GeoNames Forum

I see some records with no feature code. When I look up the record using the web interface, it indicates these are, in fact, null feature codes.

What does it mean, in terms of the source data when the feature code is null?

Carey

Hi Carey

Records with null feature code means we have not yet mapped the features to a code. The larges number is for the US data set from the United States Geological Survey : http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/5.page

Here the numbers for the original USGS types :
Code:

  count  |         type
 --------+-----------------------
    1815 | Military (Historical)
  133591 | Locale
    8628 | Crossing
    2725 | Bend
    1281 | Reserve
    2056 | Pillar
     194 | Unknown

locale : "place at which there is or was human activity" could possibly be mapped to P.PPLL (populated locality). What do you think?

Marc

P.PPPL seems reasonable to me - or a P.PPLX, since they might be parts of a larger entity.

I would go with P.PPL though since the implications is it is a place (of indistinct size) in which people live. It seems that P.PPPL covers every thing from a hamlet to a city.

Carey

I checked what kind of places have the 'Locale' type in the USGS data set and found that we cannot use the PPL feature code for many records.

I have updated today those with 'Shopping Center' in the name to S.MALL (circa 11.000 records) and those with 'Golf Course' (2865 records) in the name to S.RECG.

There are still a lot of other feature codes hidden in 'Locale' type, many of which could possibly be identified with the name.

Marc