Tag:natural=shoal

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Public-images-osm logo.svg natural = shoal
SandbarLongIsland1.jpg
Description
An area of the water floor which nears the water surface and is exposed at low tide or when a river/lake is not full of water. Show/edit corresponding data item.
Rendering in OSM Carto
Rendering-area-natural-beach.png
Group: natural
Used on these elements
should not be used on nodesshould not be used on waysmay be used on areas (and multipolygon relations)should not be used on relations (except multipolygon relations)
Useful combination
See also
Status: de factoPage for proposal

The natural=shoal tag is used to mark an area of the water floor which nears the water surface (literally, becomes shallow) and is exposed from time to time (at low tide or when a river/lake is almost empty in summer but higher at spring for example). This tag is used for distinct raised features like sand or other unconsolidated material (shingle, gravel, pebble stones...) but not for tidal flats (i.e. muddy flats) or rocks.

How to map

ElementArea.png

To map a shoal you can just draw a line closing on itself, marking the area area of the shoal and tag it natural=shoal. To map larger shoals you can use relation:multipolygon with the same tag.

If known you can add the following tags:

Mapping caveats

This tag is not recommended for:

  • features that are permanently below water - instead natural=reef is recommended.
  • features that are permanently above water - use place=island or place=islet and natural=coastline (the last tag is not needed for inland pieces of water).
  • beaches, including the part of a beach that is below water at high tide - see natural=beach
  • tidal flats, i.e. muddy areas exposed at low tide but water covered at high tide - use natural=wetland + wetland=tidalflat.

Rendering examples

Renderings in OSM Carto in areas without water.

In area with water, yellow/orange colour becomes blue colour which means that nothing is visible if the tag surface is missing.

See also