Fixing the Non-Commercial Data Blind Spot: A Proposal for Better Mapping of Nature Reserves, Trails, and Heritage Sites

Google Maps tips & tricks
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To make Google Maps far more useful to the global public, the engineering team needs to address three major non-commercial data gaps, using examples from my region in Ireland:

1. Complex Archipelagos and Environmental Zones (e.g., Strangford Lough)

  • The Issue: Strangford Lough features 108 individual islands and other features like canoe trails or walks, many of which are in vital nature reserves managed by bodies like the National Trust or Department of the Environment or local Councils and open to the public. While a select few allow sustainable wild camping (like Salt Island or Rowle or InĂ­s tSaggart) which could be mentioned on Google Maps if we were allowed to entre them.
  • Currently, the system lacks a way to properly name minor islands, define polygon-based environmental restrictions (e.g., nesting bird seasonal closures), or specify land-use rules (like camping permissions or wild camping allowed status).
  • The Fix: Introduce an “Environmental Polygon” feature type allowing verified regional experts to map whole landmass zones and attach public rules (e.g., “Nature Reserve - No Landing” or “Public Land - Camping Allowed”) rather than forcing a single commercial pinpoint.
  • Points could be awarded to community members adding these.

2. Off-Road, Multi-Point Linear Trails (e.g., Signposted Walks Across Ireland)

  • The Issue: Ireland features thousands of kilometers of off-road, fully signposted public walking trails. Because Google Maps treats paths as static roads for navigation, it cannot gracefully accommodate routes that are strictly pedestrian, cross-country, and non-vehicular. If a trail doesn’t have an address, the system struggles to accept it. When you are walking a mountain trail as millions of people do annually, Google Maps is no use to you.

  • The Fix: Create a dedicated “Add a Public Trail/Walk” pipeline where contributors can submit GPX files or draw linear pedestrian paths that are clearly differentiated from standard roads, linked explicitly to trailheads. Or google could offer an option for guides to walk these mountain or coastal routes and plot the GPS trail that they leave like the App AllTrails or similar and points could be awarded for community members adding these

  • 3. Non-Commercial Historic Monuments and Heritage Sites

  • The Issue: Countless public historic monuments (ancient ruins, castles, stone circles, ringforts, Holy Wells and Fairy Trees) are fully open to the public but have no staff, phone numbers, or opening hours. When attempting to add these assets, automated verification algorithms regularly flag and reject them because they lack a “business profile” online.

  • The Fix: Expand the verification data requirements to recognize official state or local archaeological databases (e.g., National Monuments Service in the Republic or Historic Environment Division under the Department for Communities (DfC**)** in Northern Ireland) as valid proof of existence, bypassing the need for a traditional business website. Points could be awarded for community members adding valid entries to Google Maps.

Conclusion:
By expanding the “Add a Missing Place” framework beyond commercial criteria, Google can leverage its high-volume contributors to build a map that is truly comprehensive. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss these workflow flaws with the product team or community managers.

Thank you,
Cadogan

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@Cadogan
While I agree about point 1, points 2 and 3 are already fully available in Google Maps

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I agree that a better tool to add trails would be great to have. Today we can only add a point of interest and no lines to indicate the path.

But it is not an easy task to precisely draw a narrow path that is unlikely to be visible on satellite images.

You might need to use a gps tracker that is more precise than the Timeline in Google Maps.

Please know that municipalities can partner with Google Maps and then they can add such walking paths etc.

If you check the tools available to add roads you will know that it is a complex task to draw and get new roads approved.

Personally, I doubt adding more historical places to Maps is a good idea. A few people with special interests in history are likely to add a lot of such places. But is this really helpful to all the users of Google Maps? I doubt it.

Keep in mind Google is a private enterprise and they decide what they want to include and exclude from the Map.

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Several points here;

Firstly , It is frustrating that public parks, nature reserves , rivers and Islands and many more natural features cannot be named. Especially in a Country like Ireland where we are especially attached to the land, folklore and most families can trace their names back a 1000 , 2000 or more years in the past

Names of Islands, Mountains , Rivers , Holy Wells of Fairy rings are surrounded by folk history or history writ large

And then there is the fact for every Irish person there are 2 or 3 tourists every year.

Another reason for being able to communicate where things are in the landscape

Secondly in June I was walking the mountains along the Dingle Way on a lovely way-marked trail. As I have on so many trails linking towns and villages across the country. What a perfect thing to plot on Google Maps and share with others! Not just for local people - try asking Google how many tourists just County Kerry on its own gets every year. Go on!. Ask Google right now!! Don’t they need to know where to go and what to see ?

From the top of Brandon Mountain, named for the Saint who discovered Iceland, Greenland and America centuries before the Vikings or Columbus, you could see the offshore Islands where the last Star War movie was made. Nestling in the Atlantic Ocean and unnoticed and unexplained by Google Maps as people from around the world queued for boats to go out and see them

Thirdly, when I got back to Downpatrick, I made my annual pilgrimage along the canoe trail amongst the 100’s of Islands around the huge 150 sg Kilometer Lough using a manual map in plastic. How much better it would have been to have the Islands here too named on Google Maps, but many aren’t visible on maps but only show up on Google satellite view.

Image how useful it would have been to see the campsites marked on Google Maps, or other useful information like the need to avoid certain island where birds were breeding or seals were pupping.

Why does Google insist on only listing things with telephone numbers? Opening hours? No classification for a park or a nature reserve?? And other useless bits of information irrelevant to the millions of people using the natural environment around the world every year?

And my suggested edits on the few occasions they have been allowed then getting huge numbers of clicks

Get outside and experience the wonderful world we live in man!! Then help share it with others my making a few small, modest and sensible changes to Google maps

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Do tell me how so I can try it