Question on rural land use, particularly grassland vs meadow

General talk
1

I have recently started mapping areas around where I live and one issue I am trying to determine is what is the difference and definitions between certain land features in the basis of this map? The biggest one i’m having trouble with is grassland vs meadow. Since the osm wiki descriptions seem too similar to differentiate. The closest guesses I have in this relates to hay production and/or grazing livestock. I’ve been able to get an idea of other differences like moor vs. scrub based on height of plants but the meadow/grassland differentiation one confuses me.

Also another terrain that pops up around here that i’m trying to think of what to describe it as is something that is locally called a glade. it is something that tends to be often on hillsides with very thin or non-existant soils that tend to have scrubby plants. Its a very xeric landscape that resembles more semi-arid to even arid terrains due to lack of moisture that can be retained. Its an unique feature in Missouri and wanted to know how to map it since its very different from a meadow or grassland. Best guess I have is some variant of scrub/bare rock.

2

It’s not just meadow, it is landuse=meadow. The key ‘landuse’ states that it is managed land, such as that used for a farmer who puts down a grass crop, which may be used for either grazing or for hay and silage production. The other is natural=grassland; this is for natural grassland landscapes, such as prairies, steppe, savannah (although in practice much of this may be semi-managed). Does this help?

3

Yes it does help. I know both are landuses but the split in definition was something i wanted to have clarified. Since I was looking at different areas and the definitions weren’t the best defined.