12. Permit notes

Whoever plans a race or a training on a map asks for permission first: the municipality for streets and squares, the lower nature conservation authority in a protected area, the operator of a school, a park or a palace garden. On request freemapper writes the file permits.md for this. For the map area it names the administrative units, the protected areas and the known operators, and whom that usually means asking.

The file is a hint, not legal advice. The competent authorities decide. You still need their permit, and you still have to ask them.

Making the notes

The notes are made only when you ask for them, and only then does freemapper ask the BfN and the BKG, for a map area in Berlin also the Geoportal Berlin, in Hamburg the Geoportal Hamburg, in Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia the forest administration.

• In the terminal, after the map was fetched once:

  ./freemapper permits kreuzgymnasium
  

  Or together with the map: ./freemapper run kreuzgymnasium --permits. If something fails there, run prints a warning and the map stays.

• On the area page, tick "Permit notes" among the options (chapter 6).

• Tell the AI assistant, for example: "Also make the permit notes for the project." It shows you the text once it is done.

permits asks the two federal services, in Berlin also the Geoportal Berlin, in Hamburg the Geoportal Hamburg, in Brandenburg the Landesbetrieb Forst, and reads the OSM extract that is already in the cache. In North Rhine-Westphalia it downloads two files of three files for the whole state, two of Wald und Holz NRW and the water protection areas, about 32 MB together; in Brandenburg the water protection areas of the LfU, about 4 MB. freemapper keeps these files in the cache (folder permits) and downloads them again only when the server has a newer one. When the server cannot be reached, it uses the kept one. It does not download an extract. Without one the notes leave OpenStreetMap out and say so; freemapper fetch downloads it. It all takes about half a minute, most of it for reading the OSM extract.

With --offline, permits reads only the data an earlier run stored in the project and writes the same text. freemapper stores the map area with the data. If the area is no longer exactly the same polygon, even when it only got smaller, the command stops: the data were stored for another map area. permits ends with an error (exit code

1. when not a single source could be read. If only one source is missing, the file is written all the same and a warning names the missing source.

The project folder then holds:

A new fetch replaces the files. One that reads no source at all leaves them as they were. freemapper.toml and ATTRIBUTION.txt do not change, and nothing of it shows on the map, in the candidates or in the PDFs.

What the file holds

It starts with the note that it is not legal advice. These sections follow:

• "Administrative units" names the state, the Kreis or kreisfreie Stadt, the Amt or Verwaltungsgemeinschaft where there is one, and the Gemeinde, each with its share of the map area in percent. A unit that touches less than 0.5 % of the area stands in a list of its own, "Touched at the edge".
• "Protected areas (BfN)" names national parks, national natural monuments, nature reserves, FFH areas, bird protection areas, biosphere reserves with their zones, landscape protection areas and nature parks. Each comes with its share, the date it was designated, the legal basis, the link to the legal text where the BfN has one, for FFH and bird protection areas the link to their Natura 2000 site page, and the data year.
• "More protected areas from OpenStreetMap" names protected areas the BfN does not list, such as a protected landscape feature.
• "Operators and owners according to OpenStreetMap" names who runs or owns parks, gardens, sports grounds, schools, churches, cemeteries, woods, railway land, attractions and historic places. freemapper does not read residential land or houses, listed houses included, and no gardens that belong to a home or are closed to the public (garden:type=residential or private, access=private or no). It reads no phone numbers or e-mail addresses either.
• "Classified roads according to OpenStreetMap" names the Autobahnen, Bundes-, Landes- or Staats- and Kreisstraßen that run through the map area, with their number (ref in OSM, such as "B 96" or "St 2045"). For each class a hint says that the road traffic authority orders a closure or a crossing with marshals, and who usually keeps the road. A course may cross an Autobahn only on bridges or through underpasses. Municipal roads without a number are not named; the Gemeinde is in charge of them (see the hint on the Ordnungsamt).
• In Berlin up to five sections from the Geoportal Berlin follow "Administrative units" (see "Berlin" below).
• In Hamburg up to five sections from the Geoportal Hamburg follow (see "Hamburg" below).
• In Brandenburg, Berlin, Hamburg and North Rhine-Westphalia "Forest administration" follows, in North Rhine-Westphalia also "State forest" (see "Forest administration" below).
• "Hints" says whom a finding usually concerns, for example: "Protected areas concern the lower nature conservation authority (untere Naturschutzbehörde), usually the Landkreis Märkisch-Oderland." or "In a nature reserve you usually have to keep to the paths." The hints name the kind of office and the unit, never a person or an address.
• "Sources and data date" says for each source whether and when it was read, with its credit line and licence.

A section whose source was not read says so.

Berlin

When the map area lies in Berlin, freemapper also asks six services of the Geoportal Berlin (gdi.berlin.de), one of them for the forest administration (see below). Their sections follow "Administrative units":

• "Bezirke" names each district (Bezirk) with its share of the map area.
• "Green spaces" names the public green spaces with their Bezirk, dedication (Widmung) and share. The parts of a park count as the park ("Viktoriapark, Rosengarten" counts as "Viktoriapark"). Public playgrounds are only counted.
• "Land of the state and of the Bund" says from the Liegenschaftsplan what share of the map area belongs to the state of Berlin ("Land Berlin" in the data) and what share to the Bund ("Bundesrepublik Deutschland"). There is one line per owner, never a list of parcels. Any other owner the data might name is not named: those parcels share one line, "Other public owners".
• "Monuments" counts the monuments per kind (Baudenkmal, Gesamtanlage, Ensemble, Gartendenkmal) and links up to 20 entries of the Denkmaldatenbank Berlin. Rare kinds get their links first; the other entries are counted.
• "Natural monuments and other protected objects" names natural monuments (trees and boulders as points, and areas), protected landscape features and areas with special rules, with the ordinance where the data name it. A tree counts when it stands in the map area.

The hints then name the Bezirksamt, for each Bezirk that is more than an edge of the area (0.5 % or more): the Ordnungsamt and the Straßen- und Grünflächenamt, the lower monument authority where a monument of the area lies in that Bezirk, and the lower nature conservation authority where a natural monument or protected landscape feature does. Only an object that lies in edge Bezirke alone names its edge Bezirk. The owner hint gives the shares of the state and the Bund; for the rest it stays with the extract from the land register.

If a service is down, only its section is missing, and the table of sources says "not reachable". Without the Bezirke the general hint for Berlin and Hamburg comes back. Nature reserves, landscape protection areas, FFH and bird protection areas and the nature park still come from the BfN, not from the Geoportal.

Hamburg

When the map area lies in Hamburg, freemapper asks six services on geodienste.hamburg.de:

• "Districts" names each of the seven Bezirke with its share.
• "Green spaces" names the public green spaces of the Grünplan with Bezirk and share. An area without a name of its own is listed by its kind, such as "Parkanlagen".
• "Monuments" counts garden monuments, ensembles and listed buildings. The list also names the architects of the buildings; freemapper takes none of it, not even into data/permits/.
• "Forest administration" names the Revierförsterei of the Stadtwald with its Bezirksamt; "Forest functions and protected forest" names the Bannwald and the Erholungswald with its rating.
• "Water protection areas" names each water protection area with its zone.

The hints name, for each Bezirk that is more than an edge, the Bezirksamt with its Fachamt Management des öffentlichen Raumes and, when a monument lies in the area, the Denkmalschutzamt Hamburg. Without the Bezirke the general hint for Berlin and Hamburg comes back.

Monuments

Monuments come from Berlin, Hamburg and Saarland and from the open services of the monument offices of Hesse (DenkXweb, with a link into the list), Baden-Württemberg (Kulturdenkmale, Gesamtanlagen, archaeological monuments and Grabungsschutzgebiete), Bremen (Einzeldenkmale and Ensembles, with a link), Saxony (Kulturdenkmale), Brandenburg (Bau-, Garten- and Bodendenkmale, Denkmalbereiche), Rhineland-Palatinate (Einzeldenkmäler, Denkmalzonen, bauliche Gesamtanlagen), North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein. Schleswig-Holstein has no service, only its list as one file for the whole state (about 52 MB, new each week): freemapper downloads it the first time and keeps it in the cache, later only when the server has a newer one. Archaeological monuments and Lübeck's monuments are not in it. The section "Monuments" counts them by kind and links up to 20 into the state's list where the service has a link. When monuments lie in the area, a hint says whom to ask: in Berlin and Hamburg the Bezirksamt or the Denkmalschutzamt, elsewhere the lower monument authority (untere Denkmalschutzbehörde), usually the Landkreis or the kreisfreie Stadt, in some states the Gemeinde; the hint names the Kreis and the Gemeinde from VG250.

In North Rhine-Westphalia the data are still being gathered and not every Gemeinde is in them yet: no monument in the notes does not mean none lies in the area. In Brandenburg the Baudenkmale of the city of Potsdam are missing; the city keeps its own list. The notes say both below the part of the state, and the hint on the lower monument authority comes there without a finding too, saying that the data cannot tell for sure. A kreisfreie Stadt, in Baden-Württemberg a Stadtkreis, is the lower authority itself. Hesse's archaeological monuments are points that stand for an area of about 300 m, as the service says. Lower Saxony, Bavaria, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Saxony-Anhalt are still missing: their licence is unclear or forbids adaptations, or there is no service for the whole state.

Natural monuments and protected biotopes

Naturdenkmale, geschützte Landschaftsbestandteile and legally protected biotopes (§§ 28 to 30 BNatSchG) are not in the BfN's data. The notes name them from the services of the states:

The section "Natural monuments and other protected objects" names trees with their species and areas with their share; biotopes of one type are one line. When protected biotopes lie in the area, a hint says that whatever can destroy them or harm them considerably is forbidden: controls and legs belong outside them, or the lower nature authority is asked. For natural monuments and protected biotopes a hint names the lower nature authority, outside Berlin and Hamburg with the Kreis from VG250. Where the data have gaps, they stand below the part of the state. In Baden-Württemberg the LUBW allows commercial use of its biotopes only on request, so they are left out. Schleswig-Holstein reports its Naturdenkmale and Landschaftsbestandteile through the INSPIRE service of the state; so far it holds only those of the Kreise and towns named, the lower nature authority knows the others. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern follows. The data of Rhineland-Palatinate are under the Open Database License (ODbL), as OpenStreetMap's are.

Water protection areas and forest functions

Water protection areas with their zone come from Baden-Württemberg, Berlin, Brandenburg, Hamburg, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein, and from Saxony for the forest only. In Baden-Württemberg each zone names the lower water authority in charge (a Landratsamt or a Stadt), and the hint names it too; zones I and II come joined there, as the LUBW does not publish zone I. For Bavaria, Lower Saxony, Bremen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony come the drinking water and medicinal spring protection areas the states report to the Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde (BfG), without their zones and with the BfG's note that the data are not complete everywhere; in North Rhine-Westphalia also the planned ones, marked "(geplant)". Forest functions from Brandenburg (Naturwald, Totalreservat, closed areas, Erholungswald), Hamburg (Bannwald, Erholungswald), North Rhine-Westphalia (Naturwaldzellen, wilderness development areas), Saarland (Naturwaldzellen, Urwald), Saxony (Erholungswald, Naturwaldzellen, Bodenschutzwald) and Schleswig-Holstein (Naturwald), each from open services of the state. In Saarland the listed buildings come with them. A water protection area gets a hint with its zone: in zones I and II events are usually ruled out, in zone III usually possible, and the lower water authority says what the ordinance allows. When the data give no zone, the hint names both cases. Recreation forest, protected forest, natural forest and closed forest areas each get a hint whom to ask or what to avoid.

Forest administration

An event in the forest needs the consent of the forest owners. In several states an organised event in the forest must also be reported to the forest authority or allowed by it. Six states publish the areas of their forest offices openly:

The section "Forest administration" names each office with its unit and its share of the map area. The area of an office can take in towns and fields as well; in Brandenburg every map area lies in a Revier. "State forest" (North Rhine-Westphalia only) gives the share of the map area that belongs to the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with the forest office that looks after it.

The forest hints and the section "Forest administration" come when the map area holds forest: on every forest map, on any other map as soon as OpenStreetMap has forest or wood (landuse=forest, natural=wood) in the area, however small, and also when there is no OSM extract and it cannot be told. A schoolyard or sprint map in the middle of a town does not get them, even though the area lies in a Revier. The hints then name the office of every area that is more than an edge of the map, with its Reviere or districts, and say that the forest owners must agree. In the other states, or when the service could not be reached, only the hint on the owners' consent and the forest authority remains, without an office. The state forest is among the owner hints on every kind of map, whenever it lies in the area.

In North Rhine-Westphalia every row of the district file also names the forester with name, e-mail address and phone numbers. freemapper takes none of it: it keeps only the names of the office and the district, also in data/permits/.

Limits

• The BfN merges the protected areas of the states once a year and marks the data "Nicht für Planungszwecke geeignet." (not suitable for planning). A new or changed protected area can be missing. The authorities of the state decide.
• VG250 is generalised to the scale 1:250 000. A Gemeinde or Kreis at the edge of a small area can show up only because of that.
• An OSM area that encloses the whole map area without a corner inside it, a large wood for example, can be missing. So can an OSM protected area mapped as a relation of the type boundary. The parts from the BfN and VG250 are not affected.
• Berlin and Hamburg are one unit each in VG250. The notes name the Bezirk from the Geoportal Berlin and the Geoportal Hamburg.
• The Geoportal Berlin says that for the protected objects only the official analogue maps are legally binding. The notes quote that sentence word for word below the table of sources.
• Owners of land are not in open data, except the state and the Bund in Berlin. The notes say how to get an extract from the land register.
• The notes name forest offices only in Brandenburg, Berlin, Hamburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saarland, Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein (in Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein for the state forest only). Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern have no open service with areas freemapper may read; their forest administrations have been asked. The service of Rhineland-Palatinate turns freemapper away. For the other states no open service was found.
• Sachsenforst answers only for single points. freemapper asks at the centres of up to 25 cells over the map (cells of at least 50 m, so a schoolyard gets a few), up to 50 requests. Each answer counts for its whole cell: the shares are estimates, and a small Naturwaldzelle or an inner water zone between two points can be missing. The notes say so below the part of Saxony, and for an empty section they write that nothing is named at the points asked. The drinking water zones of the service lie in the forest only. permits.json marks such a source with "sampled": true.
• Who owns a private or municipal forest is in no open data.
• The notes name water protection areas in every state. The BfG's areas have no zone; whether an event is possible, the lower water authority says. Monuments come from eleven states (see "Monuments").

Data sources and licences

<year> is the year of the fetch. The BfN gives no credit line of its own; freemapper built this one from the name of the service, its terms of use and its access note. Keep the lines when you pass permits.md on.

freemapper sends the federal services, the Geoportale Berlin and Hamburg and the Landesbetrieb Forst Brandenburg only the rectangle around the map area and its fixed name (User-Agent). From Wald und Holz NRW it downloads the files for the whole state and cuts them itself; only the name goes there. Sachsenforst gets the points asked instead of the rectangle, the BfG the rectangle. It asks no other server for the notes. It asks the services of a state only for a map area that lies there, and only through the hosts the adapter of that state names. adapters allow-host does not apply to the federal services.