Sri Lanka Tagging Guidelines

Road Classification

According to Survey Department of Sri Lanka, the major roads are divided into six main categories:

1. Expressway (E)
2. Main Road (A)
3. Main Road (B)
4. Secondary/Minor Road
5. Jeep/Car Track
6. Footpath

Values

See below for details of commonly used tag values in OSM compare with Survey Department of Sri Lanka Road Classification:

Sri Lanka Road Classification			OSM Tag			Visual
Feature Name	Implementation Entity	Description	Key	Value	Element	Rendering	Photo
Expressway(E)	Road Development Authority (RDA)	A highway especially planned for high-speed traffic, usually having few if any intersections, limited points of access or exit and A wide road (more than 30m width or less than 30m width) for high speed transportation.	highway	motorway
Main Road(A)	Road Development Authority (RDA)	The most important roads in a country's system that aren't motorways. (Need not necessarily be a divided highway). and Inter-provincial trunk roads Connecting major cities and ports and access to link the province to province.	highway	trunk
Main Road(B)	Road Development Authority (RDA)	The next most important roads in a country's system. (Often link larger towns.)Intra-provincial arterial roads connecting major urban areas.	highway	primary
Secondary/Minor Road (C & D)	Provincial Road Development Authority (PRDA) of relevant Provincial Council	The next most important roads in the country's system. (Often link smaller towns and villages.) and Minor feeder roads connecting settlements with markets and other activities places.	highway	secondary
Jeep/Car Road	In-house Road Maintenance Unit of Municipal/Urban Council or Local Authority	Local roads providing access to specific location (Example: Roads access to religion places, historical places etc...)	highway	residential
Jeep/Car Track		A roads providing access to plantation, forest, irrigation, etc… Usually unpaved.	highway	track
Footpath		For designated footpaths; i.e., mainly/exclusively for pedestrians. This includes walking tracks and gravel paths.	highway	path

Road surface status

One should indicate the physical surface of the road with the surface tag:
Generically, a hard surface (asphalt, cobblestone, concrete...) is indicated with surface=paved and a soft one (ground, sand...) with surface=unpaved.

If more precise information is available, please use the following actual material instead of paved or unpaved: If available, instead of paved use:

• For carpet, tar, asphalt and equivalent, use:surface=asphalt
  
• surface=concrete
  
• surface=paving_stones
  
• surface=cobblestone
  

If available, instead of paved use:

• surface=ground
  
• surface=sand
  
• surface=gravel
  

See pictures and more detailed description for each surface here: highway=*

By default, primary/secondary/tertiary/unclassified/residential and service highway=* are supposed to be paved. If it is not the case, one must mention it, especially if the surface is soft. When potholes represent more than 50% of the surface, the way may be considered as unpaved.

In opposite, highway=track are supposed to be unpaved by default.

In addition to surface material, on can indicate "viability" or "roughness" of the road with smoothness=*. This should help determining which kind of vehicle may use the road or the track.

Building Characteristics

This model has been created and used extensively for the exposure mapping project done in District of Batticaloa.

Building

This is used to identify individual buildings or groups of connected buildings. See the page Buildings for further details on the usage of this tag and man_made=* for tagging of various other structures. The building tags are intended for the physical description of a building. For functions in the building (e.g. police station, church, townhall, museum) you should add object with tags like amenity=*, tourism=*, shop=* etc must exist.

For example mapping building=supermarket is not enough to mark place as having an active supermarket shop, it just marks that building has form typical for supermarket buildings. shop=supermarket must be mapped to indicate an active supermarket shop. On the other hand shop=*/amenity=* is not indicating building by itself, building must be mapped with building=* tag.

Key	Value	Comment	Photo
Accommodation
building	apartments	A building arranged into individual dwellings, often on separate floors. May also have retail outlets on the ground floor.
building	barracks	Buildings built to house military personnel or laborers.
building	bungalow	A single-storey detached small house, Dacha.
building	cabin	A cabin is a small, roughly built house usually with a wood exterior and typically found in rural areas.
building	detached	A detached house, a free-standing residential building usually housing a single family.
building	annexe	An annexe is a small self contained apartments, collages, or small residential building on the same property as the main residential unit.
building	dormitory	A shared building intended for college/university students (not a share room for multiple occupants as implied by the term in British English). Alternatively, use building=residential plus residential=university and loose the information that it is for students.
building	farm	A residential building on a farm (farmhouse). For other buildings see below building=farm_auxiliary, building=barn, … If in your country farmhouse looks same as general residential house then you can tag as building=house as well. See also landuse=farmyard for the surrounding area
building	ger	A permanent or seasonal round yurt or ger.
building	hotel	A building designed with separate rooms available for overnight accommodation. Normally used in conjunction with tourism=hotel for the hotel grounds including recreation areas and parking.
building	house	A dwelling unit inhabited by a single household (a family or small group sharing facilities such as a kitchen). Houses forming half of a semi-detached pair, or one of a row of terraced houses, should share at least two nodes with joined neighbours, thereby defining the party wall between the properties.
building	houseboat	A boat used primarily as a home
building	residential	A general tag for a building used primarily for residential purposes. Where additional detail is available consider using 'apartments', 'terrace', 'house', 'detached' or 'semidetached_house'.
building	semidetached_house	A residential house that shares a common wall with another on one side. Typically called a "duplex" in American English.
building	static_caravan	A mobile home (semi)permanently left on a single site
building	stilt_house	A building raised on piles over the surface of the soil or a body of water
building	terrace	A single way used to define the outline of a linear row of residential dwellings, each of which normally has its own entrance, which form a terrace ("row-house" or "townhouse" in North American English). Consider defining each dwelling separately using 'house'.
building	tree_house	An accommodation, often designed as a small hut, sometimes also as a room or small apartment. Built on tree posts or on a natural tree. A tree house has no contact with the ground. Access via ladders, stairs or bridgeways.
building	trullo	A stone hut with a conical roof.
Commercial
building	commercial	A building for non-specific commercial activities, not necessarily an office building. Consider tagging the surrounding area using landuse=commercial if there is such use. Use 'retail' if the building consists primarily of shops.
building	industrial	A building for industrial purposes. Use warehouse if the purpose is known to be primarily for storage/distribution. Consider using landuse=industrial for the surrounding area and appropriate tags like man_made=works to describe the industrial activity.
building	kiosk	A small one-room retail building.
building	office	An office building. Use office=* where applicable for the business(es) that use the building. Consider tagging the surrounding area using landuse=commercial if it applies. Prefer landuse=retail if the building consists primarily of shops.
building	retail	A building primarily used for selling goods that are sold to the public; use shop=* to identify the sort of goods sold or an appropriate amenity=* (pub, cafe, restaurant, etc.). Consider use landuse=retail for the surrounding area.
building	supermarket	A building constructed to house a self-service large-area store.
building	warehouse	A building primarily intended for the storage or goods or as part of a distribution system.
Religious
building	religious	Unspecific building related to religion. Prefer more specific values if possible.
building	cathedral	A building that was built as a cathedral. Used in conjunction with amenity=place_of_worship, religion=*, denomination=* and landuse=religious for the cathedral grounds where it is in current use.
building	chapel	A building that was built as a chapel. Used in conjunction with amenity=place_of_worship, religion=*, denomination=* and landuse=religious for the chapel grounds where it is in current use.
building	church	A building that was built as a church. Used in conjunction with amenity=place_of_worship, religion=* , denomination=* and landuse=religious for the church grounds where it is in current use.
building	kingdom_hall	A building that was built as a Kingdom Hall. Often used in conjunction with amenity=place_of_worship, religion=christian, denomination=jehovahs_witness and landuse=religious for the grounds where it is in current use.
building	monastery	A building constructed as monastery. Often, monasteries consist of several distinct buildings with specific functions. For active monasteries (communities), use amenity=monastery, for the grounds of a former monastery, have a look at historic=monastery
building	mosque	A building errected as mosque. Used in conjunction with amenity=place_of_worship, religion=*, denomination=* and landuse=religious for the grounds where it is in current use.
building	presbytery	A building where priests live and work.
building	shrine	A building that was built as a shrine. Used in conjunction with amenity=place_of_worship, religion=*, denomination=* and landuse=religious for the grounds where it is in current use. Small structures should consider historic=wayside_shrine.
building	synagogue	A building that was built as a synagogue. Used in conjunction with amenity=place_of_worship, religion=*, denomination=* and landuse=religious for the grounds where it is in current use.
building	temple	A building that was built as a temple. Used in conjunction with amenity=place_of_worship, religion=*, denomination=* and landuse=religious for the grounds where it is in current use.
Civic/amenity
building	bakehouse	A building that was built as a bakehouse (i.e. for baking bread). Often used in conjunction with another node amenity=baking_oven and oven=wood_fired.
building	bridge	A building used as a bridge (skyway). To map a gatehouse use building=gatehouse. See also bridge=yes for highway=*. Don't use this tag just for marking bridges (their outlines). For such purposes use man_made=bridge.
building	civic	A generic tag for a building created to house some civic amenity, for example amenity=community_centre, amenity=library, amenity=toilets, leisure=sports_centre, leisure=swimming_pool, amenity=townhall etc. Use amenity=* or leisure=* etc. to provide further details. See building=public and more specific tags like building=library as well.
building	college	A college building. Use amenity=college on the whole college area to represent the college as an institution.
building	fire_station	A building constructed as fire station, i.e. to house fire fighting equipment and officers, regardless of current use. Add amenity=fire_station on the grounds for an active fire station.
building	government	For government buildings in general, including municipal, provincial and divisional secretaries, government agencies and departments, town halls, (regional) parliaments and court houses.
building	gatehouse	An entry control point building, spanning over a highway that enters a city or compound.
building	hospital	A building errected for a hospital. Use amenity=hospital for the hospital grounds.
building	kindergarten	For any generic kindergarten buildings. Buildings for specific uses (sports halls etc.) should be tagged for their purpose. If there is currently a kindergarten in the building, use amenity=kindergarten on the perimeter of the kindergarten grounds.
building	museum	A building which was designed as a museum.
building	public	A building constructed as accessible to the general public (a town hall, police station, court house, etc.).
building	school	A building errected as school. Buildings for specific uses (sports halls etc.) should be tagged for their purpose. If there is currently a school, use amenity=school on the perimeter of the school grounds.
building	toilets	A toilet block.
building	train_station	A building constructed to be a train station building, including buildings that are abandoned and used nowadays for a different purpose.
building	transportation	A building related to public transport. You will probably want to tag it with proper transport related tag as well, such as public_transport=station. Note that there is a special tag for train station buildings - building=train_station.
building	university	A university building. Use amenity=university for the university as an institution.
Agricultural/plant production
building	barn	An agricultural building that can be used for storage and as a covered workplace.
building	conservatory	A building or room having glass or tarpaulin roofing and walls used as an indoor garden or a sunroom (winter garden).
building	cowshed	A cowshed (cow barn, cow house) is a building for housing cows, usually found on farms.
building	farm_auxiliary	A building on a farm that is not a dwelling (use 'farm' or 'house' for the farm house).
building	greenhouse	A greenhouse is a glass or plastic covered building used to grow plants. Use landuse=greenhouse_horticulture for an area containing multiple greenhouses
building	slurry_tank	A circular building built to hold a liquid mix of primarily animal excreta (also known as slurry).
building	stable	A building constructed as a stable for horses.
building	sty	A sty (pigsty, pig ark, pig-shed) is a building for raising domestic pigs, usually found on farms.
building	livestock	A building for housing/rising other livestock (apart from cows, horses or pigs covered above), or when the livestock changes.
Sports
building	grandstand	The main stand, usually roofed, commanding the best view for spectators at racecourses or sports grounds.
building	pavilion	A sports pavilion usually with changing rooms, storage areas and possibly an space for functions & events. Avoid using this term for other structures called pavilions by architects (see Pavilion)
building	riding_hall	A building that was built as a riding hall.
building	sports_hall	A building that was built as a sports hall.
building	sports_centre	A building that was built as a sports centre.
building	stadium	A building constructed to be a stadium building, including buildings that are abandoned and used nowadays for a different purpose.
Storage
building	allotment_house	A small outbuilding for short visits in a allotment garden.
building	boathouse	A boathouse is a building used for the storage of boats.
building	hangar	A hangar is a building used for the storage of airplanes, helicopters or space-craft. Consider adding aeroway=hangar, when appropriate.
building	hut	A hut is a small and crude shelter. Note that this word has two meanings - it may be synonym of building=shed, it may be a residential building of low quality.
building	shed	A shed is a simple, single-storey structure in a back garden or on an allotment that is used for storage, hobbies, or as a workshop.
Cars
building	carport	A carport is a covered structure used to offer limited protection to vehicles, primarily cars, from the elements. Unlike most structures a carport does not have four walls, and usually has one or two.
building	garage	A garage is a building suitable for the storage of one or possibly more motor vehicle or similar. See building=garages for larger shared buildings. For an aircraft garage, see building=hangar.
building	garages	A building that consists of a number of discrete storage spaces for different owners/tenants. See also building=garage.
building	parking	Structure purpose-built for parking cars.
Power/technical buildings
building	digester	A digester is a bioreactor for the production of biogas from biomass.
building	service	Service building usually is a small unmanned building with certain machinery (like pumps or transformers).
building	tech_cab	Small prefabricated cabin structures for the air-conditioned accommodation of different technology.
building	transformer_tower	A transformer tower is a characteristic tall building comprising a distribution transformer and constructed to connect directly to a medium voltage overhead power line. Quite often the power line has since been undergrounded but the building may still serve as a substation. If the building is still in use as a substation it should additionally be tagged as power=substation + substation=minor_distribution.
building	water_tower	A water tower.
building	storage_tank	Storage tanks are containers that hold liquids
building	silo	A silo is a building for storing bulk materials
Other buildings
building	beach_hut	A small, usually wooden, and often brightly coloured cabin or shelter above the high tide mark on popular bathing beaches.
building	bunker	A hardened military building. Also use military=bunker.
building	castle	A building constructed as a castle. Can be further specified with historic=castle + castle_type=*.
building	construction	Used for buildings under construction. Use construction=* to hold the value for the completed building.
building	container	For a container used as a permanent building. Do not map containers placed temporarily, for example used in shipping or construction.
building	guardhouse	Poste de garde.
building	military	A military building. Also use military=*.
building	outbuilding	A less important building near to and on the same piece of land as a larger building.
building	pagoda	A building constructed as a pagoda.
building	quonset_hut	A lightweight prefabricated structure in the shape of a semicircle.
building	roof	A structure that consists of a roof with open sides, such as a rain shelter, and also gas stations
building	ruins	Frequently used for a house or other building that is abandoned and in poor repair. However, some believe this usage is incorrect, and the tag should only be used for buildings constructed as fake ruins (for example sham ruins in an English landscape garden). See also lifecycle tagging.
building	ship	A decommissioned ship/submarine which stays in one place.
building	tent	For a permanently placed tent. Do not map tents placed temporarily.
building	tower	A tower-building.
building	triumphal_arch	A free-standing monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways.
building	windmill	A building constructed as a traditional windmill, historically used to mill grain with wind power.
building	yes	Use this value where it is not possible to determine a more specific value.
building	user defined	All commonly used values according to Taginfo, generally building types

Additional attributes

Key	Value	Element	Comment	Photo
building:architecture	<architectural style>		Architectural style of a building
building:colour	<RGB hex triplet> | <W3C colour name>		Indicates colour of the building
building:fireproof	yes | no		Fire-resistance information.
building:flats	<number>		The number of residential units (flats, apartments) in an apartment building (building=apartments), residential building (building=residential), house (building=house), detached house (building=detached) or similar building.
building:levels	<number>		The number of visible levels (floors) in the building as used in the Simple 3D buildings scheme
building:material	<material type>		Outer material for the building façade
building:min_level	<number>		For describing number of values, "filling" space between ground level and bottom level of building or part of building
building:part	As building		To mark a part of a building, which has attributes, different from such ones at other parts
building:soft_storey	yes | no | reinforced		A building where any one level is significantly more flexible (less stiff) than those above and below it
construction_date	<date>		The (approximated) date when the building was finished.
entrance	yes | main | exit | service | emergency		An entrance in a building. Replaces the deprecated tag building=entrance.
height	<number>		The height of the building in meters.
max_level	<number>		Maximum indoor level (floor) in the building as used in the Simple Indoor Tagging scheme
min_level	<number>		Minimum indoor level (floor) in the building as used in the Simple Indoor Tagging scheme
non_existent_levels	<number>		List of indoor levels (floors) that do not exists in the building as used in the Simple Indoor Tagging scheme
start_date	<date>		The (approximated) date when the building was finished.

This table is a wiki template with a default description in English. Editable here.

Land Use Classification

Values

See below for details of commonly used tag values in OSM compare with Survey Department of Sri Lanka Land Use Classification:

Sri Lanka Land Use Classification			OSM Tag			Visual
Feature Name	Description	Symbol	Key	Value	Element	Rendering	Photo
Park	A large open space with grass and trees, especially in a city,where people can walk, play games etc.		landuse=*	park
Forest	A field in which trees are grown.		landuse=*	forest
Paddy	A field in which rice is grown in water.		landuse=*	farmland crop=rice
Tea	A field in which coconut trees are grown		landuse=*	farmland crop=tea
Coconut	A field in which coconut trees are grown.		landuse=* trees=	orchard trees=coconut_palms
Chena	A field in which chena are grown.		landuse=*	meadow
Scrub	A field in which low trees are grown.		natural=*	scrub
Grass land	A field in which grasses are grown. See also landuse=meadow, landcover=grass, natural=grassland.		landuse	grass
Rock	A areas where a lot of rocks are scattered.		natural=*	rock
Sand	A areas where are covered by sand.		natural=*	sand
Canals, Rivers and Streams	A canal is a long narrow stream to transport water. A river is a natural and continuous flow of water in a long line across a country into an ocean, lake etc. A stream is a small scaled natural water flow. It is narrower than a river.		waterway=*	Canals, Rivers and Streams
Lake	A large area of water surrounded by land.		waterway=*	natural=water
Tank	A reservoir that is associated with a dam.		waterway=*	natural=water			[[Image:| 100px|center]]
Reservoir Area	A lake, especially an artificial one, where water is stored before it is supplied to people's houses.		waterway=*	reservoir Area			[[Image:| 100px|center]]
Lagoon Area	An area of ocean that is not very deep, and that is almost completely separated from the ocean by rocks, sand, etc.		waterway=*	natural=water			[[Image:| 100px|center]]

Drain and Ditch

All rivers, canals and streams should normally be represented as a linear ways. The main types are waterway=river, waterway=canal or waterway=stream, waterway=drain and waterway=ditch. This way used should point in the direction of water flow and connect with other linked waterway features to create a routable network.

Tidal sections of a waterway can be tagged with tidal=yes and if it is intermittent use intermittent=yes. If a stream starts as as spring, the node can be tagged with natural=spring. The name=* tag is used to hold the name to the watercourse, and wikipedia=* for a link to a related Wikipedia page.

Point features used along to watercourses include waterway=weir, waterway=dam and ford=*. A section of waterway within a lock between the lock gates can be tagged with lock=* with node tagged waterway=lock_gate at each end. The name of the lock can be added using lock_name=* and/or lock_ref=*. boat=*, ship=* and CEMT=* tags can be used to specify if boats are allowed to use the watercourse.

Man-made structures

see also Water management

Where a river or stream goes under a road, railway or similar the upper way should be tagged with bridge=yes and layer=1, or alternatively tag the watercourse with layer=-1 and tunnel=yes or tunnel=culvert (used for streams and drains). Where a canal is carried over an aqueduct the way should be tagged with bridge=aqueduct.

Use man_made=pier for structures projecting out over the water and add a mooring=yes tag if boats can be moored alongside.

Tag water towers using man_made=water_tower and pipelines with man_made=pipeline and also type=water, type=drain or type=sewer as appropriate. For sewage treatment plant use man_made=wastewater_plant. Hydro plants should be tagged with power=generator and generator:source=hydro. For hydrometric measurements of the elevation and the volume use man_made=monitoring_station in combination with monitoring:water_level=*.