OpenStreetMap: Admin_level for All Countries

Freak_NL•about 1 hour ago

> In some cases borders may overlap without making it an incorrect tagging. It may be result of agreement between countries to administer area together or to mark areas not controlled by any country, with both claiming it.

Fun fact: when you think of boundary disputes, two things tend to be assumed. One, this only happens in 'certain' countries. Two, this always means more than one country claims the same piece of land.

As for one: even the Netherlands and Germany claim the same bit of sea. Boundary status: unresolved (https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/19478817#map=12/53.56...), but don't worry, we're friends and allies these days.

As for two: because of complex reasons to with their eventual bullshit bargaining position, there are several slivers of land wedged between the respectively claimed borders of Serbia and Croatia which belong to… nobody¹ (https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/19478817). Although the local Serbian border patrols will gladly point their rifles in your general direction to point out that this does not, in fact, mean you get to be there as far as they're concerned.

1: Head-line grabbing claims by assorted dreamers notwithstanding; hence Verdis.

munk-a•17 minutes ago

As an excellent example of #2 we've got Bir Tawil and the Halaib Triangle - both exist along the Sudanese-Egyptian border. Two different historical border drawings have been presented which each argue that the Halaib Triangle belongs to a different country and the triangle has 27k inhabitants. Funnily enough, each map that yields that valuable chunk of land to each country actually yields that Bir Tawil should be possessed by the other country (and Bir Tawil is comparatively worthless). As a result neither country claims Bir Tawil since it could be seen as an admission that the other country has a rightful claim to Halaib Triangle.

Usually these weird chunks of land that lay unclaimed are usually the result of agreements or contests around more valuable chunks of land that cause voids in the border - sometimes just due to historical oversight.

john_strinlai•28 minutes ago

another example was with canada/denmark (which i just learned while grabbing the link that it was apparently resolved in 2022!), the "Whisky War" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whisky_War, a dispute over an island

"In 1984, Canadian soldiers visited the island and planted a Canadian flag, also leaving a bottle of Canadian whisky.[10] The Danish Minister of Greenland Affairs came to the island himself later the same year with the Danish flag, a bottle of schnapps, and a letter stating "Welcome to the Danish Island" (Velkommen til den danske ø).[11][12][13] The two countries proceeded to take turns planting their flags on the island and exchanging alcoholic beverages."

trebligdivad•about 2 hours ago

TIL of 'townland' - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Townland - a subdivision mostly in Ireland and Scotland. (While I looked up UK)

OpenStreetMap: Admin_level for All Countries

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