OpenSeaMap-dev:Harbours to merge

This is a tutorial for merging harbours...

In OpenSeaMap we use several DBs with harbour data and there are other DBs who are offered for use.
A lot of harbours are stored in all this DBs.
So we need a merged master DB.

Here you find a geographic visualisation of all harbours

How to select

1. Scroll to your area
2. Zoom in to z=17 or so
3. Checkt the different harbours and marinas there:
   click to the icons and read the informations
   for yellow icons you can find details at SkipperGuide by "Click to details"

If you detect doublettes:

1. Click to one of them and select it by "Click to merge"
   the selected harbour is set to the right side
2. Click to the other of them and select it by "Click to merge"
   the selected harbour is set to the right side too
   If you did made a mistake: you can de-select a harbour on the right side by clicking on the "red minus" there

Now the merging-form appears :-)

How to merge Name

For distinguish harbours with similar names and chaotic foreign nameings we use the system of endonymes.
Endomym means the name like local people call the location in their common and/or official language.

WPI name

English, first letter as capital, following letters as lowercases

use only ASCII (ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ and abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz)

Local latin name

local name as endonym in latin letters

allowed special signs:

German: ÄÖÜäöü

Local script name

local name as endonym in local script or writing system (Chinese, Arabic, Kiryllic, Latin, Greek, Japain and the Indian ones)

LOCODE

see the US/LOCODE-list - Abrevation for country (2 letters) and for location (3 letters, may be added by a number)

How to merge Position

Harbours

Please set the position of the main marker in the approach, before the harbour entrance.

Parts of a harbour

Set the maker in the middle of the basin.

Quais

Set the marker in the front of the quai.

Piers

Set the marker on the pier.

How to merge Importance, Size

For a meaningful cartography we need to disinguish the size of the harbours.

We use an artificial size item for now (derived from WPI and SG):

Old source Item Remarks WPI (large) L WPI (medium) M WPI (small) S WPI (very small) VS SG (harbour) H SG (marina) M SG (anchorage) A

needs to be transformed to →

New merged Item Remarks Harbour large Main port of a coutry Harbour medium Important industrial port, ferry port, fishing port Harbour small small fishing port with some douzand berths and ferry/cargo landing place Harbour very small only a few berths, or one landing place for ferry or cargo Marina big > 200 berths, wide service Marina small some douzand berths Recreation anchorage protected area with appropriated depth

The importance derives also from dominance and prominence (other important harbours nearby).
So the meaning is different in different areas/parts of the sea.

Future

For the future, a better solution is to derive the importance of a harbour from its facts:
number of berths, max. size of ships, max. draft, annual ship traffic, annual passenger traffic, annual cargo traffic, connection to airport and railway, importance of the habour town, size of the harbour town, main port of an area or island, distance to the next important port, etc.