I’ve encountered a problem while using your API. It includes the “Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic” as a recognized country, even though it isn’t officially recognized by the United Nations. This poses challenges for my application, as displaying this data could lead to significant issues regarding data accuracy and legitimacy.
Is there a way to exclude unrecognized countries or adjust the data to align with internationally recognized standards?
I am at your disposal to answer any questions you may have and can provide supporting documentation to substantiate this issue.
To add to what @SimonPoole has already linked to, I’m a bit puzzled by the “while using your API” part.
If you can explain in a bit more detail what it was you were trying to we might be able to help you with that, since I believe that the geometry of pretty much every plausible combination of potential states is in the OSM data in that area.
First of all, thank you for your prompt reply. I’m encountering an issue when using OpenStreetMap with LeafletJS: the map displays countries that are not officially recognized by the United Nations. I’m particularly concerned about a specific country shown in the screenshot I provided, which is causing data integrity issues for my clients.
Is there a way to filter out this country or prevent it from appearing on the map? Your assistance in resolving this matter would be greatly appreciated.
I understand that UN recognition is just one of many criteria for determining the existence of a country. However, the particular country in question does not physically exist within the borders shown on OpenStreetMap, nor is it recognized by the UN. Could you clarify the criteria that allowed it to be displayed on OpenStreetMap with those specific borders? This inclusion impacts the integrity of the data for my clients.
On OSM, we use the on-the-ground principle in cases of disputed borders. What’s mapped here is the line of actual control. In other words, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic indeed physically exists within those borders, regardless of how much additional land it claims or whether it’s recognized by the UN.
I wrote this reply a while ago in answer to a previous similar question. That includes a link to the previous discussion (in the old forum, which got merged into this one).
There’s a link above to the OSMF policy, and to quote from that “You are free to make maps from our data leaving out or putting in what you need for harmony with your general usage, culture and legal system. We encourage you to do this directly or to support one of our many worldwide local OpenStreetMap communities that share your issue”.
I’m guessing that you have a website somewhere that displays something over the top of OSMF map tiles? That’s actually not the usual way to use OSM data. Most people create their own maps or use a “background” map style from a third-party that’s better suited to your purpose. There is some “load data from OSM into a database so that you can display it” help here**. If you’d like to display the “UN” vision of this part of the world then the geometries are actually in OSM - here is Western Sahara and here is Morocco. Geometries corresponding to other claims and parts of claims are also there, if those two aren’t good enough.
** that matches what you see on openstreetmap.org. Other map technologies exist and may be more useful, depending what sort of map or app you want your customers to see.
