[Tagging] Way inside riverbank

[Christoph Hormann]

On Thursday 23 April 2015, Malcolm Herring wrote:
> This idea of the linear river way being along the deepest part seems
> to have been created in this thread. No such 'rule' exists, either in
> practice, nor in Wiki tagging pages. 

<couch>

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:waterway%3Driverbank#Old_tagging

And note this is absolutely not an unreasonable suggestion.  There are 
many rivers with strongly varying water levels where you can during dry 
season well see where the deepest part of the riverbed is while the 
riverbank polygon mapped at the median level covers a larger area.  To 
some extent this even applies to central European rivers like the 
Rhine.  You can also often infer this from where the current is 
strongest.

Nobody should feel bad about not being able to accurately place the 
waterway at the right location in some cases but the aim to do this 
where possible is a sound one.

> 3. River deltas often have channels that cross between two branches
> of the same river. The direction of the way is arbitrary.

On the contrary - this is where direction really matters since in 
contrast to elsewhere you cannot determine it from the river system 
structure.  

-- 
Christoph Hormann
http://www.imagico.de/