Bank and ditch

Preliminary

This is a provisional report about a future proposition for specific tags for the following types of banks and ditches:

• bank and ditch barrier
• hedge and ditch barrier
• fossé bordier
• talus
• old way (e.g. Tiense Groef)

We have presently (30 October 2025) the following tags:

• barrier=ditch - A man-made ditch or a trench is a long and narrow man-made barrier dug in the ground to prevent access to the other side. No precision about the type of the ditch. 82262 occurrences
• military=trench - Is used to map a military trench: an excavation in the ground that is generally deeper than it is wide, dug into the ground as a barrier for military purposes (e.g. trench warfare). 25148 occurrences
• natural=earth_bank - Not a man-made feature. 19672 occurrences.
• natural=valley - Not a man_made feature. 59800 occurrences.
• natural=cliff - Not a man_made feature. 916448 occurrences.
• waterway=ditch - A simple narrow artificial waterway used to drain nearby land, to remove storm-water or similar. 4438049 occurrences.
• waterway=drain - Artificial waterways, typically lined with concrete or similar, used to carry superfluous water like storm water or grey-discharge. 1801170 occurrences.
• man_made=embankment - Is used to map an artificial slope or steep incline built for example to provide a level platform on top for a road or railway line or to otherwise shape or stabilize the terrain. For micro-mapped embankments, it is not possible to specify the dimensions (height, width). 307709 occurrences.
• embankment=yes - Add this tag to a way that is already tagged with a highway=, railway= or waterway=* tag. 278223 occurrences.

None of them seem to exactly concern the banks and ditches mentioned above.

Bank and ditch

… See full entry

Purpose of the paper

This paper is intended to explain how to use official sources to complete and/or correct OpenStreetMap data.

Introduction

In Belgium, administrative boundaries as legally defined are fixed and can only be changed by law, ordinance or decree. The General Administration of Property Documentation is designated by the federal authorities as the authentic source of Belgian administrative boundaries. ⁽¹⁾

The data are freely available on the web site of the SPF Finances / FOD Financiën / FÖD Finanzen. In addition, it should be noted that these data are more accurate than those from NGI.

A lot of administrative boundaries are already present in the OpenStreetMap database.

At the municipality level, it appears that the OSM alignments of boundaries differ slightly from the alignments published by the SPF Finances / FOD Financiën / FÖD Finanzen.

In addition, at the lower level, i.e. at the division level, boundaries are partly absent. A division is a part of a municipality.

Why do we need the division level?

The division boundaries, i.e. level 9 in Belgium, are interesting for several reasons.

Firstly, this administrative level is still used on current cadastral documents.

Secondly, the divisions are historically the successors of the pre-1977 municipalities. While their alignments are not always similar, they are generally identical. Sometimes the place names are different. ⁽²⁾ This information, i.e. the boundaries and names, is useful for historians, genealogists and all those who read old documents. Thirdly, the postcode boundaries are essentially based on the level 8 and level 9 administrative boundaries.

Existing data

It is interesting to note that the terminology used may differ from one service (e.g. NGI) to another (e.g. Finances) are different. The following table shows the different sources and terminologies for administrative boundaries.

… See full entry