility of the creation of fake data will go down, but we still have to look out for fake beaches since people will continue to hunt this Pokémon.
That explains the rash of “unlikely” beaches that have appeared over the last couple of days!
Mammi71
(One feature, Six mappers and still More ways to map it)
72
that the Pokemon disciples have still not understood that Niantic does not work with the latest data and only updates the geodata at very long intervals.
Entering fake beaches is imho useless for current events.
Google satellite imagery (or any other google maps data) cannot be used to verify or add data to OSM. (It is illegal due to copyright)
I reccomend you stick to what is available on the online editor and what you directly see with your own eyes in the area to assist mapping until you become more familiar with the project
A minor nitpick: while you certainly may not add data from GoogleMaps to OSM, AFAIK you can use it to verify things, provided it does not result in creating any derived work (like e.g. changing tags or geometry of OSM objects).
Copyright itself is a government-granted monopoly on making copies of things/data (unmodified or modified); it does not restrict other activities. E.g. you’re fine with:
getting ideas what features would be nice in navigation app you’re developing by looking at GMaps website, or
what features are annoying on GMaps and should be avoided in your app, or
what places are undermapped in OSM and you should visit for some mapping fun, or
where you’re likely to find PokemonGo players, or
to get a hint what users are possibly suspicious due to edits being in mismatch with, so it warrants investing time in contacting them
generally the unsuitability of Google‘s maps as a source stems from their terms of service.
Prohibited Conduct. Your compliance with this Section 2 is a condition of your licence to use Google Maps/Google Earth. When using Google Maps/Google Earth, you may not (or allow those acting on your behalf to):
…
d. use Google Maps/Google Earth to create or augment any other mapping-related dataset (including a mapping or navigation dataset, business listings database, mailing list or telemarketing list) for use in a service that is a substitute for, or a substantially similar service to, Google Maps/Google Earth; or
every country (or a lot of countries at least) have their own versions
note that this is different from
b. copy the content (unless you are otherwise permitted to do so by the Using Google Maps, Google Earth and Street View permissions page or applicable intellectual property law, including “fair use”);
I don’t know how this „use“ can legally be interpreted, but from a whiter than white point of view, you can not „use“ these services to contribute to openstreetmap, means „use“.
While I agree with the bullet points you have given, in practice verification results in a derived database. I wouldn’t want to “Verify my edits”, find them to be wrong (According to google) and sit there knowing that I cannot undo the wrong edits and have to wait for some other mapper to stumble upon it and fix it later
Of course the solution here is to try your best to make correct edits and not have to depend on verification
Sure, I can see how that would be jarring. Instead of random hopes, I usually open an OSM Note, and then go and verify it on the ground later (unless someone else beats me to it, which happens relatively often)…
But I’m mostly on-the-ground mapper; I can understand it relying on “hope” that someone will update the Note is less attractive if one is more of an e.g. armchair mapper editing other continents…
Sure, but (hopefully) we all try our best to make correct edits all the time anyway
In any case, if there is any reasonable doubt about correctness, even if I decided I should remove the element, I would still add a note requesting #surveyme on-the-ground verification. I would also try to contact the mapper via changeset discussions to find out what happened.
(Of course in some cases, e.g. a big lake over a middle of the town with dozens of shops, houses etc in the middle of it, none of the water visible on aerial imagery, created as only changeset by completely new OSM account with several similar changes, there is no reasonable doubt really, so it can be reverted, and user reported to DWG)
Starting tomorrow there will be a new week long event in Pokemon GO running from the 14th to the 20th with the release of a new Pokemon that only appears in “desert-like areas”.
We’re still unsure of what exact OSM tags will count as “desert-like”, but it’s good to keep an eye on the following few:
natural=sand
natural=beach
surface=sand
(and maybe) natural=heath
Open for other suggestions/ideas for tags that could be affected.
Instead of random hopes, I usually open an OSM Note, and then go and verify it on the ground later (unless someone else beats me to it, which happens relatively often)…