I’ve chanced upon a “connector” imported from NHD, which is a hydrologic modelling feature defined as “a known, but nonspecific, connection between two nonadjacent network segments”. Specifically, way #58399226, which has a permanent_identifier=167307973 in this NHDFlowline layer). More connector information from the USGS here.
In other words, a connector is an invisible stream. Given it’s invisible (no obvious stream channel or other topographic signature, historic or otherwise), should they be in OSM?
One reason for deleting would be because OSM is currently displaying the connector as it does any other stream, which is incorrect. A reason for not deleting would be if people are using OSM for hydrologic analysis, but I don’t think this is likely because OSM would always be obsolete compared to the source data.
Other than this thread, I haven’t seen this come up before, so I’m wondering what people think before I start removing connectors.
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Ce sujet de discussion accompagne la publication sur https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/should-connectors-from-the-usgs-national-hydrologic-dataset-be-retained-in-osm/105463