|waterway = canal|
|An artificial open flow waterway used to carry useful water for transportation, waterpower, or irrigation.|
|Used on these elements|
|Status: in use|
|Tools for this tag|
Use waterway=canal for man-made open flow (free flow vs pipe flow) waterways used to carry useful water for transportation, hydro-power generation or irrigation purposes. The tag can also be used for underground free flow (with tunnel=flooded), not just above ground.
For a natural watercourse use waterway=river or waterway=stream. For water carried in pipes use man_made=pipeline. For navigable route marked by buoys in large water bodies like a lake or a sea that are not canals or rivers use waterway=fairway.
How to Map
- See also: Waterways
Create a simple way in the direction of flow of the canal and tag it with waterway=canal. In order to allow routing, do ensure that the ends of the way connect correctly with and other related waterway features, including other canals, rivers, streams, lakes etc.
Sections with a lock should be tagged with lock=*, with nodes marked with waterway=lock_gate at each end. Usability for navigation by different vessels can be given using a variety of tags. Use boat=* to indicate that it can be used for a rowing-boat, motorboat=* for a motorboat. For more seriously commercial navigation use CEMT=* in Europe and ship=* elsewhere.
Engineering features can be shown using cutting=*, embankment=*, bridge=aqueduct and tunnel=* as appropriate. Consider adding width=* to indicate the width in metres, for example width=5, or alternatively use natural=water + water=canal to create an area for the canal in addition to the linear 'canal' feature along the centreline.
Different usage=* values can be used to distinguish between transportation, water power, or irrigation.
Canals are drawn as blue lines on the standard Mapnik rendering. They are rendered in dark green on the fluv.io map.
- waterways: generic information about waterways