Key:water

water
Description
Specification of a water body
Group: Natural
Used on these elements
Documented values: 19
Requires
natural=water
Useful combination
name=*
Status: approved
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).

Possible values

Tagging	Description	Statistics (Taginfo)	Sample photo
Natural features
natural=water water=lake	A lake: a body of relatively still fresh or salt water, localized in a basin that is surrounded by land. Artificially created lakes should instead be tagged as water=pond or water=reservoir. 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.
natural=water water=river	The water area of a river. Should contain waterway=river way inside.
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.
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.
natural=water water=stream	The water covered area of a stream: a naturally-formed watercourse which is narrower than a river
natural=water water=stream_pool	A stream pool; a small and usually deep collection of fresh water, occurring along a stream. Water velocity in the pool is typically much lower than in the stream. Frequently found below a waterfall. May be used as a "swimming hole".
natural=water water=rapids	A fast-flowing, often turbulent, section of a watercourse such as a river, often containing exposed rocks or boulders. This tag is only for mapping rapids area. Rapids still have to be mapped on river centerline, see waterway=rapids and for more rapids properties whitewater:rapid_grade=*.
Tagging	Description	Statistics (Taginfo)	Sample photo
Artificial features
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
natural=water water=reservoir	A reservoir or an artificial lake is used to store water. Usually formed by a dam over a natural water course, water then backs up into a natural valley or depression. Also see landuse=reservoir
natural=water water=canal	A body of a canal, a man-made channel for water. Should contain waterway=canal way inside.
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=*.
natural=water water=harbour	A harbour is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked.
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.
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.
natural=water water=moat	A deep, wide defensive ditch, normally filled with water, surrounding a fortified habitation.
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.
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.
natural=water water=ditch	Water covered area of a waterway=ditch - a linear waterbody serving as a barrier or for draining surrounding land. Should contain waterway=ditch way inside.

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

• water:type=*

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!

• water=salt ‒ should possibly be salt=* or landuse=salt_pond.

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!

• water=fishpond ‒ should possibly be water=pond and/or landuse=aquaculture and/or leisure=fishing.

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!

• water=riverbank ‒ is a mistake for water=river.

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!

• water=yes ‒ Replace with a more specific value.

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!

• water=natural ‒ is redundant and should be regarded as a mistake.

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!

• type=lake

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!

Attention: relations with type=lake are also used to map lake depth lines, so the relation is completely unrelated to multipolygons