OpenStreetMap tags

Most important values in decreasing order: private, yes, no, destination, agricultural, permissive, customers, designated etc

Also found for Buildings

area is applied on closed ways. Its value of area should either be yes or no.

There doesn't seem to be an accepted key to indicate the size of an area (for example in square meters) - therefore area is sometimes (ab-)used to indicate such a size.

Do not confuse with surface.

administrative, protected_area, postal_code, old_administrative, country_border etc

Buildings are stored as ways.

Such ways (usually?) have a key named building whose value simply is yes.

Optionally, such ways can have these address keys:

• addr:street
• addr:housenumber
• addr:city
• addr:postcode
• addr:country

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The application with which the data was entered to the OSM database.

Typical values are JOSM, Merkaartor 0.13, Potlatch 0.10f, opengeodb2osm0.5.2

In Switzerland, by far the most used value for the emergency tag is fire_hydrant.

Other interesting values are defibrillator, life_ring and shelter.

Query: key-emergency.sql

In Switzerland, by far the most used value for the information key is guidepost. It is apparently used for what is called Wegweiser in German.

Query: key-information.sql

forest, meadow, farmland, gras, residential, farmyard, cemetery etc.

type=multipoligon apparently often comes in conjunction with landuse.

Some naturally found objects such as tree (!), scrub, water, wood, peak, grassland, cliff, glacier (natural-glacier.sql) etc.

Even yes is found, at times! (See natural-yes_name.sql)

natural apparently often comes with type=multipoligon.

Query: key-natural.sql

The name of streets such as Hauptstrasse, Dorfstrasse, Bahnhofstrasse.

It can also name other objects, names such as France - Schweiz / Suisse / Svezzira (sic!), Coop, Volg, Migros, Denner, UBS, McDonald's were also found.

Compare with comment and the OSM Notes feature

The value of a source key seems to indicate what entity provided the data.

Some possible values are Bing, http://www.sogis.ch SO!GIS Import, Yahoo aerial images, Stadt Zürich Open Government Data; Geomatik + Vermessung; Tiefbau- und Entsorgungsdepartement etc.

Query: key-source.sql

This key predominantly belong to streets, typical values are asphalt, gravel, paved, unpaved, ground, grass, dirt, concrete etc.

Do not confuse with area.

grade1, grade2, grade3, grade4, grade5

This key might mostly belong to streets and railways, typical values are 20, 30, 50, 80, 100, 120, signals, walk

SBB, VBZ, Luzerner Wanderwege, Robidog AG, Die Post etc

Values concerning power lines. Most frequent value (in Switzerland) is pole followed by tower, minor_line, line, substation, generator, sub_station, cable_distribution_cabinet, transformer etc

Not entirely clear what this is used for. Typical values are 1, 2 …, A1, A2 … (Obviously used for Autobahnen).

Concerning railways. Typical values rail, level_crossing, narrow_gauge, buffer_stop, tram, halt, subway, signal etc

Some values that are assocated with route include: trolleybus, foot, tram, railway, fitness_trail, power, road, ski, ferry, train, mtb, bicycle, piste, bus, hiking etc.

The key sac_scale classifies hiking trails. Typical values are: hiking (apparently corresponds to T1), mountain_hiking (T2), demanding_mountain_hiking (T3), alpine_hiking (T4), demanding_alpine_hiking (T5), difficult_alpine_hiking (T6).

See key-sac_scale.sql

driveway, parking_aisle, yard, siding, spur, emergency_access etc

There is even one with the value Nyffenegg (way with id 403303034).

Query: key-swisstopo.sql

symbol=gelber Diamant: apparently used for hiking trails.

type is intended to specify a relation's type, such as multipolygon, route, restriction, public_transport etc

type=associatedStreet seems to be mostly a relation that consists of a street and buildings (with the same address?).

See type-associatedStreet_name.sql

If a relation's type is multipolygon, it apparently often comes also with landuse or natural. See type-multipolygon.sql.

At the end of May 2024, the OSM database contained the following counts:

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