slum mapping

Heinz_V · 2019-11-04T08:10:20.000Z

Mapping slums

I saw that in India some slum areas are mapped like this:

place=neighbourhood and type=shanty

or
building=residential and type=shanty

Now I checked some of the well known slum areas worldwide. And I did not find any case where buildings or areas have a special tag, which identifies it as a slum. Instead the buildings have additional tags concerning levels, construction (concrete,…) and so on.

So I propose to delete these type=shanty tags.
What do you mean?

PHerison · 2019-11-04T12:47:46.000Z

I’d suggest to get in contact with the user introducing the tag “shanty” and discuss with him if this information should be deleted or not.

indigomc · 2019-11-04T19:26:01.000Z

A previous discussion on pretty much the same topic;

https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk-in/2011-August/001502.html and the following posts.

Note the reference to ethics in one of the later posts. We ought to remember that ethical behaviour is necessary for any activity that affects other people. The consequences of OSM labelling areas as ‘shanty’ could be grave for the inhabitants of that area, and it is conceivable that such tagging could have an ulterior purpose. Any references to shanties or slums should be removed unless it is clear that the residents accept it.

Heinz_V · 2019-11-05T07:29:56.000Z

Here you see the worldwide mapping of slums with „type=shanty“
http://overpass-turbo.eu/s/NJe
The cases are in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and a small place in Delhi and Puri.
Nowhere else in the world!!!

I found only one case in India, where mapping „whats on the ground“ has begun:
Dharavi /Mumbai :
https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/19.0438/72.8551

Normally it looks like this :
https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=18/19.03705/72.85167

I think slums should be mapped like this very prominent case (Kibera/Nairobi):
https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/-1.3134/36.7917
See also : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kibera

I totally agree with indigomc: the „type=shanty“ tags should be deleted.

PlaneMad · 2019-11-06T06:14:55.000Z

As someone who was the first person to use this tag largely in Mumbai, i support the removal of the tag as well and am happy to do it if theres no other objection.

Just to explain why i was using it in the first place, around 10 years ago i was filling in large unmapped voids in Mumbai and was using this tag to distinguish areas that needed to be mapped in significantly more detail since aerial imagery wasnt clear. I can understand why the tag might sound offensive, but it was used merely to describe structure typology and even fishing villages which are not slums had predominantly shanty structures and i used the tag there.

Without any tag documentation though it serves little purpose to anyone, so is better removed. Thank you Heinz for bringing this up.

PlaneMad · 2019-11-07T02:58:06.000Z

All such uses of the tag has been removed!

Heinz_V · 2019-11-07T05:57:53.000Z

Thanks
I also deleted the building=slum and type=slum cases.