Tag:water=stream

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 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 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.