A boom is a floating visual or physical barrier used across canals, rivers and around harbours to delineate places where boats, canoes or swimmers should not cross.
The wikipedia page isn't very good (it mostly focuses on historic chain barriers rather than current floating booms), but has some description.: " *boom* ... is an obstacle strung across a navigable stretch of water to control or block navigation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boom_(navigational_barrier) Also see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Log_boom and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boom_(containment) - two specialized type of booms which stop floating logs, trash or oil. Here are a few examples: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hydro_Tasmania_floating_safety_barrier.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Floating_boom_at_the_beach_in_Pattaya.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Floating_barrier_on_Ballona_Creek.jpg Recently a user suggested mapping these as barrier=boom, and this has been used about 30 times, however that tag has also been used a dozen times for lift gates (also called a "boom" in some languages, eg: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bourke-Docker_Street_level_crossing_boom_gate.jpg ) The tag man_made=boom is equally (un)common: https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/tags/man_made=boom A somewhat more common option is waterway=floating_barrier which has been used 104 times, mostly in England: https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/tags/waterway=floating_barrier - and there are some uses of similar tags like waterway=barrier and waterway=surface_barrier. The most common current tag is the complicated seamark:obstruction:category=boom https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/tags/seamark%3Aobstruction%3Acategory=boom - there are 265 ways with it, mostly in the the Netherlands. I wouldn't really recommend this tag since it is excessively complicated. So, what's the best option? man_made=boom, barrier=boom, waterway=floating_barrier? - Joseph Eisenberg
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