Tag:waterway=river

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+/- waterway=river Description For narrow rivers which will be rendered as a line. Used on these elements Useful combination name=* width=* Implies access=no boat=yes Status Undefined Tools for this tag Combinations worldwide in Australia/Oceania in Europe (list) in Asia (list) in Central America (list) in South America (list) in Africa (list)  (via overpass turbo - help)

Waterway=river is used to tag a river. For larger rivers also have a look at waterway=riverbank. For really small rivers and streams, see waterway=stream.

How to map

To map a river make a simple way. Add the waterway=river tag to it. The direction of the way should be downstream (i.e., draw the way in the direction that the river flows).

You should also add a name with name= if it's known.

For wide rivers use Tag:waterway=riverbank to create separate ways for the two river banks. Note that a central way is still needed.

Extended tags

Physical features

width=* to indicate the width in meters. This is an approximate average width of the river throughout most of length of that bit of river. You can use width=5 or width=5 m to tag a river with a width of 5 meters.

depth=* to indicate the depth of the river. This is the maximum depth of the river, averaged over the length of that bit of river.

Non-physical features

A lot of rivers also have non-physical tags (e.g., access restrictions). These tags are almost the same as tags used on highway=*. Some tags include maxwidth=*, maxheight=*, maxlength=*. For access restrictions, see the access page.

Direction of flow

The OSM convention is that the way should be drawn in the direction the river flows. If you are drawing a way and you are unsure of the direction the water flows you could add a tag such as "fixme=direction unknown" to the way.

Topology

Just as with highways, it is important that the topology of rivers is correct. That means, if you can go from one part of the river to an other part of the river via the water, there has to be a piece of waterway=* between them.

This implies that a way tagged as waterway=river should not stop on the riverbank of another river, but should proceed to the central way of the other river.

See also

• waterway=riverbank for large rivers where you would like to draw river's banks
• waterway=canal for artificial open waterway used for transportation, waterpower, or irrigation
• natural=water for water surface such as lake
• Relation:waterway for drawing long rivers in a relation where you would need several ways connected

Proposed:

• WikiProject Rivers for thoughts about drawing every thing about rivers
• WikiProject Whitewater Maps proposes several additional tags