Tag:landcover=trees

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Public-images-osm logo.svg landcover = trees
Biogradska suma.jpg
Description
An area covered with trees. Edit this description in the wiki page. Edit this description in the data item.
Group: landcover
Used on these elements
should not be used on nodesshould not be used on waysmay be used on areas (and multipolygon relations)should not be used on relations (except multipolygon relations)
See also
Status: in usePage for proposal

Land physically covered with trees, regardless of being natural or not, in a forest or in a park/garden, etc.

The tag does not describe the human use to which the area is put.

In some countries usage of this tag might be discouraged by local communities.

As of early 2022, over 70% of landcover=trees are in Paraguay, due to an organized mapping activity: 217,487 out of 305,000 total uses, including 26,209 uses on nodes.

In contrast, natural=wood is used widely, over 6 million times in all areas of the globe. (Taginfo comparison)

landuse=forest is also used widely for that purpose, with over 4 million uses.

landcover proposal was drafted in 2010 and discussed multiple times, never went through a vote.

See also

  • Forest describes all the different approaches that currently exist for mapping woodlands and explains their advantages and disadvantages.
  • landuse=forest and natural=wood are more widely used tags for mapping woodland with partly more specific meaning.
  • landuse=orchard is specifically used for agricultural orchards and plantations, where fruits, nuts, and other produce are harvested from trees and shrubs.

Support in editors and data consumers

Support for landcover=trees was declined in OSM Carto together with landcover=grass, due to duplicating far more popular tagging schemes,[1] and iD due to duplicating far more popular tagging schemes.[2]. In JOSM developers added landcover=grass and landcover=trees to known popular tags that were decided to not be included in presets[3].

References