Malta - 3rd level administrative unites ("counties")

Question

Good afternoon,

when it comes to Malta, PGC uses the three Islands Malta, Gozo and Comino as second level units ("states"). However, no third level units ("counties") are defined.

Could you, please, use the municipalities (technically correct: local councils) as 3rd level units? As far as I can see their boundaries are correctly given in OSM, so it should not be a technical problem.

Thanks,

k+gw+a

Answer 1

There is a bit of a problem with OSM

admin level 4 gives Malta, Gozo and Comino (regions in PGC)

But admin level 8 (counties in PGC) Comino is joint with Ghajnsielem which is a council of Gozo

There is also a small area not covered on Malta, the small island with Fort Manoel with 2 caches

Because of this it makes it difficult to use the admin level 8 for Malta

Comments

I have, indeed, noticed, that what PCG uses as "states" for Malta does not correspond to any administrative units but is purely artifical. It would make more sense to use either the five regions or the six (statistical) districts as "states". (In both cases Comino would be together with Gozo then.) When it comes to Comino, indeed this is part of the local council of Ghajnsielem (Gozo).
The island on which Fort Manoel stands is part of the local council of Gzira.
I don't know whether it would be possible to keep the three "states" and nevertheless add the local councils as "counties" - in this case probably one would have to define Ghajnsielem as the part on Gozo only and attribute only one 3rd level unit to Comino, e.g. called "Ghajnsielem (Comino)" or, ideally, to replace the three "states" with the five regions and then add the local councils as "counties"? (I assume the case of Gzira should not be a problem, as there are other instances where administrative units consist of several parts not physically linked to each other, should it?)
It would be really great if this could be done.

---

Unless you have another boundary source I think that PGC has to use OSM as their boundary source adm level 4. If there are changes in their admin levels and Fort Manoel becomes part of Gzira there is a possibility to go down one level.

---

Okay, thanks a lot for your answer. I have added the required definition of the Island as being part of the local council of Il-Gzira on OSM. Does this solve the problem? Do I have to do anything else? Thanks so much for your help.