Key:waterway

The waterway key is used to describe water flows like rivers, streams or boat-yards or elements which interact with water such as dams, weirs, etc.

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		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.
waterway	riverbank		Use of these tags is discouraged. See water=river + natural=water instead.
waterway	stream		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.
waterway	tidal_channel		A natural tidal waterway within the coastal marine environment with bi-directional flow of salty water which depends on the tides.
Man made waterways
waterway	canal		An artificial open flow waterway used to carry useful water for transportation, waterpower, or irrigation. (Other languages).
waterway	pressurised		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.
waterway	drain		An artificial free flow waterway used for carrying superfluous water like storm water or industrial discharge, usually lined with concrete, stones or similar.
waterway	ditch		An small artificial free flow waterway used for carrying superfluous water for drainage purposes, usually unlined.
waterway	fairway		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.
waterway	fish_pass		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.
Facilities
waterway	dock		An 'enclosed' area of water which the height of the water can be managed.
waterway	boatyard		Boat yard – a place for constructing, repairing and storing vessels out of the water.
Barriers on 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.
waterway	weir		A barrier built across a river to control speed and depth. Water can still flow over the top.
waterway	waterfall		A waterfall, use in combination with natural=cliff
waterway	rapids		A natural barrier, formed by a fast-flowing, often turbulent, section of the watercourse.
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	sluice_gate		A sluice gate is a movable gate to control water flow.
Other features on waterways
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	water_point		A place to fill fresh water holding tanks of a boat.
waterway	fuel		A place to get fuel for boats.
Some additional attributes for waterways
intermittent	yes		Indicates that the waterway is sometimes dry and sometimes contains water.
seasonal	yes, spring, summer, autumn, winter, wet_season, dry_season		Indicates that a waterway has a seasonal (yearly cyclic) flow, usually flowing continuously for at least some part of the year.
destination	name		Name of the body of water the linear feature flows into.
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.
usage	See the key for details		Possible uses of the waterway. Use semicolons to separate.
tunnel	culvert	()	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.
tunnel	flooded		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=*.
bridge	aqueduct		A bridge which conveys an artificial waterway over a road, valley, or another waterway.
waterway	user defined		All commonly used values according to Taginfo

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.

man_made=waterway

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More details at taginfo

• man_made=waterway

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!

natural=waterway

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More details at taginfo

• natural=waterway

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!

waterway=yes

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		$1%
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More details at taginfo

• waterway=yes

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!

waterway=depth

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More details at taginfo

• waterway=depth

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!

waterway=culvert

		$1%
		$1%
		$1%
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More details at taginfo

• waterway=culvert

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