Further landuses might be specified to distinguish between forest managed for decorative/leisure use, lumber/pulp production, or ecological improvement.Existing tagging largely retains its meaning.More commonly used after a bot was used to retag existing woodland this way.Information about forest management is stored in a tag separate from natural= wood and landuse= forest.Mapping forests does not require the tagger to make a distinction between managed and virgin woodland.This approach is recommended for use in Russia as a result of discussion and further voting in local OSM community.Is more consistent with tagging of other features such as reservoirs, which are tagged natural= water, along with their land use.Allows for tagging of areas of commercial forestry which are not currently wooded ( landuse= forest + natural= scrub).Does not require the tagger to make a distinction between managed and virgin woodland, which can be near impossible to make even for someone surveying the area.Tags appear consistent – having trees on is not a "land use".Note that this approach is used by nearly all data consumers, including Standard tile layer. Also used by mappers not interested in distinctions discussed above or unaware about them.Īdditional tags may be used to clarify purpose, forestry status etc. Typically used during mapping from aerial images, or during casual survey without extensive research of a given forest. landuse= forest is used to mark areas covered by treesĭoes not attempt to give meaning to differences between these tags.
natural= wood + managed= no - wood without management of any kind.natural= wood + managed= yes - managed wood.landuse= forest is used to mark areas of land managed for forestry.natural= wood is used to mark areas covered by trees.The following approaches are advocated by different groups: The differences in tagging woodland essentially result from different approaches to document human management and use of woodland areas (excluding orchards, which are consistently tagged with landuse= orchard). 3.1 Rendering of woodland in Alt-colors map style.1.7.3 General problem with this tagging scheme.Any difference may depend on who mapped the area, in some regions one of the tagging schemes below may be applied consistently but there is no consistency between different regions across the world.Īs a result nearly all data consumers treat both natural= wood and landuse= forest as synonymous tags for a wooded area. The situation is complicated as different people advocate different, conflicting tagging schemes.ĭepending on region there may or may not be difference between areas tagged as natural= wood and landuse= forest. There are differences in the way these are used by some OpenStreetMap mappers.
In English, the terms "wood" and "forest" have overlapping meanings, but are clearly distinct from an orchard, which is an area of trees used to produce food ( landuse= orchard).ĭifferent tags are used to map a wood, forest or other area of trees, primarily natural= wood and landuse= forest. Describing the meaning of tags natural=wood and landuse=forest.Ī forest or woodland is a natural or semi-natural area covered by trees, which may or may not be used to produce forestry products such as wood and timber.
How to describe tree-covered areas like forest or woodland.