Key:waterway

+/- waterway Description The waterway tag is used to mark rivers or other kind of waterways. Group Waterway Element help Used combinations in World Australia/Oceania Europe (list) Asia (list) Central America (list) South America (list) Africa (list)

Usage

See also: waterways

The waterway key is used to describe rivers, streams and boat-yards. Some 'water' related features use other tags, including

• lakes: natural=water
• reservoirs: landuse=reservoir
• fords: highway=ford
• coast: natural=coastline

By convention the direction of the way should be downstream (ie draw the way in the direction that the water flows), when known.

Values

Key	Value	Element	Comment	Rendering	Photo
waterway	boatyard		Boat yard - a place for constructing, repairing and storing vessels out of the water.
waterway	canal		An artificial open waterway used for transportation, waterpower, or irrigation.(Other languages).
waterway	ditch		A small to moderate depression created to channel water.
waterway	dock		An 'enclosed' area of water used for building or repairing ships.
waterway	drain		An artificial waterway for carrying storm water or industrial discharge.
waterway	river		For narrow rivers which will be rendered as a line. For larger rivers (defined as more than 12m across) see waterway=riverbank (Other languages).
waterway	riverbank		Used for larger rivers, to define an area between the opposite riverbanks. See water=river for alternative tagging.
waterway	stream		A naturally-formed waterway that is too thin to be classed as a river. An active, able-bodied person should be able to jump over it if trees along it aren't too thick.
Some additional attributes for waterways
waterway	dam		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.
intermittent	yes		Indicates that the waterway does not have a permanent flow (i.e. is sometimes/often dry).
lock	yes	()	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).
mooring	yes/private/no		A length of bank where boats are explicitly permitted to moor. maxstay=* should be used for timing information.
service	transportation/water_power/irrigation		A waterway=canal may have one (or more; separate with semicolons) uses.
tunnel	culvert	()	For a stream passing under a road use tunnel=culvert on the section of stream passing under the road (don't use this tag for open-top culverts or roads using the culvert structure as a bridge (bridge=culvert)).
waterway	lock_gate		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.
waterway	turning_point		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	weir		A barrier built across a river, sometimes to divert water for industrial purposes. Water can still flow over the top.
waterway	user defined		All commonly used values according to Taginfo

This table is a wiki template with a default description in English. Editable here.