openstreetmap
Add waterway=flowline to waterway tags representing directional water flows
Currently, lines with waterway=flowline are represented as generic waterway features, and don't get the arrows pointing in the water flow direction along their length (as is the case with rivers, streams, canals, etc.). This change adds the tag so the representation is consistent with the other flowing waterway tags.
It might be worth making them slightly visually different, just so it's easier to tell if a waterway thru a water body has been converted yet. Maybe a slightly different shade of blue?
For easy reference: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:waterway%3Dflowline , ~800 usage globally.
@waldyrious what about https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:waterway%3Dlink with 3k usage. The wiki sounds like this is something that indicates a direction as well?
The wiki sounds like this is something that indicates a direction as well?
Does it? I read the opposite:
Unlike most waterway=* values, the tag does not model a discrete physical feature and does not imply a flow direction.
(emphasis mine)
It might be worth making them slightly visually different, just so it's easier to tell if a waterway thru a water body has been converted yet. Maybe a slightly different shade of blue?
Sounds good to me, but I didn't want to do too dramatic a change. Happy to add the change if maintainers agree it makes sense.
Does it?
You are right. I think I was thinking about it because of the routing part of the wiki but that has nothing to do with the direction.
@tordans @JesseWeinstein any suggestions on who I should ping (here or elsewhere) for additional feedback on the suggestion of using a different visual style?
@waldyrious ATM Martin is the only one who can merge. We are working on adding community contributors that can help with easy PRs like this one. Once that is set up, I will be able to merge as well…
That's great to hear! But I was asking specifically about making additional changes to the rendering of waterway=flowline ways, as @JesseWeinstein proposed above, so that I can know whether there's more work for me to do in this PR as opposed to just wait for the merge. Is this something that Martin alone can decide? Do you or others have thoughts on the matter?
Thanks for merging and for the suggestions! I like both of them, actually :sweat_smile: @JesseWeinstein do you have any preference between the two rendering options?
I still like the different shade of blue better. Glad to get this PR merged though, in any case! Thank you both.
Ah, it looks really nice: https://ideditor.netlify.app/#background=MAPNIK&disable_features=boundaries&map=16.62/43.24503/-79.21668
The next thing is to add a preset, so flowlines don't just show up as "Waterway feature". If no-one else has done this, I'll try and pull together a PR soon.
(and done so: https://github.com/openstreetmap/id-tagging-schema/pull/1300 )
I opened a formal proposal, here: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposal:Flowlines