Tag:water=stream

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Public-images-osm logo.svg water = stream
Stream in gasadalur.jpg
Description
The water covered area of a stream: a naturally-formed watercourse which is narrower than a river Show/edit corresponding data item.
Group: water
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)
Requires
Useful combination
Status: de facto

The water covered area of a stream, used with natural=water. Should contain a waterway=stream way inside.

This tag is not very common, because a waterway=stream is defined as a naturally-formed waterway which is narrow enough that an active, able-bodied adult can jump across it. Usually, the precise area of a stream is too narrow to be mapped unless there is very high resolution aerial imagery available.

Also see the more common tag water=river which is used to map the area of a river: a natural watercourse which is too wide to be jumped across.

How to map

Draw the outline area of the stream and add natural=water + water=stream.

For long streams, the area should be split into several segments of manageable size.

In addition, a way way tagged as waterway=stream, must be drawn in the direction of the river flow. All tags of the stream (like name=* and other supplemental tags) should go to this centre line.

Tags used in combination

  • intermittent=yes - when the water surface of a stream is only temporarily filled with water. This may or may not apply to the waterway.

See also

  • water=river - The water-covered area of a river
  • waterway=stream - used to map the stream as a line, following the main flow of the watercourse. Required.