Key:waterway

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Public-images-osm logo.svg waterway
450px-Marshall-county-indiana-yellow-river.jpg
Description
Used to mark rivers or other kind of waterways. Show/edit corresponding data item.
Group: waterways
Used on these elements
may be used on nodesmay be used on waysshould not be used on areasmay be used on relations
Documented values: 45
Useful combination
Status: de facto

The waterway key is used to describe natural or artificial water flows like rivers, streams or canals, as well as elements which control the water flow such as dams and weirs.

Usage

See also: Waterways, Relation:waterway

By definition, a waterway is assumed to have a direction of flow. The direction of the way should be downstream (from the waterway's source to its mouth).

For small waterways, a way indicating a direction of flow and its path is sufficient. When a waterway becomes wide enough (preferably 5m or 16.5ft), mapping the area it flows through is desired.

If a waterway way is known to not have water flow year round, it should always be tagged with intermittent=yes. (Non-permanent flow can be further described with the seasonal=* tag to describe when a flow of water exists, but intermittent=yes should still be present in these cases.)

If a waterway is named from its source to its destination, it's strongly suggested that all of its ways be placed in a waterway relation. Doing this allows Nominatim to group the ways together and return exactly one named result per named waterway that exists in OpenStreetMap.

Values

The main waterway=* values are distinguished according to the flowing regime as follow:

Free flow Pipe flow
Man made Open air culvert flooded tunnel pipeline
canal (useful water) pressurised
ditch
drain (superfluous water)
Natural Open air cave
river
stream
tidal_channel

The only questions to ask to get the difference between Free flow and Pipe flow is Does water flow inside a closed space and can air get inside the conduit? If yes, the water can't be pipe flow and you'll have to choose for an according waterway=* value from the table.

Even if waterway=* values can be refined or replaced, it would be really nice to preserve the distinction between free/open channel and pipe flow features. It's really important data for water management and resource planning.

When mapping some human made water channelling features, remember to describe particular intakes and outfalls with inlet=*, outlet=* and man_made=outfall.


Key Value Element Comment Carto rendering Photo

Natural watercourses

waterway river way A river is a wide, natural watercourse that flows from a source to an ocean, sea, lake or another river. For narrow naturally-formed waterways, see waterway=stream.
Rendering-river.png
Finlay River emptying into the north end of Williston Lake.jpg
waterway riverbank area Use of these tags is discouraged. See natural=water + water=river instead.
Rendering-waterway-riverbank.png
Dscf1891-800.jpg
waterway stream way A naturally-formed waterway that is too narrow to be classed as a river. An active, able-bodied person should be able to jump over it.
Rendering-stream.png
450px-Marshall-county-indiana-yellow-river.jpg
waterway tidal_channel way A natural tidal waterway within the coastal marine environment with bi-directional flow of salty water which depends on the tides.
Tidal creek - geograph.org.uk - 952646.jpg

Man made waterways

waterway canal way An artificial open flow waterway used to carry useful water for transportation, waterpower, or irrigation. (Other languages).
Rendering-river.png
Grand Union Canal Walk by the canal - geograph.org.uk - 3135952.jpg
waterway pressurised way A waterway where water is flowing in a fully enclosed conduit and subject to pressure; this includes gravity-driven penstocks and siphons and pump-driven pipelines, for example.
Pipeline penstocks.jpg
waterway drain way An artificial free flow waterway used for carrying superfluous water like storm water or industrial discharge, usually lined with concrete, stones or similar.
Rendering-stream.png
Iron Cove Ck looking downstream from John St, Croydon.jpg
waterway ditch way A small artificial free flow waterway used for carrying superfluous water for drainage or irrigation purposes, usually unlined.
Rendering-stream.png
Forest ditch.JPG
waterway fairway way A navigable route in a lake or sea marked by buoys. The navigable area marked by the buoys can be mapped with seamark:type=fairway.
1109 Fairway Szczecin-Swinoujscie.jpg
waterway fish_pass way A  fish pass, also known as a fish ladder, a fishway or fish steps, is a structure on or around artificial barriers (such as dams and locks) to facilitate diadromous fishes natural migration.
Fischtreppe Isar bei Pullach.jpg
waterway canoe_pass way A canoe pass is a structure on or around artificial barriers (such as dams and locks) to enable whitewater praticants to go through those barriers

Facilities

waterway dock node area An 'enclosed' area of water which the height of the water can be managed.
Base layer water.png
F-124 im Dock.jpg
waterway boatyard nodearea Boat yard – a place for constructing, repairing and storing vessels out of the water.
Boatyards, Rhyll.jpg

Barriers on waterways

waterway dam way area A wall built across a river or stream to impound the water. A dam normally does not have water flowing over the top of it.
Dam node.svg
Amagase Dam.jpg
waterway weir node way A barrier built across a river to control speed and depth. Water can still flow over the top.
Weir node.svg
Alifakovac Miljacka.jpg
waterway waterfall node A waterfall, use in combination with natural=cliff
Waterfall-14.svg
Waterfall near Keldur.JPG
waterway rapids node way area relation A natural barrier, formed by a fast-flowing, often turbulent, section of the watercourse.
Karvionkoski rapids.jpg
waterway lock_gate node way To mark the position of gates at each end of a lock. Alternatively, for smaller locks use a single lock=yes node in the middle of the lock.
Lock gate node.svg
JesusGreenLock-Cambridge.jpg
waterway sluice_gate node way area A sluice gate is a movable gate to control water flow.
Ss sluice2.jpg
waterway security_lock node way Flood barrier
Eidersperrwerk ty20060715r0012451.jpg
waterway check_dam node way Flood and debris barrier
Yatategi sabo dam.jpg

Other features on waterways

waterway turning_point node A place to turn the driving direction for vessels, where the boats are longer than the river/canal is wide. Use maxlength=* to denote the maximum length of the vessel.
waterway water_point node A place to fill fresh water holding tanks of a boat.
Water point - Fradley Junction.JPG
waterway fuel node area A place to get fuel for boats.
Boat fuel station.jpg

Some additional attributes for waterways

intermittent yes way Indicates that the waterway is sometimes dry and sometimes contains water.
Rendering-waterway river intermittent.png
seasonal yes, spring, summer, autumn, winter, wet_season, dry_season way Indicates that a waterway has a seasonal (yearly cyclic) flow, usually flowing continuously for at least some part of the year.
Four seasons.jpg
destination name way Name of the body of water the linear feature flows into.
lock yes way (node) A lock is used for moving boats between waterways at two different levels. Can tag either the section of the way between the gates (detailed) or just a single node in the waterway (less detailed).
JesusGreenLock-Cambridge.jpg
mooring yes, private, no way A length of bank where boats are explicitly permitted to moor. maxstay=* should be used for timing information.
Lamanage La Rochelle.jpg
usage See the key for details way Possible uses of the waterway. Use semicolons to separate.
tunnel culvert way (node) A short tunnel usually installed under roads, railways or building. Its size doesn't allow human to get inside and is as narrow as the structure is supposed to go under. For streams passing under a road in culverts use tunnel=culvert+layer=-1 on the section of stream passing under the road. Don't use either of these tags for streams passing under bridges.
Grate on the culvert - geograph.org.uk - 1634830.jpg
tunnel flooded way A long (> 100 m) tunnel where flowing water or other fluid prevent humans from safely walking inside despite its appropriate diameter or size. Water inside can be pressurised or not, used in combination with any waterway=* linear value. waterway=*.
Waterway free flow tunnel.png
bridge aqueduct way A bridge which conveys an artificial waterway over a road, valley, or another waterway.
Pont du gard.jpg
waterway user defined node way All commonly used values according to Taginfo
This table is a wiki template with a default description in English. Editable here.

Tags used in combination

  • bridge=aqueduct – A bridge which conveys an artificial waterway over a road, valley or waterway
  • narrow=yes – Relative indication that a way gets narrower
  • width=* – The width of a feature

Possible tagging mistakes

See man-made waterways above for better alternatives.

If you know places with this tag, verify if it could be tagged with another tag.
Automated edits are strongly discouraged unless you really know what you are doing!
If you know places with this tag, verify if it could be tagged with another tag.
Automated edits are strongly discouraged unless you really know what you are doing!
If you know places with this tag, verify if it could be tagged with another tag.
Automated edits are strongly discouraged unless you really know what you are doing!
If you know places with this tag, verify if it could be tagged with another tag.
Automated edits are strongly discouraged unless you really know what you are doing!
If you know places with this tag, verify if it could be tagged with another tag.
Automated edits are strongly discouraged unless you really know what you are doing!
If you know places with this tag, verify if it could be tagged with another tag.
Automated edits are strongly discouraged unless you really know what you are doing!

See also

  • natural=spring - A place where ground water flows naturally from the ground
  • natural=coastline - The mean high water (springs) line between the sea and land (with the water on the right side of the way)
  • Relation:waterway - A relation used for waterways to build a unique object for each river
  • Hydropower project documentation