HI Biker69,

I think you are creating multipolygons that are unnecessarily complex with members that are very far apart. This makes it very difficult to edit and is prone to errors. Not all the dambos in your multipolygon are the same dambo and not all the farm land is the same farmland for example. Also you have tagged relation/13609785 as all 'scrub' this is most definitely not scrub but wood, if you can, have a look at the Maxar premium imagery to see what I mean.

Hi free_as_a_bird,
way/1014168841, that you have mapped as water is actually what we call a 'dambo', a seasonal wetland that will hold water during the wet season and be dry long grass in the dry season. Because the grass is fairly long and dry it burns in the dry season hence the dark colour in the image. During the dry season the prevailing wind is easterly and once a fire gets hold it burns fiercely. The black area in the farmland just to the north of the dambo are also burnt areas. Here the farmer may have burnt off purposefully to create a firebreak around his wheat, the green circles, in this case he would have burnt back against the wind. The fact that the unplanted centre pivots are not burnt makes me think the burn was intentional. If you have a look at the south west corner of the farmland you will notice smoke coming from a small patch. Incidentally the polka dot pattern in the fields are termite mounds.

Hi scai,

When editing in Lusaka it is better to use Maxar Premium imagery as it is more up to date. If you use Bing, which is way way out of date, you may be mapping buildings that no longer exist. In this edit this is not the case but if you have a look at the area around the Addis Abba roundabout just to the east of this edit area and compare Bing with Maxar Premium you will see what I mean

Hi,

I have compared Maxar standard and premium and standard is several years out of date at least 4 but I would think even more. It is one of the problems of mapping in Africa unfortunately. Premium, which is free in JOSM, is possibly less than a year out of date in parts of Zambia but not everywhere

Hi Biker69,

I have a copy of the Government wildlife act so am editing the boundaries of the parks as per the act so may be changing them slightly where I find they are wrong. Just to let you know. Also have the Roads act so will be editing road references etc so these may also change. Many mappers use Google for this but I have found Google to be wrong in a number of places. I have found Maxar to be the most up to date imagery, in JOSM at least, not sure if ID has same versions.

Hi Kabandapk,

Thanks for mapping in Zambia. Many of the ways you are mapping are tracks in rural areas. Also I would advise not to use the residential tag on ways just because they have buildings near by, the residential tag is really for roads in towns and built up areas, see osm.wiki/East_Africa_Tagging_Guidelines, in particular 'Residential roads highway=residential Roads lined with housing. This tag is used only in urban or village areas and only on roads which do not serve a through connection function.' While it does mention village areas I do not think it applies to the typical African village that is not ordered along streets as elsewhere.

I am not familiar with RapiD but gather it uses AI, I am not a fan of AI in Africa as it is often way way out.

Could you provide a link to the HOT project 11862 as I can't seem to find it. I would just like to see what its aims are.

Thanks

It is very likely as the boundaries tend to follow rivers as do parks. I am working to copies of the acts establishing the boundaries so better to leave it for now 'till I am sure. Unfortunately the writeup of the acts is not always clear

Hi AwezGeo,

I map independently to HOT, don't assume all mapping is done through the HOT tasking manager. I know Zambia very well as I live there so I find myself making many corrections to the mapping done by HOT mappers, including the validators.

Highway classification in Zambia is particularly difficult as many of what appear to be large roads are in reality very wide tracks and not actual gazetted roads. You will find they vary quite substantially season to season. Many areas covered by the HOT projects are rural areas made up of small family farms that are less formally organised, then there are larger commercial farming areas that have the reservoirs and a more structured layout with large centre pivot irrigation schemes.

Please don't delete water reservoirs. If you are unsure of a major feature leave it.

Another incorrect tagging of a trunk road

Unless you know for sure do not change the tagging of trunk roads in Zambia it is beyond the scope of HOT projects.

Hi debrahkapemba,

This area is a very remote part of a remote National Park there will be no culverts unless on major roads, many are just tracks

The T2 Great North Road is a major trunk road please don't change the classification

Just checked and the Maxar imagery available to iD editor is not as up to date as that available in JOSM which is only a few months old

Hi Biker69,

You will find that Maxar Premium imagery is much more up to date than Bing currently is for most of Zambia.

damianomwakapila these are NOT tracks they are rivers and streams

Hi damianomwakapila,

These are not tracks they are dry stream/river beds. This area is the middle of the South Luangwa Park there are very few tracks or buildings here

Hi this is a dry riverbed not a track. I have re tagged it as such.

Hi Can_Yon,

Please don't classify a road as residential just because there are a few houses nearby. Residential roads are mainly within a settlement and are lined by houses just as in any town or city elsewhere in the world. This area you are mapping is rural and the small clusters of buildings are small farms tagging as a track is more appropriate.

It is very difficult for people living in the Western World to understand that when your house is made from mud and grass it will only last for a couple of years before it has been destroyed by the elements and the termites. You build a new one and it is going to be in a different place. Even quite substantial structures may not last as the termites will destroy the rafters and roof beams if they are not treated