Key:water
 water
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| Description |
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Specification of a water body 
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| Group: Natural |
| Used on these elements |
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| Documented values: 11 |
| Requires |
| Useful combination |
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| Wikidata |
| Search Wikidata |
Status: approved
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| Tools for this tag |
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This tag is used to specify what type of water body is tagged with natural=water, and must be used only in conjunction with it (see obsolete uses).
Contents
Possible values
Natural features
| Tagging | Description | Sample photo |
|---|---|---|
| natural=water water=lake |
A lake: a body of relatively still fresh or salt water of considerable size, localized in a basin that is surrounded by land. Artificially created lakes are ponds or reservoirs. Intermittent lakes (which disappear seasonally) should be tagged with intermittent=yes; salt lakes — with salt=yes.
This value should be considered default for natural=water, when no water or other descriptive tags are specified. |
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| natural=water water=river |
The water area of a river. Should contain waterway=river way inside. | 
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| natural=water water=pond |
A pond: a body of standing water, man-made in most cases, that is usually smaller than a lake. Salt evaporation ponds should be tagged with landuse=salt_pond, open-air swimming pools — with leisure=swimming_pool. | 
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| natural=water water=oxbow |
An oxbow lake: U-shaped body of water formed when a wide meander from the main stem of a river is cut off to create a lake. |
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| natural=water water=lagoon |
A lagoon: a body of shallow sea water or brackish water separated from the sea by some form of barrier. It's better to specify saltness of water with salt=yes/no. | 
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| natural=water water=stream_pool |
A stream pool; a small and usually deep collection of fresh water, supplied by a spring, or occurring along a stream or river. Water velocity in the pool is typically much lower than the watercourse. Frequently found below a waterfall. Closely related to "swimming hole". | 
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Artificial features
| Tagging | Description | Sample photo |
|---|---|---|
| natural=water water=basin |
An area of land artificially graded to hold water. For more details you can use basin=*. Also see the much more common tag landuse=basin water=basin
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| natural=water water=reservoir |
A reservoir or an artificial lake is used to store water. Also see landuse=reservoir | 
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| natural=water water=canal |
A body of a canal, a man-made channel for water. Should contain waterway=canal way inside. | 
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| natural=water water=lock |
A lock chamber outline: a part of river, canal or lake system, level of which can be manipulated. The mapping of a lock and its parts is described on wiki-site lock=*. | 
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| natural=water water=fish_pass |
The body of a fish pass for the fish to pass waterway dams or weirs. Should contain waterway=fish_pass way inside. water=fish_pass
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| natural=water water=reflecting_pool |
A reflecting pool: a water feature found in gardens, parks, and at memorial sites. It usually consists of a shallow pool of water, undisturbed by fountain jets, for a calm reflective surface. water=reflecting_pool
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| natural=water water=moat |
A deep, wide defensive ditch, normally filled with water, surrounding a fortified habitation. water=moat
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| natural=water water=wastewater |
A clarifier/settling basin of a wastewater treatment plant. The whole land area of the plant should be mapped with man_made=wastewater_plant. |
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Example
For Lake Superior area tags would be as follows:
natural=water water=lake name=Lake Superior
Rivers and reservoirs
This tag implies that all water bodies are tagged uniformly, with natural=water and water=*. There were several cases when this pattern was broken: river bodies, reservoirs and, occasionaly, ponds. Now all those features can be tagged with natural=water, but the original tags may be preserved for legacy renderers (although there's not many cases when their processing is different from natural=water).
So, those are equivalent, while natural=water scheme is preferred:
- waterway=riverbank is the same as natural=water + water=river
- landuse=basin is the same as natural=water + water=basin
- landuse=reservoir is the same as natural=water + water=reservoir
- landuse=pond is the same as natural=water + water=pond
Obsolete uses
- water=intermittent: consider using intermittent=yes instead
- water=tidal: consider using tidal=yes instead
- water=cove and water=bay: the established tagging for bays, coves and inlets is natural=bay
See also
- natural=mud
- natural=water
- man_made=reservoir_covered
- landuse=salt_pond
- Proposed features/Water details
- Proposed features/Water cover
Possible Tagging Mistakes
Automated edits are strongly discouraged unless you really know what you are doing!
Attention: relations with type=lake are also used to map lake depth lines, so the relation is completely unrelated to multipolygons
Automated edits are strongly discouraged unless you really know what you are doing!
water=salt should possibly be salt=* and/or landuse=salt_pond
Automated edits are strongly discouraged unless you really know what you are doing!
water=fishpond should possibly be water=pond and/or landuse=aquaculture and/or leisure=fishing
Automated edits are strongly discouraged unless you really know what you are doing!
water=riverbank is a mistake for natural=water + water=river, or sometimes for waterway=riverbank.
