Depends on your definition of “accurate”
because one neighborhood might be mapped in excruciating(ly accurate) detail while the one next to it might’ve stayed untouched for 15 years
That wasn’t helped by my misspelling - it is about moving from “pgsql” to “flex”. See the osm2pgsql documentation here. The PR for OSM Carto is here, merged last year. The “install” instructions are here, but do require a database reload.
However, we’re talking about just one map style of currently 8 on osm.org, and there are lots of others elsewhere.
There are some changes, but I doubt they’ll be an issue when the next version of osm-carto comes out. We’re already using osm2pgsql with the flex backend for other services.
@pnorman Any date for the release?
Appreciated 
I’m not an OpenStreetMap Carto developer so I have no information on when they will release a new version. I was just saying that when there is a release the architectural changes are unlikely to be a big issue.
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You can stop asking about it. Constantly pestering the community about when the changes will go live, isn’t going to make it go any faster.
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Thank you for giving us such a good demonstration of exactly the issue Woodpeck was talking about. Would you mind answering how you learned about this forum? I assume it was shared in some sort of online group?
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I would like to propose adding an administrative boundary relation for the North Eastern State of Somalia (SSC-Khaatumo) at admin_level=4, within Somalia (admin_level=2).
This proposal is grounded in the OpenStreetMap Foundation’s 2013 guidance on disputed territories, which states that borders are recorded based on:
• What is most widely internationally recognised, and
• Realities on the ground (physical control).
In this case:
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The Federal Government of Somalia — which is internationally recognised — has formally recognised North Eastern State / SSC-Khaatumo.
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There is documented on-the-ground administrative and territorial control by SSC authorities in Las Anod and surrounding districts.
This proposal does not:
• Remove Somalia’s admin_level=2 boundary.
• Delete existing Somaliland data.
It seeks only to:
• Create an admin_level=4 administrative relation representing North Eastern State, consistent with how Puntland and other federal member states are represented.
• Adjust subdivision boundaries where supported by reliable third-party sources.
• Retain disputed=yes tagging where appropriate if consensus indicates certain segments remain contested.
I also note that previous discussions appear to revisit the same points without reaching a concrete mapping resolution, despite the threshold described in OSM’s disputed territories guidance being met (international recognition of the sovereign state + documented on-the-ground administrative control).
To avoid circular debate, I propose focusing specifically on:
• Whether the criteria outlined in the 2013 policy are satisfied in this case; and
• If so, what the technically appropriate tagging and boundary modeling approach should be.
Sources supporting this proposal:
I welcome technical feedback on tagging structure and boundary alignment prior to implementation.
OSM has an established Proposal process - OpenStreetMap Wiki for your interest.
The proposal process is intended for introducing new tagging schemes or modifying global tagging standards.
In this case, no new key or tagging model is being introduced. The proposal concerns applying the existing boundary=administrative and admin_level=4 structure to a newly recognised federal entity within Somalia.
Therefore, this appears to be a data modeling discussion rather than a tagging proposal.
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I do not believe creation of an admin_level=4 boundary for “SSC-Khaatumo” is currently justified, as it does not meet OSM’s requirements for stability and verifiability.
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Contradictory Official Data: While the proposer claims federal recognition, the Somali National Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (NIEBC) document from 24 February 2026 (see below) lists only four districts (Laascaanood, Xudun, Taleex, and Buuhoodle). Crucially, it excludes the Sanaag region included in this proposal, proving there is no settled administrative consensus. (1. source)
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Indeterminate Boundaries:
SSC/North East’s boundaries are very murky. International monitoring from the European Union Agency for Asylum/ via PolGeoNow (1. August 2025) defines SSC/North East’s influence zone as “approximate” and describes the area as an “estimated influence zone”. OSM records fixed administrative limits, not approximate zones of military presence.
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Major international agencies like the UK FCDO (1. as of February 2026) continue to map Sool, Sanaag, and Togdheer within the established Somaliland structure:
IMO Introducing a new admin_level=4 relation based on contradictory documents and “approximate” borders would introduce hierarchy conflicts and maintenance instability and invite edit-warring. We should maintain the existing stable relations with disputed=yes tagging until a clear, non-contradictory demarcation is established.
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Here is a query for the admin_level=4 polygons in the area. What would the outline of your new polygon look like? The challenge, I suspect is the verifiability of the western border. OSM is not good with something “crayoned in” to say “roughly here” - does the Somali government have a suitably licenced download that says where they think that border is? Is it verifiable on the ground? Would the people that the Somali government think are within that border agree that they are within that border?
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I think you’ve highlighted the central issue regarding verifiability; as noted above, based on currently available sources it is unclear what stable geometry could be used to construct such a boundary.
To address your questions directly:
Is there a government source?
I am not aware of any officially published or suitably licensed boundary dataset defining SSC/North East. Existing descriptions appear to vary between sources. For example, documentation issued by the National Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission of Somalia (24 February 2026) lists only four districts associated with this administration, while other descriptions include additional areas. This variation indicates that a settled administrative extent has not yet emerged.
Is it verifiable on the ground?
Available international monitoring and operational mapping continue to describe boundaries in this area as approximate or contested rather than administratively delimited. Authoritative third-party mapping, including UK FCDO guidance (last updated three weeks ago), continues to reflect existing regional structures rather than a clearly defined new first-order subdivision:
Without a stable, licensed, and consistently defined boundary that can be independently verified, any polygon would necessarily involve mapper interpretation rather than derivation from authoritative data. This seems consistent with OSM’s usual approach of waiting for clearly verifiable administrative geometry before introducing higher-level relations.
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This argument could be made for somaliland’s western border… I’d be careful about denying autonomy and the right for people to have rugged self-determination.
Great post!
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Questions of autonomy or self-determination are understandably important, but OpenStreetMap is a geographic database rather than a body that evaluates political claims.
The relevant issue for an admin_level=4 relation is whether a suitable boundary can be derived from verifiable, stable, and internally consistent sources. OSM already contains disputed or partially recognised administrative entities - including Somaliland - where boundaries are mapped because consistently defined geometry exists across multiple independent datasets.
The concern in this specific case is that available sources describe differing territorial extents (for example, the NIEBC district list versus this proposal) or refer only to approximate areas of control. Until a stable and independently verifiable boundary definition exists, any polygon would necessarily involve interpretation by mappers rather than derivation from authoritative data. That technical limitation applies regardless of political position or claims made by any party.
I just want to point out a small error here. The “internationally recognized” rule is not transitive. The Federal Government of Somalia is widely internationally recognized, but that wide international recognition does not “flow” through the Federal Government of Somalia onto the decisions it makes.
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This is a bad faith argument considering Somaliland is less recognised than North Eastern State
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Do you believe that there is a clear fixed border for the SSC ad NE state? As a new editor you might not be familiar with the details of the OSM data model, but boundaries need to be mapped as polygons to be usable. This requires that all parts of the boundary have a well defined edge. Without this, the polygon will not be closed and all software will ignore it.
As a similarly new user, you’re probably not aware of past discussions on fuzzy boundaries both within and outside OSM. Representing these is a problem both inside and outside OSM. The most common example of these is neighborhood boundaries which in many areas are not administrative boundaries with clear edges. Neighborhoods quite clearly exist, but different people have different interpretations[1].
I don’t believe anyone has an idea of how to properly represent fuzzy boundaries. Even if we had tools to do so in OSM common tools that use OSM data would not be able to interpret it. The OCG geometry models that most tools use don’t cover fuzzy boundaries.
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