Key:boundary

boundary
Description
Used to mark the borders of areas, mostly political, but possibly also of other administrative areas.
Group: boundaries
Used on these elements
Documented values: 37
Useful combination
admin_level=* border_type=*
Status: de facto
boundary=* More details at taginfo
Tools for this tag
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Usage

A boundary relation describes the extent of an administrative, political, or otherwise demarcated area. Occasionally the boundary=* tag is used on linear ways to indicate borders with a name distinct from either area that it separates. Avoid tagging boundary=* on closed ways or repeating boundary tagging on boundary relation members as this can cause unexpected behavior in data consumers.

Values

See below for the main values of the boundary key:

Key	Value	Element	Comment	Rendering example	Photo
Boundary types
boundary	aboriginal_lands		A boundary representing official reservation boundaries of recognized aboriginal / indigenous / native peoples.
boundary	administrative		An administrative boundary. Subdivisions of areas/territories/jurisdictions recognised by governments or other organisations for administrative purposes. These range from large groups of nation states right down to small administrative districts and suburbs, as indicated by the admin_level=* combo tag.
boundary	border_zone		A border zone is an area near the border where special restrictions on movement apply. Usually a permit is required for visiting.
boundary	census		A census-designated boundary delineating a statistical area, not necessarily observable on the ground.
boundary	forest		A delimited forest is a land which is predominantly wooded and which is, for this reason, given defined boundaries. It may cover different tree stands, non-wooded areas, highways… but all the area within the boundaries are considered and managed as a single forest.
boundary	forest_compartment		A forest compartment is a numbered sub-division within a delimited forest, physically materialized with visible, typically cleared, boundaries.
boundary	hazard		A designated hazardous area, with a potential source of damage to health, life, property, or any other interest of value.
boundary	health		Health division boundaries. Some mappers use health_level=* instead of admin_level=* to specify level in the health system hierarchy.
boundary	historic		A historic administrative boundary (use judiciously).
boundary	local_authority		Describes the territory of a local authority.
boundary	low_emission_zone		A geographically defined area which seeks to restrict or deter access by certain polluting vehicles with the aim of improving the air quality.
boundary	maritime		Maritime boundaries which are not administrative boundaries: the Baseline, Contiguous Zone and EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone).
boundary	marker		A boundary marker, border marker, boundary stone, or border stone is a robust physical marker that identifies the start of a land boundary or the change in a boundary, especially a change in direction of a boundary. See also historic=boundary_stone
boundary	national_park		Area of outstanding natural beauty, set aside for conservation and for recreation (Other languages).
boundary	place		boundary=place is commonly used to map the boundaries of a place=*, when these boundaries can be defined but these are not administrative boundaries.
boundary	political		Electoral boundaries
boundary	postal_code		Postal code boundaries. Some mappers use postal_code_level=* instead of admin_level=* to specify level in the postal hierarchy.
boundary	protected_area		Protected areas, such as for national parks, marine protection areas, heritage sites, wilderness, cultural assets and similar.
boundary	religious_administration		A religious administration boundary, eg. of a catholic diocese or parish. Use religion=* and denomination=* to specify the church to which the boundary applies. Some mappers use religious_level=* instead of admin_level=* to specify level in the church hierarchy.
boundary	special_economic_zone		A government-defined area in which business and trade laws are different.
boundary	statistical		An official boundary recognised by government for statistical purposes.
boundary	disputed		An area of landed claimed by two or more parties (use with caution). See also Disputed territories.
boundary	timezone		Boundaries of time zone
boundary	user defined		All commonly used values according to Taginfo
Attributes
admin_level	(number)		Defines level of the division described by the boundary in the hierarchy system to which the division belongs. Usually in the range 1 to 10 (except for several countries, where it is in the range 1 to 11 – Bolivia, Germany, Mozambique, Netherlands, Philippines, Poland, Turkmenistan, Venezuela – see boundary).
health_level	(number)		Used by some mappers instead of admin_level=* in conjunction with boundary=health and is usually in the range 1 to 10.
postal_code_level	(number)		Used by some mappers instead of admin_level=* in conjunction with boundary=postal_code and is usually in the range 1 to 10.
religious_level	(number)		Used by some mappers instead of admin_level=* in conjunction with boundary=religious_administration and is usually in the range 1 to 10.
border_type	*		To distinguish between types of boundary where admin_level isn't enough. Used in several different ways e.g in maritime contexts.
start_date	(date)		Useful if the boundary is very recent (or if it will become effective in a near future).

This table is a wiki template with a default description in English. Editable here.

See also

Relation:boundary for boundary relations.