WikiProject Thailand

Thailand is a Country in Asia at latitude 13°00′00.00″ North, longitude 101°30′00.00″ East.

Community

There are some users in Thailand, add your own username if you map in Thailand by adding the following category to your user page (you can add your town or city at the same time). [[Category:Users in Thailand|name]]

OSM community meeting in Chiang Mai, March 2011

Bangkok OSM community mapping party, April 2012

There is an internet forum (message board) and a Facebook group for people in Thailand where you can talk with others about all things regarding OpenStreetMap (OSM) and in particular about mapping in Thailand. In this forum you can write your posts either in Thai language or in English language. If you have any questions about OpenStreetMap in Thailand, feel free to ask there. Proposals for this page can be added on the WikiProject Thailand Drafts page and discussed in the forum.

A nice tool from geofabrik labs was used to generate an animated gif of Thailand. It shows the progress of OSM in Thailand. A big THANK YOU to the community for making that huge progress. Keep on the good work.

Projects

Territory based projects

• Bangkok - Capital city and largest of Thailand's city by far -- many missing streets around the city
• Phang Nga - Province in the South West. Some people interested in this area
• Chiang Mai - Province in the North and the 2nd largest city of Thailand
• Phuket - Island province to the South of Thailand -- many missing streets around the city

For a list of Nakhon (City), Mueang (Town) and Tambon (Subdistrict) see Wikipedia: List of cities in Thailand

Other projects

• Remote Surveys - Project for collaborative surveys of cities in Thailand
• /Protected areas — This subpage is for listing sources for and tracking the mapping progress of national parks and other protected areas.

Conventions

The user-base in Thailand is growing therefore we need to start coordinating.

As OpenStreetMap is a wiki-like project, every user is basically free to choose whatever tags he likes. Over the time some key/value pairs had become standard in the way to tag things. These are documented in the wiki, a good starting point is the Map Features page.

For Thailand some specialties exist in how to tag things here. This page lists only the things that are handled special in Thailand.

When conventions are final they will appear on this page, if they are still under discussion they will be listed on the Talk page.

Multilingual names

The maps Mapnik and Osmarender at OpenStreetMap.org use name=* e.g. the local names for rendering. There are maps available where the language can be chosen:

• Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam: Billingual, local (e.g. Thai) and English

Background according to Wikipedia:

• "In linguistics, romanization or latinization, alternately spelt as latinisation or romanisation (see spelling differences), is the representation of a written word or spoken speech with the Roman (Latin) alphabet, or a system for doing so, where the original word or language uses a different writing system (or none). Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, for representing the spoken word." Reference: wikipedia: Romanization.

• "The Royal Thai General System of Transcription (RTGS) is the official system for rendering Thai language words in the Latin alphabet, published by The Royal Institute of Thailand. It is used in road signs and government publications, and is the closest thing to a standard of transcription for Thai, though its use by even the government is inconsistent." References: wikipedia: Royal Thai General System of Transcription and wikipedia: ISO 11940.

How to get the transcription of names:

1. Collect it from signs when collecting data. Map users will compare to signs.
2. Wikipedia, other sources on the internet or for names of administrative organisations Office of the Royal Society: Changwat, Amphoe, Tambon, Khet and Khweng Name. The Department of Local Administration: Local Administrative Organization's English Name
3. Use the program for Windows Chulalongkorn University: Thai Romanization Program.
4. Transcribe yourself according to wikipedia: Royal Thai General System of Transcription.

Tagging example:

name=ภูเก็ต. Local language Thai. Note: There's an ongoing discussion in regard to brand names

name:th=ภูเก็ต. Thai.

name:en=Phuket. "Romanization".

The renderer can create maps in one or two languages:

• Thai only: e.g. ภูเก็ต
• English only: e.g. Phuket
• Bilingual: e.g. ภูเก็ต Phuket just by using the name and the name:en value.

People who can read Thai will prefer the names in Thai due to reasons discussed in wikipedia: Royal Thai General System of Transcription (RTGS). Other people will prefer the transcription of names in Roman characters. When using the map and comparing names to signs or when asking Thai people for help a bilingual map is convenient.

In cases where the Thai romanization is different from the English name, the RTGS transcription can be placed in the name:th-Latn=* tag. This might not be necessary, as theoretically it would be possible for the renderer to automatically generate such romanizations. However, the accuracy of such software is still quite limited, especially with proper names.

name=จังหวัดภูเก็ต

name:en=Phuket Province

name:th-Latn=Changwat Phuket

Choosing the language for the default name tag:

In general, place names in Thailand used in the name=* tag should be written in Thai script. However, there is an exception. If the owner of the place (a business, for example) prefers another language than Thai (usually English), as indicated by signage, that language should be used instead.

Numeral system:

Thai numbers (๐๑๒๓๔๕๖๗๘๙) are theoretically part of the Thai script writing system. By the way, it can be used interchangeably with Arabic numbers. While Thai numbers are preferred in government documents, Arabic numbers are more commonly used in general writing.

In general, name=* and name:th=* should use Arabic numbers, while official_name=* should use Thai numbers. (Except in the very rare case where either numeral system is used intentionally.)

Highway classification

Thai highways are classified into 5 types:

• Motorway (ทางหลวงพิเศษ) maintained by the Department of Highway (DOH)
• National Highway (ทางหลวงแผ่นดิน) maintained by the Department of Highway (DOH)
• Rural Road (ทางหลวงชนบท) maintained by the Department of Rural Roads (DRR)
• Local Road (ทางหลวงท้องถิ่น) maintained by the local administrative organization
• Concession highway (ทางหลวงสัมปทาน) maintained by the Department of Highway (DOH)

There are also roads maintained by other agencies, such as the Expressway Authority of Thailand (EXAT)'s expressway and the State Railway of Thailand's local road.

See articles on Wikipedia: Thai highway network (in English) or ทางหลวงในประเทศไทย (in Thai) for more information.

Intercity

OSM tag	Description, comments	Examples	Photo
highway=motorway	Expressway maintained by the Expressway Authority of Thailand (EXAT)	highway=motorway name=ทางพิเศษศรีรัช name:th=ทางพิเศษศรีรัช name:en=Si Rat Expressway
	Controlled-access motorway (1-2-digit, blue-background sign) maintained by the Department of Highway (DOH)	highway=motorway ref=7 name=ถนนกรุงเทพฯ-ชลบุรี name:th=ถนนกรุงเทพฯ-ชลบุรี name:en=Bangkok-Chon Buri Road
highway=trunk	Uncontrolled-access motorway (1-2-digit, green-background sign) maintained by the Department of Highway (DOH)	highway=trunk ref=9 name=ถนนกาญจนาภิเษก name:th=ถนนกาญจนาภิเษก name:en=Kanchanaphisek Road (West section)
	All 1-2-digit national highways, unless otherwise stated. (See notes below table) (Noted that a 1-2-digit national highway section* that is shorter than 5km and is a hanging end shall be downgraded to eliminate the hanging end or to secondary.)	highway=trunk ref=2 name=ถนนมิตรภาพ name:th=ถนนมิตรภาพ name:en=Mittraphap Road
	Any road section* that is more than 90% dual-carriageway with a physical median and shoulder, and is more than 100km long. (Length counting can be extended to different road ref.)	highway=trunk ref=212 name=ถนนชยางกูร name:th=ถนนชยางกูร name:en=Chayangkun Road (Section from Nakhon Phanom to Ubon Ratchathani)
highway=primary	All 3-digit national highways, unless otherwise stated. (See notes below table) (Noted that a 3-digit national highway section* that is shorter than 5km and is a hanging end shall be downgraded to secondary.)	highway=primary ref=205 name=ถนนสุรนารายณ์ name:th=ถนนสุรนารายณ์ name:en=Suranarai Road
	Any road section* that is more than 90% dual-carriageway, has a physical or painted median (wider than 1m, not just a double solid line) and shoulder, and is more than 25km long. (Length counting can be extended to different road ref.)	highway=primary ref=2050 name=ถนนอุบล-ตระการ name:th=ถนนอุบล-ตระการ name:en=Ubon-Trakan Road
highway=secondary	All 4-digit national highways, unless otherwise stated. (See notes below table) (Noted that a 4-digit national highway section* that is shorter than 1km and is a hanging end shall be downgraded to tertiary.)	highway=secondary ref=3215 name=ถนนบางกรวย-ไทรน้อย name:th=ถนนบางกรวย-ไทรน้อย name:en=Bang Kruai-Sai Noi Road
	A rural road or local road that is of equal or greater importance (in terms of performance/width/number of traffic lights/total length) as nearby secondary roads.	highway=secondary ref=อย.3006 name=ถนนลาดบัวหลวง-ไม้ตรา name:th=ถนนลาดบัวหลวง-ไม้ตรา name:en=Lat Bua Luang-Mai Tra Road
highway=tertiary	All rural roads (province code and 4-digits), unless otherwise stated. (See notes below table) Rural roads should be tagged with ref=pf.nnnn where pf is the provincial prefix in Thai characters, followed by a dot, followed by the numerical portion of the reference number. There should be no spaces in the ref tag value.	highway=tertiary ref=อท.5021
	A local road that is of equal or greater importance (in terms of performance/width/number of traffic lights/total length) as nearby tertiary roads. (Usually a major registered local road.)	highway=tertiary ref/unsigned_ref*=ชบ.ถ10-005 name=ถนนทุ่งกลม-ตาลหมัน name:th=ถนนทุ่งกลม-ตาลหมัน name:en=Thung Klom-Tan Man Road
highway=unclassified	The lowest rank of a public road usable by motor cars. (usually a local road, province code with ถ and five digits, or other organization's road) Typically unclassified roads in Thailand are the roads having no designated number. Unclassified roads have lower importance in the road network than tertiary roads, and are not residential streets or agricultural tracks. Local roads should be tagged with ref/unsigned_ref*=pf.ถnn-nnn with a hyphen at the correct position. There should be no spaces in the ref tag value.	highway=unclassified ref/unsigned_ref*=ฉช.ถ8-0005

Urban and Local Road wide enough for motor cars

Always check the main wiki pages for a detailed description of the tags and some examples on how to use them along with other useful tags to add to them as well. The below table gives some hints on the tagging to cover the specific situation in Thailand.

OSM tag	Description, comments	Photo
highway=motorway	Expressway (ทางพิเศษ) with full access control.
highway=trunk	Not to use.
highway=primary	Top-level urban road across the city connecting trunk to trunk, or road of equal or greater importance than the primary intercity highway that runs through that city.
highway=secondary	Main urban road connecting primary to primary or higher, or road of equal or greater importance than the secondary intercity highway that runs through that city.
highway=tertiary	Roads that are more important than regular unclassified or residential roads, or roads that connect several unclassified or residential roads.
highway=unclassified	A significant thru-traffic road used to reach the next settlement or another road of equal or higher importance regardless of its physical conditions. Situations where other tags should be used: a non-thru-traffic road providing access to residences within a residential area should be tagged as highway=residential. a non-thru-traffic road providing access to a building or place should be tagged as highway=service
highway=residential	A road within a residential area that gives the public access to one or multiple residences. Also used for roads within a gated housing estate (add access=private). Residential roads are typically short in length and often named. Situations where other tags should be used: minor roads outside residential areas used to access objects (buildings, hotels, temples, reservoirs...) should be tagged as highway=service with optionally one of its sub-tag.
highway=service	A minor road that gives access to buildings/places outside a residential area such as an estate, religious site, attraction site, or a specific part of a large estate such as an industrial facility or university campus. Note: highway=service alone or combined with any of its subtags does not imply private access, so access=* tag must be added when access is restricted. Situations where other tags should be used: minor roads giving access to residences within a residential area should be tagged as highway=residential. minor roads that do not give particular access to any particular places/objects should be tagged as highway=track
highway=service + service=driveway	A service road leading to a specific building, residence, property, or place of business. For example, each house's private road that branches off the residential road (add access=private).
highway=service + service=alley	A narrow service road usually located between the rear sides of buildings to provide access to utilities such as back gardens, rear entrances, fire exits, and storage areas. Situations where other tags should be used: narrow residential roads that provide access to the front entrances of residences should be tagged as highway=residential pathways used by motorcycles but not wide enough for motor cars should be tagged as highway=path.
highway=track	A road whose only function is to provide access to the surrounding land (agricultural, forestry purposes). Most of the time unpaved. Situations where other tags should be used: Roads that provide access to residences within residential areas should be tagged as highway=residential. Roads that provide access to objects/places outside residential areas should be tagged as highway=service with optionally one of its sub-tag.
highway=living_street	Not to use. There is currently no legislation in Thailand granting lower speed limits and pedestrians the right of way over other road users in residential areas. Use instead highway=residential.
highway=road	A road for which the classification cannot be identified without further ground information.
Others	See highway=*

General notes and exceptions for roads

• If two nearby roads with the same or nearby origin and end have different ranks, and the road with the lower rank has better performance (travels faster between those two points) than the road with the higher rank, their ranks shall be swapped (not just downgrade or upgrade one of them). This is usually the case with bypass roads.
• A national highway or a rural road that passes through a city is frequently transferred to the Local Administrative Organization. These highways shall still be tagged according to their previous administrative classification.
• Hanging ends should be avoided if possible. For example, if two primary roads from outside arrive at opposite points in the same city, both ends shall be connected by upgrading the urban road between them to primary, even if it is not qualified in most cases.
• Frontage roads shall be one rank lower than main roads and not higher than secondary.
• The road section that has been rebuilt as a new route and the previous route ref has not yet been changed, hence the old route shall be downgraded 1 step.
• The top-level urban roads in each settlement shall not be tagged higher than any intercity roads that lead to that settlement.
• Road section with mostly smoothness=bad shall be not higher than tertiary, and road section with mostly smoothness=very_bad or worse shall not be higher than unclassified, regardless of their official classification.
• Unless sign-posted, do not use legal access tags (motor_vehicle=yes/no, motorcar=yes/no, 4wd_only=yes/no) to document a road’s suitability for motor vehicles. Instead use the appropriate smoothness tag value (e.g. very_bad: high clearance only, horrible: 4WD only, very_horrible: specialized off-road only, impassable).
• Unused/Abandoned roads that are only passable on foot/two-wheel vehicles may be tagged as highway=path + disused:highway=*/abandoned:highway=*.
• Concession highway (ทางหลวงสัมปทาน) is an administrative classification. The classification should follow the road's importance.
• Highway tag values that are not mentioned here shall adhere to OpenStreetMap's general guidelines.
• "Section" refers to the road distance between any (1) other same or higher rank road, (2) national border, (3) city/town, (4) start/end of the road ref., and any other (1) (2) (3) or (4). (doesn't have to be the nearest one)
• If the local road ref is not signposted as a Reassurance marker, it shall be tagged as unsigned_ref=* rather than ref=*.

Urban and Local Road not wide enough for motor cars

OSM tag	Description, comments	Photo
highway=footway	Built pathways designed mainly or exclusively for pedestrian access. For example, designated footpaths in urban and attraction areas (hotels, parks, tourist sites…). If other means are legally allowed, add the corresponding access tags e.g. highway=footway + bicycle=yes Do not use for hiking trails, use instead highway=path with the appropriate sac_scale=* scale tag.
highway=path	Multi-purpose paths intended for all non-motorized vehicles with the exception of motorcycles. Use instead highway=footway if the path is sign-posted for exclusive or main pedestrian access. Do not use legal access tags (foot=*, bicycle=*) to indicate the suitability of the path for a specific activity. Instead use the corresponding scale tags(sac_scale=* for hiking, mtb:scale=* for mountain biking, and dirtbike:scale=* for dirt biking). If the path has a sign that certain means are forbidden, add the corresponding access tags. e.g. highway=path + motorcycle=no
highway=path + motorcycle=designated	Dedicated (signposted) pathways for motorcycles, typically found in urban areas.
Others	See highway=*

Rough guidelines for minor highway tag decision-making (useful in most cases)

• is the road wide enough for motor cars?
  • yes: is the road used as through traffic to the next settlement or a road of equal or higher importance?
    • yes: highway=unclassified
    • no: is the road exclusively for pedestrians?
      • yes: highway=pedestrian
      • no: is the road within a residential area and provide access to one or multiple residence
        • yes: is the road within a gated housing community?
          • yes: highway=residential + access=private
          • no: highway=residential
        • no: does the road lead or provide access to a specific building/place ?
          • yes: is the road located between the rear sides of buildings to provide access to utilities ?
            • yes: highway=service + service=alley
            • no: does the road provide access to a specific building?
              • yes: highway=service + service=driveway (+ access=private)
              • no: highway=service
          • no: highway=track
  • no: is the pathway designed and built exclusively or mainly for pedestrians (e.g. sidewalk, golf course footpath, attraction walkway…) ?
    • yes: highway=footway
    • no: is the pathway designed exclusively for motorcycles ?
      • yes: highway=path + motorcycle=designated
      • no: highway=path

If you do not have enough information to identify which classification to use, tag the road as highway=road.

Note regarding highway route numbers

The first digit of national highway and motorway route numbers follows the region of Thailand the route primary links to: 1 and 5 for the North, 2 and 6 for the Northeast, 3 and 7 for the central region, 4 and 8 for the South, and 9 for the Bangkok ring road. (The motorway system currently only consists of routes 7 and 9, so route numbers beginning 5, 6 and 8 don't yet exist.) (See also the Thai highway network article on Wikipedia.)

Rural road numbers consist of a two-letter province abbreviation followed by four digits. The first digit indicates the level of highway the road connects to, while the remaining three digits are provincial index numbers. Therefore the first digit may be changed following changes to the connecting highway, while the last tree digits generally remain the same. The numbering system for the first digit is: 1 indicates a connection to 1-digit national highways, and likewise for 2, 3 and 4; 5 indicates a connection to other rural roads or local highways, and 6 indicates the road connects to places without forming part of a larger network.

Outdated Sign Example

Occasionally one may come across roads bearing reference numbers that include two-letter province abbreviations, but don't otherwise conform to the rural road numbering system or aren't found in the Department of Rural Road's index (see #Official sources below). These are usually outdated reference numbers belonging to the Public Works Department or the Office of Accelerated Rural Development, which were responsible for the roads before they were transferred to Department of Rural Roads in 2002. These outdated numbers may be qualified by the words โยธาธิการ (ยธ.) or เร่งรัดพัฒนาชนบท (รพช.), respectively.

Useful tag combinations with highways

weight limit sign

While above highway classifications often give hints on how well suitable these ways are for routing, in many cases additional details help routing. Please add surface=* tags to ways where the it is not obvious from the tagging. For roads intended for cars/motor vehicles this helps a lot. Especially unpaved roads greatly benefit from this additional detail as it prevents from being routed there with an unsuitable city car. If a way is very narrow and two cars can't pass, then add a lanes=* tag to indicate that it has only a single lane. If there are signs indicating a speed limit (maxspeed=*) or a weight limit (maxweight=*) then add it. Be aware that the sign for a weight limit might look like a speed limit if you are unable to read Thai. Notice the additional characters below the numbers to indicate tons.

References

Map Features #Highway

Highway tag usage

Tagging samples/out of town

Tagging samples/urban

Asia/Asian Highway Network

Default Access Restrictions

Default access restrictions for Thailand based on the interpretation of the Road Traffic Act, 1979.

highway=*	access	motorcar	motorcycle	goods	hgv	psv	moped (1)	horse	bicycle	foot
motorway	yes	designated	no	designated	designated	designated	no	no	no	no
motorway_link trunk trunk_link primary primary_link secondary secondary_link tertiary tertiary_link unclassified residential living_street (4) road	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes (3)	yes (2)
pedestrian	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	yes	yes
path	no	no	yes	no	no	no	yes	yes	yes	yes
bridleway (5)	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	designated	yes	yes
cycleway	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	designated	yes
footway	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	dismount (6)	designated
steps	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	designated

1. Mopeds are treated the same as motorcycles.
2. Pedestrians are allowed by default on any road that is not a motorway unless signed otherwise.
3. There are no special laws on bicycles, but they can be assumed to follow the same rules as pedestrians.
4. There is currently no legislation granting lower speed limits and pedestrians the right of way over other road users in residential areas.
5. No laws exist for horse trails.
6. Cyclists should not drive on the pavement without reasonable justification and are encouraged to dismount on other footways.

Fuel Dispensing Facilities

In Thailand, we have three main types of fuel-dispensing facilities: Fuel Stations, Fuel Vending Machines, and Drummed Fuel Shops. Differentiating between these categories is essential for accurate mapping.

Tag	Element	Category	Description	iD Preset	Photo
amenity=fuel		Fuel Stations	Conventional Fuel stations in Thailand are equipped with sizable underground fuel storage tanks capable of accommodating most types of motor vehicles. Many of these establishments provide additional services that extend beyond simply dispensing fuel. Trained attendants are typically on hand to assist customers with refueling, while these stations frequently include supplementary conveniences like convenience stores, restroom facilities, car wash services, and automotive repair options. The most common stations operators are: PTT ป ต ท, Bangchak บางจาก, PT พีที, Caltex คาลเท็กซ์, Esso เอสโซ่, Shell เซลล์, SUSCO Siam United Services Public Company Limited สยามสหบริการมหาชน จำกัด, Worldgas เวิลด์แก๊ส (LPG)	"Gas Station"
amenity=vending_machine + vending=fuel		Fuel Vending Machines	Fuel Vending Machines in Thailand are small automated fuel dispensing points, commonly found in remote or less-traveled areas. These machines offer fuel without additional services and are often located roadside or in front of shops. Customers self-serve by inserting cash payment, and pumping fuel. It's important to note that Vending Machines have limited fuel capacity, can sometimes be out of order, and primarily cater to motorcycles.	"Gas Pump"
shop=fuel		Drummed Fuel Shops	Drummed Fuel Shops in Thailand are small shops where fuel is sold and dispensed from barrels. These shops are often located in remote or less-traveled areas. They primarily provide fuel without offering additional services and are typically manned during the day as long as fuel is available. Drummed Fuel Shops usually serve small quantities, around 7 liters at a time, making them popular among motorcycle users.	"Fuel Shop"

For more detailed tagging information, refer to the Tag links above.

Waterways

Besides the tags listed in Map Features the following tagging is common in Thailand. Try adding width=* to specify the width of the waterway.

Tag	Element	Natural waterways	Photo
waterway=river		Larger river, แม่น้ำ (Mae Nam). Typically wider than 5m. If the waterway is smaller than you should consider using waterway=stream instead.
waterway=stream		Naturally formed waterway. Typically smaller than 2m, but can be used up to 5m (e.g. if the water is not deep and people can walk through it).
Tag	Element	Man-made waterways	Photo
waterway=canal		If the name of the waterway contains the word "Khlong" (Thai: คลอง) or if it looks like a typical canal or khlong we should tag it as "canal". Add boat=* where appropriate.
waterway=ditch		If the waterway is significant smaller than a typical canal (less than ), chances are good that it is a "ditch".
waterway=drain		If it is made out of concrete (คอนกรีต) or build from other hard materials, it is maybe a "drain". A drain does not nessessarily contain water all the time. In dry seasons it could be dry and only be filled while it is raining! If the width exceeds and the drain does contain water most of the time consider using waterway=canal instead.

Administrative levels

In Thailand there are 2 systems, the provincial and the local administration. References: wikipedia: Administrative divisions of Thailand and Thailand subforum.

The provincial administration is hierarchical and centrally controlled by Department of Provincial Administration and Ministry of Interior:

Kingdom of Thailand > province > district > subdistrict > village

Ratcha-anachak Thai > changwat > amphoe > tambon > muban

ราชอาณาจักรไทย > จังหวัด > อำเภอ > ตำบล > หมู่บ้าน).

The local administration is administrated locally under the support of Department of Local Administration:

• provincial administrative organization (PAO), องค์การบริหารส่วนจังหวัด (อบจ.): same boundary as province.
• municipality (thetsaban, เทศบาล) has 3 classes:
  1. city municipality (thetsaban nakhon, เทศบาลนคร (ทน.))
  2. town municipality (thetsaban mueang, เทศบาลเมือง (ทม.))
  3. subdistrict municipality (thetsaban tambon, เทศบาลตำบล (ทต.)).

A municipality can cover

• a whole district, e.g. wikipedia: Ko Samui;
• a district partially;
• a whole subdistrict, e.g. the city Khon Kaen covers the whole subdistrict Nai Mueang (wikipedia: Amphoe Mueang Khon Kaen);
• parts of more than one subdistrict, e.g. wikipedia: Nakhon Phanom;
• a subdistrict partially.
• in very rare cases can cover area from two districts

• subdistrict administrative organization (SAO), องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบล (อบต.)

can cover one or more adjoining subdistricts in the same district, also subdistricts partially if area shared with a municipality.

• community (chumchon, ชุมชน)

is administrated by a municipality and can be the same size or smaller than a prior village.

References: wikipedia: Thesaban and wikipedia: List of cities in Thailand.

There are two special cases:

• Bangkok

is divided into districts (khet, เขต) which are further subdivided into subdistricts (khwaeng, แขวง) and communities (chumchon, ชุมชน).

is a local administrative organization with no provincial administration. Local administrative organization are responsible for all provincial responsibilities.

• Pattaya City

located in Amphoe Bang Lamung. Equivalent to the city municipality. The difference is minor, and it only affects a small portion of the administrative organization.

The table shows the values for Key:admin_level and for Key:place. Municipality extends in parallel to subdistrict and may be more or less than one subdistrict. 11 administrative levels are used. The table lists the terms for the administrative units in English, Romanized Thai and Thai.

Country	Administration	Administrative levels admin_level=* and place=*											Non-administrative settlement
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
Thailand English / Romanized Thai / ไทย	Provincial Administration / Kan Pokkhrong Suan Phumiphak / การปกครองส่วนภูมิภาค	N/A	Kingdom of Thailand / Ratcha-anachak Thai / ราชอาณาจักรไทย	N/A	Province / Changwat / จังหวัด place=province	N/A	District / Amphoe / อำเภอ place=district	N/A	Subdistrict / Tambon / ตำบล place=subdistrict	N/A	Village / Muban / หมู่บ้าน place=village	N/A	(see note) place=hamlet or place=neighbourhood
	Local Administration / Kan Pokkhrong Suan Thongthin / การปกครองส่วนท้องถิ่น				(not to be tagged)		N/A	Subdistrict Administrative Organization (SAO) / Ongkan Borihan Suan Tambon (O Bo To) / องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบล (อบต.) place=county	N/A
								(see note) City Municipality / Thetsaban Nakhon / เทศบาลนคร place=city or place=municipality Town Municipality / Thetsaban Mueng / เทศบาลเมือง place=town or place=municipality Subdistrict Municipality / Thetsaban Tambon / เทศบาลตำบล place=town or place=municipality Pattaya City / Mueang Pattaya / เมืองพัทยา place=city		Khwaeng / Khwaeng / แขวง place=suburb	(see note) Village / Muban / หมู่บ้าน place=quarter or place=village	Community / Chumchon / ชุมชน place=neighbourhood
	Bangkok Metropolitan Administration / Krung Thep Maha Nakhon / กรุงเทพมหานคร				Bangkok / Krung Thep Maha Nakhon / กรุงเทพมหานคร place=city		District / Khet / เขต place=suburb	N/A	Subdistrict / Khwaeng / แขวง place=quarter	N/A	N/A

• The place=* with admin_level=* should only be mapped as nodes. It can be linked to the equivalent boundary=administrative by adding it to the boundary's relation with role=label.
• Please note that many municipalities, especially the most recent ones, are still in rural areas and should not be tagged as place=city or place=town, but rather as place=municipality. The criteria are:
  • If more than 50% of the residential area* within the municipality boundary is connected as one settlement (no other area separating it), then tag it as place=city or place=town
  • (A residential area includes anything from residential, commercial, public park, and other public urban facility, but does not include a gated private residential estate or an industrial estate. The presence of a natural obstacle, such as a river or a major highway, does not imply that the residential area is separated.)
  • If not, then tag it as place=municipality
  • (See the diagram below)
• If the original municipality area qualifies for place=city or place=town, tag it as such, even if the current area does not.
• If there are more than one municipality qualifies for place=city or place=town in one subdistrict, tag just the first founded one as such, and the others as place=municipality, unless each of them covered more than one subdistrict.
• If there are no more officially recognized villages in the municipality area, then tag it as place=city or place=town anyway.
• Villages within the municipality area can be tagged as either place=village or place=quarter. If the village is part of a larger settlement that is tagged as place=city or place=town, tag it as place=quarter. If the village is still distinct, tag it as place=village.
• place=neighbourhood can be applied to any urban area with a name, whether it is an officially recognized community or not.
• All boundary=administrative name tags should have a prefix (Thai) or suffix (English), but not all place=*. Only the node of provincial administration (place=province, place=district, and place=village) should be prefixed or suffixed. However, some place=neighbourhood should be tagged with prefix or suffix (ชุมชน / Community) if they used the name of a specific place, such as the temple, as the community's name, to differentiate them.
• The level-10 boundary=administrative's name tag should be หมู่ที่ xx / Mu xx, whereas place=village's name tag should be บ้าน xx / Ban xx.
• People should be able to recognize the name tag of place=city and place=town. If no one uses the official name, such as the community or the business's branch, the more common name should be used instead, unless it is the same as the surrounding city/town.
• The level-10 boundary=administrative should not be removed as soon as the communities are established, because it may still be used for house addresses. Before removing it, ensure that the house address has already been changed to use a street instead.
• In some subdistrict, there may be more than one village with the same name because they are split for administrative purposes. In this case, they should be represented by a single place=village node.
• Because of the small population in some remote areas, some distinct settlements may exist that are not recognized by the authorities (they are recognized as a part of nearby village). In this case, place=hamlet is appropriate.

SAO area tagging examples

rural municipality area tagging examples (not more than 50% residential area connected together)

urban municipality area tagging examples (more than 50% residential area connected together)

Addresses

In Thailand addresses general consist of

Term			Example			Tag	Photo
English	Romanized Thai	Thai	English	Romanized Thai	Thai	addr=*
housenumber	Lekthi Ban	เลขที่บ้าน	85/1	85/1	85/1	addr:housenumber=*
street	Thanon / Soi / Trok	ถนน / ซอย / ตรอก	Tiwanon Road	Thanon Tiwanon	ถนนติวานนท์	addr:street=* *
village	Muban (Mu Thi)	หมู่บ้าน (หมู่ที่)	Mu 2	Mu Thi 2	หมู่ที่ 2	addr:place=* *
subdistrict	Tambon	ตำบล	Bang Talat Subdistrict	Tambon Bang Talat	ตำบลบางตลาด	addr:subdistrict=*
district	Amphoe	อำเภอ	Pak Kret District	Amphoe Pak Kret	อำเภอปากเกร็ด	addr:district=*
province	Changwat	จังหวัด	Nonthaburi Province	Changwat Nonthaburi	จังหวัดนนทบุรี	addr:province=*
postal code	Rahat Praisani	รหัสไปรษณีย์	11120	11120	11120	addr:postcode=*

It should be noted that depending on the area, either addr:place=* or addr:street=* is used, and both should not be used together.

Data sources

Aerial imagery

In addition to a survey with GPS one may also use some aerial images if available with a suitable license.

Landsat provides low-resolution satellite imagery of the whole country and is available with different image modes.

While Bing aerial imagery is available in many parts of the world and is the default layer in ID editor, it can be very outdated in rural areas of Thailand (often +5 years).

A recommended alternative with more recent imagery is Maxar and ESRI.

Official sources

Legislation and other official proclamations by the Royal Thai Government are exempt from copyright protection. Maps accompanying documents published in the Royal Thai Government Gazette (available at http://mratchakitcha.soc.go.th/ ) may be useful as sources for manual tracing (e.g. of national parks).

GIS data is available from several government agencies, but are presumed to be protected by copyright and unsuitable for import.

The Department of Highways provides a publicly accessible database of national highways at http://roadnet.doh.go.th. As above, the data is considered unsuitable for systematic import, but is useful as a source for confirmation of data and quality assurance.

The Department of Rural Roads publishes indices of rural highways at http://maintenance.drr.go.th/th/DRR. They include route numbers and names (which typically describe the route's start and end points), location, length, and start and end coordinates (although the coordinates appear quite unreliable).

The local highway registry is available at http://lmp.drr.go.th/lmp/waydata/main.html.

Quality Control

• Quality control with Osmose

Outdoor Tagging

Hiking, MTB, and Dirt Biking

Check out the suggested tags on the activities page for Hiking, Mountain Biking, Motorcycling.

Bicycling tagging (currently for Chiang Mai only)

There are many cyclists in Chiang Mai, but almost no officially signposted cycleways or -routes exist. There have recently been some efforts from the Chiang Mai cycling community to collect information about common routes used by cyclists. For this, we tried to figure out how to use OSM conventions to mark roads as cycling routes. This could be a proposal for a convention to establish cycling routes in Chiang Mai and maybe other regions in Thailand.

Objective tags

The following tags should always be considered, because they can be easily verified on the ground and are also used by most cycling routing engines:

• key:highway: the lower the road class, the lesser traffic and lower speeds can be expected, e.g. highway=unclassified or residential would be more suitable for cycling than highway=primary or secondary etc.
• key:lanes: lanes=1 normally best suited for cycling, because less traffic can be assumed than on roads with >1 lane
• key:surface: if the road is paved or not makes a big difference for cycling and should therefore be included in cycling related editing

Others

• key:maxspeed: rarely signposted in Thailand
• key:bicycle: only refers to the legal (e.g. signposted) access for bicycles on roads. It is therefore not a measure for the suitability for cycling

Subjective tags (no ground truthing possible)

Subjective tags can help to give more in-depth information about the cycling suitability of a road, which cannot be determined by the objective tags alone. They should only be used if the user has a good local knowledge.

• class:bicycle tags (derived from class:bicycle#Values):
  • class:bicycle=1: Prefer (decent car traffic, but still better than other roads, or road is not in a good condition like dirt road with holes)
  • class:bicycle=2: Very Nice way to cycle
  • class:bicycle=3: This way is so nice, it pays out to make a detour also if this means taking many unsuitable ways to get here. Outstanding for its intended usage class.
  • class:bicycle=-2: Only use to reach your destination, not well suited (e.g. big junctions, but have to be passed to connect to another calmer road).

• key:scenic: If the scenery of a specific part of the road is remarkably beautiful, this key can help to rank the amenity of a cycling-suitable road.

Proposing routes: key:lcn

In order to propose possible cycling routes (local and regional) for a cycle-route network, the key:lcn or key:rcn tags can be helpful. Furthermore, the cycling roads will also be rendered on the OSM-cyclemap[1], which is also being used on the main openstreetmap.org "Cycle Map" layer.

• key:lcn=proposed (for local routes, e.g. inside the city bounds)
• key:rcn=proposed (for regional routes, e.g. to other districts/provinces)

The key-value would be 'proposed' for now, since these routes are not officially designated. Routes should only be proposed if they have been tested on the ground and/or been agreed on by the local cycling community.

If there are any designated routes (not existing in Chiang Mai yet), of course they should be tagged as lcn=yes / rcn=yes.