-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Frederik Ramm wrote: > Hi, > > I'm a guest only on this list, having subscribed for the sole > purpose of asking this question but I thought it was not really > something for [EMAIL PROTECTED] ;-) > > I have extracted the following list of "second-level administrative > areas" for the UK from a data source named GADM. Each of these comes > with a bounding polygon, the license of which is a bit unclear to me > so I'd rather not import them into OSM right away, but I think it > would be ok for me to use these polygons to extract "mini planets" for > each of the areas. > > My question to you is, (a) would such "mini planets" be useful to > folks in the UK (does somebody else already do it, or does somebody > want to do it if I hand him Osmosis-compatible polygon definitions for > each of the areas?), and (b) is the list of administrative areas > below halfway sensible, or is it a mix of various levels that would > only confuse people and nobody would know where to look for his area? > > For bonus points, (c) does the list cover the whole of the UK? > > It certainly looks confusing to *me* but then I'm from the other side > of the Channel!
The UK's administrative system is confusing. I have to deal with it a lot. For an illustration, see size of the UKs entry on this page, compared to all the other entries: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2051.html > It seems obvious that "Administrative Counties" and "Unitary > Authorities" are in England, "Districts" are in N.Ireland and "Unitary > Districts" as well as the island regions in Scotland. > > But is it correct that London Boroughs are on the same level as these? - From a government perspective, yes. Bear in mind that the London boroughs / regional assembly area is as big in population as the Scottish Parliament and Welsh assembly areas combined. Scottish and Welsh people (and to a lesser extent people from northern England) are always complaining about being under represented in government compared to London, but in reality, London is just a lot bigger. These areas are "second level" but there is a level between this and government, used for some purposes called a region, but they mostly don't have governments of their own (except, of course, for London, which has a regional assembly), they just act as partnerships between the authorities, or as convenient blocks for national organisations to divide their work into. When being used for the second purpose, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are usually treated on the same level as the regions. See, for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_Kingdom_nations_by_population I do have a list of which authorities are in which regions, but I'll need to check copyright status, before I can post it publicly. > Is there really a difference between an "Administrative County" and a > mere "County" (as Berkshire is listed) and the three "Metropolitan > Counties" in the list, or is this some kind of data processing > artifact? Berkshire shouldn't be on the list. It's a historical county that doesn't exist any more, like Middlesex. I think there is a difference between "Administrative County" and "Metropolitan County", but it doesn't matter. > What's with Derry, listed as "London Borough (City)", I always thought > Derry was in Ireland? That's wrong, yes. The only place that should be listed as "London Borough (City)" is probably Westminster. But there is also "City of London" (next door), which is definitely a City, definitely part of London (along with the Boroughs), but is also not a London Borough as such. It's run by the "City of London Corporation" - voters include company representatives as well as residents. > And why is Kingston upon Thames listed as > "London Borough (royal)"? Because it is "Royal", but this is only a historical ceremonial thing, not practical. I thought that there were 2 other Royal Boroughs, Windsor (which is part of Berkshire) and Richmond on Thames, but Richmond isn't listed as Royal on your list. I haven't checked your list for missing entries etc. It would be sensible to compare it to the CIA list above. Robert (Jamie) Munro -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (Darwin) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFHU/RSz+aYVHdncI0RAgfZAJ9rbAzy9xa7Dhhoiz6oWhX8re929wCgimGe IF5FGJwvS9OyRwkPI3e+R2U= =/Fv8 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ Talk-GB mailing list Talk-GB@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/talk-gb
