WikiProject Belgium/Municipality Fusions/2019

Several Flemish municipalities were merged January 1st 2019. We were not only ready, we were ready before the change was even live. An OpenStreetMap Belgium Project is coordinated at our Github. You'll find mostly mapping instructions here.

resultmap for street names (so you can also see the old names of the affected streets)

To do list and grid

• Merge borders
• Check the 4 addresses for which the postal code changed. Adapt postal code boundaries accordingly
•   Update the JOSM preset and style to work with the post-go-live situation
• Adapt resultmap to show the same picture based on the tags after the go-live, useful to point out what has changed
• Adjust arrondissement border in Limburg
•   Update arrondissement borders in Wallonia and update the NIS codes that changed

Task	Aalter		Deinze		Kruisem		Lievegem			Oudsbergen		Pelt		Puurs-Sint-Amands
	Old Aalter	Knesse­lare	Nevele	Old Deinze	Kruis­houtem	Zingem	Waar­schoot	Loven­degem	Zomer­gem	Meeuwen-Gruitrode	Opglab­beek	Over­pelt	Neer­pelt	Puurs	Sint-Amands
Update and verify the NIS codes are updated correctly. All new codes should be present, no stale NIS codes should be left
Change the rest of the addresses. Use the up-to-date list of addresses to do
Remove stale addr:city tags	N/A			N/A
When addresses are done, look at the street names to make sure the situation makes sense
Update or delete associatedStreet relations
Check wikidata/wikipedia on relations and on place=* nodes
See where the admin_centre should be now (for the initial merge, the admin_centre of the municipality with the largest amount of deelgemeentes was selected)
Add place=* nodes	N/A		N/A
Query old addresses to make sure they are all caught
Examine whether bus stops (also for street name changes!) and train stations need to be renamed
Examine whether town halls need to be renamed or removed

Participants

• joost schouppe (on osm): project management, mapping, communication
• Pieter Vander Vennet (on osm): mapping and communication
• escada (on osm): data modelling
• M!dgard ( on osm, edits, contrib, heatmap, chngset com.): querying assistance, mapping, going live
• wider community: tech support

Mapping

Get the JOSM tagging preset and style, and preprocessed data at Midgard's repo. The tagging preset has all new and old names in it for the appropriate fields, so you get autocompletion. Very highly recommended!

For streets

Before the change:

• If the future name is already known: add a proposed:name=* with the future name.

• If the future name is not yet known: add a proposed:name:TBD=yes indicating that a name is still to be decided

• Add a fixme:name=WikiProject_Belgium/Municipality_Fusions. This allows to make sure we can show and edit only those objects we are really interested in (because there are already some objects with a proposed:name.

You can generate a map of ways tagged like this with https://overpass-turbo.eu/s/AfM or use the prettier https://www.mapcontrib.xyz/t/2d975c-Geplande_adreswijzigingen_gemeentefusies#

After the change:

We can probably do this in one big changeset, since we mapped all the details in advance. Make sure all the proposed:name:TBD=yes have been solved. Query everything which has both fixme:name=WikiProject_Belgium/Municipality_Fusions and proposed:name=* (https://overpass-turbo.eu/s/AfU). Replace the name=* with old_name=* and proposed:name=* with name=*. Do not remove the fixme:name=WikiProject_Belgium/Municipality_Fusions just yet. Don't forget about the streets that had name:left=* and name:right=*.

Addresses

Add the new address as proposed:addr:*=* and add fixme:addr=WikiProject_Belgium/Municipality_Fusions#Addresses.

Old instructions: You can follow the same logic as above for addr:street=*. It is probably easiest for the highway mapping to be completed first, so that you could query all addressed objects near an affected highway. After this part has been completed too, the fixme:name=WikiProject_Belgium/Municipality_Fusions can be removed.

Associated streets

There are a few associatedStreet relations in the affected areas. This query finds associatedStreets that contain a street with a proposed name: https://overpass-turbo.eu/s/AfZ

Mappable data

Addresses

Local community data: https://github.com/osmbe/community_planning/issues/2#issuecomment-401534310 Data as provided by AIV: https://overheid.vlaanderen.be/CRAB-Gemeentelijke-fusies#adreswijzigingen-pro-actief-verwerken Midgard's preprocessed data is easier to use, see above

New official codes and names

The NIS/INS-codes go in the ref:INS=* tag.

1. Meeuwen-Gruitrode + Opglabbeek: NIS 72042 (Oudsbergen)
2. Neerpelt + Overpelt: NIS 72043 (Pelt)
3. Kruishoutem + Zingem: NIS 45068 (Kruisem)
4. Aalter + Knesselare: NIS 44084 (Aalter)
5. Deinze + Nevele: NIS 44083 (Deinze)
6. Puurs + Sint-Amands: NIS 12041 (Puurs-Sint-Amands)
7. Waarschoot, Lovendegem + Zomergem: NIS 44085 (Lievegem)

Future mergers

Bastogne and Bertogne have announced they will merge in December 2024. (source: [1], [2])