British Sprints

[Spookster]

I cannot remember ever seeing this used on an Urban Orienteering Map. I would always assume that Olive was some ones private land, which was enclosed by a fence/wall. OOB was always marked with Purple.

No. Olive means "Area with forbidden access, An area with forbidden access such as a private area, a flower bed, a railway area etc." In other words, places that are always OOB should be mapped with Olive.

On the other hand purple hatching means "Out-of-bounds area - Out of bounds areas are mapped with the symbol (528.1). This symbol shall only be used for last minute updates to the competition map (e.g. for areas that may be dangerous for the competitors during the competition, or very late changes to the competition terrain)."

In other words, hatching is used to quickly and/or temporarily make OOB a part of the map that might otherwise be in bounds. Anyone using hatching instead of olive to map places that will always be OOB isn't following ISSOM.

[andypat]

Interesting side issue.

Where an OOB (such as the triangular area to the NW of the finish across the water) is part of a larger area of similar terrain with vague boundaries, would that not come under the latter red hatching description?

Still no idea why that area was OOB (maybe butterflies or something?) unless it was specifically for reasons of making the courses better.

[greywolf]

(528.1). This symbol shall only be used for last minute updates to the competition map .... hatching is used to quickly and/or temporarily make OOB a part of the map that might otherwise be in bounds. Anyone using hatching instead of olive to map places that will always be OOB isn't following ISSOM.

if that was the case then the roads which were purple hatched should also have been olive - they aren't temporary features and I doubt the decsion to designate them OOB was last-minute.. IMHO ISSOM needs revision to iron out the ambiguities re OOB.

When mapping, I use olive green for areas that appear private, which I wouldn't go into or cross regardless of whether or not I was orienteering. For public areas of dense vegetation (shrubberies, areas of long grass, etc) with forbidden access for orienteers i use... the ISSOM symbol for areas of dense vegetation with forbidden access i.e. 421 green/black, which has much greater contrast with open and paved areas.

(of course the edges of the forbidden area still need taping if they aren't clear on the ground)

[graeme]

Still no idea why that area was OOB .

Theolympic park flower meadowsare a bit of a thing, though timed to be so at Olympics time...

Personally, I wouldn't use the "dense vegetation with forbidden access" for anything other than fight (strong signal = strong feature): on that map it would look like hedges. Many of the OOB areas are simply too small for the purple stripe symbol. Which leaves olive green as the best option.

I agree that olive green for roads is technically right, but I've never seen it for public roads, and been slapped down when I tried to do it myself "you don't use olive for roads". Strangely, people do use olive for private driveways.

The hatching goes back to the days of litho maps, where the mapper "owned" all the colours except purple, which was used by the planner. One day IOF will catch up. Maybe.

[andypat]

Thanks Graeme - that makes sense about the proto flowers.

[GML]

Agree with graeme about not using the green/black impassable vegetation symbol except for hedges and the like, and that the standard OOB purple stripes won't work for small areas of OOB vegetation, but what about using the purple shaded "714 Temporary construction or closed area" symbol?

[DJM]

Maybe because 714 is used for "obvious temporary constructions like platforms for spectators and speaker, closed area for spectators, outside restaurant areas, etc" ... which doesn't really fit with "green features"

[GML]

Maybe because 714 is used for "obvious temporary constructions like platforms for spectators and speaker, closed area for spectators, outside restaurant areas, etc" ... which doesn't really fit with "green features"

I appreciate that it may not fit exactly with the specification (although "outside restaurant areas, etc" seems fairly unspecific to me), but (a) is there anything in particular that you would expect to see on the ground in such an area (i.e. would you be confused if there was nothing there but some slightly different vegetation) and (b) would it be clear to you from the map that such an area was OOB?

[andypat]

As Andy hinted at above, olive green and taping is probably the most appropriate way to go where boundaries are not that obvious on the ground which is what actually took place in the final.

[buzz]

If the organisers had wanted to keep people out of the 'flower meadows' then they should have given more thought to the positions of the controls and marshals. The courses appeared to have been deliberately planned to trap unwary competitors making use of the 'barriers' offered by the olive green and marshals were positioned to disqualify transgressors rather than protect the park.

If the barriers were easily distinguished on the map and in the terrain then fair enough that's a key part of sprint course planning, but in this case the olive green was difficult to distinguish for most and impossible for colour blind people and the inconsistencies in how the meadows were mapped only exacerbated the problem.

One solution might have been to use artificial barriers which would have been clear on the map and the ground.

I hope that BO can use this event as an example to put pressure on IOF to change Olive Green to a more easily distinguished colour, and also discourage unfair 'trapping' by planners.

[Simon E]

Routegadget now available.

Heats

Finals

[GML]

I hope that BO can use this event as an example to put pressure on IOF to change Olive Green to a more easily distinguished colour

So what colour do you think OOB/uncrossable areas of low vegetation should be on the map to make it clear that they are OOB/uncrossable?

[Snail]

I think it is much clearer if sizeable OOB areas - whether in ISSOM or ISOM - are mapped with the relevant terrain symbol together with a purple OOB overprint, so that competitors can sensibly relate the map to the ground. See attached sample with say a mix of flower beds / private gardens and rough open grassland, some of which is OOB. With the left hand extract most competitors will get it right; but if you simply map all the OOB as olive green you get the right hand version and make it far more likely that competitors will accidentally transgress.

For very small OOB areas, use of olive green may be necessary.

Not sure this helps with the (commonly red/green) colour-blind issue - as such people might misread the OOB screen as an undergrowth screen.

I was surprised at some of the BSOC wild flower meadows being mapped as olive green, because it seems quite feasible that in autumn / winter they might not be OOB; and a purple course OOB screen would have removed the need for seasonal versions of the underlying map.

[roadrunner]

As Andy hinted at above, olive green and taping is probably the most appropriate way to go where boundaries are not that obvious on the ground which is what actually took place in the final.

Didn't the final details say something about areas that were OOB to competitors not necessarily being OOB to the public, including some of the meadows? Maybe they weren't allowed to tape them for that reason. Otherwise, I'd agree that taping is the best solution, though it would require a lot more effort if there were many OOB areas.

[dch]

Taking the sort of situation described by snail further, I think there would be situations where using olive green (and hence hiding details within the out-of-bounds area) could lead to a greater risk of competitors straying into the OOB than if it wasn't shown at all.

Consider the examples below which are all the same leg. On the first version (not showing the OOB) it is likely that most competitors would run along the road and take the second path on the left (especially if the light green woodland was grotty). Hence they would avoid the OOB area without any special consideration.

On the second version with olive green OOB the obvious route is along the road and the first path on the left. However the first path on the left is the unmapped one through the OOB. Hence anyone who fails to judge the distance accurately, on a leg which doesn't appear to need it, will end up in the OOB.

With the third version with the stripes indicating OOB, the obvious route is the road and second path on the left, avoiding the OOB, and it is clear that the direct line is OOB. Hence there should be least risk of violating the OOB by mistake.