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Waterway Map

waterwaymap.org

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Re: Waterway Map

#111

Post by rmc »

mxfh wrote: post #15

Seems great for debugging waterway topologies. Some things I noticed after a few minutes: - A lot of smaller rivers system and tributaries seem not to be connected all the way through as seeing smaller disconnected systems with shorter total lengths. - small rivers that and at the shore geometry of larger rivers but are not connected to the main centerline - some streams are disconnected by other waterbodies where th…

(I made WaterwayMap.org) Yeah, it's been very useful to make OSM data better.

> some streams are disconnected by other waterbodies where they should not be, as there seems to be little consensus on how to connect waterways through lakes and other waterbodies

Yeah, the OSM community is still discussing this: https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/should-river-lines-be-...

Re: Waterway Map

#112

Post by rmc »

maxglute wrote: post #64

Is there a legend somewhere? Or a way to delineate something like a small culvert versus large canal.

(I made WaterwayMap.org) There isn't a legend, because all waterways are treated the same.

Re: Waterway Map

#113

Post by rmc »

s3krit wrote: post #44
yawpitch wrote: post #6

Kinda neat to turn on the Navigable By Boat filter and zoom in on England to find where I live, and all the 2500 miles of actually connected and navigable English (and Welsh) canals and rivers I’ve been on over the last seven years. Or course there’s also a whole lot of “waterways” that sure as hell aren’t navigable by any boat that can support a human, but might have been at some point.

I went straight into these comments hoping to find another HN (potentially narrow) boater! What's interesting and somewhat amusing is that this map has determined that the section of the Soar that joins with the Trent just north of Loughborough is apparently unnavigable. This time of year I'd generally agree.

(I made WaterwayMap.org)

> What's interesting and somewhat amusing is that this map has determined that the section of the Soar that joins with the Trent just north of Loughborough is apparently unnavigable

The boat views only use the OpenStreetMap `boat` tag. If a section of river is missing from WWM.org, then it's likely the tag is missing from the OSM waterway. You can fix that!

Re: Waterway Map

#114

Post by rmc »

yawpitch wrote: post #93
s3krit wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went straight into these comments hoping to find another HN (potentially narrow) boater! What's interesting and somewhat amusing is that this map has determined that the section of the Soar that joins with the Trent just north of Loughborough is apparently unnavigable. This time of year I'd generally agree.

It’s got a lot of details wrong… it took us five real years (plus one fake pandemic one) to visit every nook and cranny, and they’ve implied things are navigable that sure as heck aren’t — just try and get on the Dee from Chester without a crane except in a lethally high flood, the lock was disassembled years ago — and unnavigable that definitely are (it’s got the Manchester Ship Canal on there, but not the Mersey we…

(I made WaterwayMap.org) The data is 100% OSM. You edit it to fix it yourself.

Re: Waterway Map

#115

Post by shafyy »

yawpitch wrote: post #90
shafyy wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is incredible! How easy is it to buy and register a Narrowboat? How does it work legally, can you register your home address to the boat?

If you’ve got the money for one it’s easy to buy (see a site called ApolloDuck for used prices) and register, though the specifics of registration depend on which waterways you want to be on (the Canal and River Trust covers the majority, the Environment Agency some key sections, and there’s some odd few others managed by their own agencies). It’s perfectly legal, but as Covid really proved access to services can be…

I see, thanks. And I'm also assuming I would need to get some special license to sail a Narrowboat? As a non-UK citizen (EU/Swiss), do you think it could be complicated to get a Narrowboat and live on it for half a year or so?

Re: Waterway Map

#116

Post by rmc »

Jemm wrote: post #94

When choosing 'Navigable by boat', the massive Trent-Severn system in Southern Ontario disappears.

(I made WaterwayMap.org) The data is 100% OpenStreetMap, and updated daily. Something missing on WWM.org means something missing on OSM. You can fix that yourself!

Re: Waterway Map

#117

Post by Doctor_Fegg »

s3krit wrote: post #101
jillesvangurp wrote: post #95

Looks nice but it's probably not really usable for navigation. I checked the Netherlands and Germany. You'd need more details for safely navigating on the water. But it definitely has potential. There are also some other specialized open street map based maps for - rails: https://www.openrailwaymap.org/ - cycling: https://www.opencyclemap.org/ - sea map (competes with this I guess, and is a bit more detailed for navi…

For the canals in the UK there's https://opencanalmap.uk/

FWIW it's not really "open" in any sense. The code isn't public let alone open, and the source data doesn't conform to the Open Definition: the data is from the Canal & River Trust who have exasperatingly placed a non-commercial restriction on it. (I can guarantee that CRT spent more in lawyer hours writing a custom licence than they've received income from licensing the data commercially.)

Re: Waterway Map

#118

Post by s3krit »

mock-possum wrote: post #57
s3krit wrote: post #48

I've been waiting for the day that HN would have something tangentially related to the English and Welsh canal system so I could gush about it. For those that don't know, we have around 2500 miles of (mostly) navigable canals around the UK. They were built during the industrial revolution prior to the invention of trains such that we could transport coal and other goods relatively quickly and without damage (consider…

If you were to give take a broad guess at the cost of moving around like that, in terms of maintaining supplies and securing a place to stay when you’re not in the mood to move with the current, what would that come out to, say monthly?

You'll often see articles in the newspapers here gushing romantically about how a couple moved onto the canal in order to save money, and it's all so very nice and wonderful. The reality is once you've factored in a mooring, maintenance and other things, it tends to be comparable to living on land. A lot of people can't continuously cruise as we do, due to jobs and other responsibilities.

A few grand a year for a mooring, plus around £1k/year for your license (all boats on the Canal and River Trust's waterways must be licensed). Every few years you need your boat lifting out and the blacking on the bottom re-done (more £££), and in winter you get through a fair amount of coal and other fuel to keep the boat heated (I think we're at about £100/mo for diesel + coal, but some people burn a lot more coal than us).

You really have to want to do it for the experience of living on the canals rather than a way to live cheaply (though it can be done).

Re: Waterway Map

#119

Post by Doctor_Fegg »

yawpitch wrote: post #93
s3krit wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went straight into these comments hoping to find another HN (potentially narrow) boater! What's interesting and somewhat amusing is that this map has determined that the section of the Soar that joins with the Trent just north of Loughborough is apparently unnavigable. This time of year I'd generally agree.

It’s got a lot of details wrong… it took us five real years (plus one fake pandemic one) to visit every nook and cranny, and they’ve implied things are navigable that sure as heck aren’t — just try and get on the Dee from Chester without a crane except in a lethally high flood, the lock was disassembled years ago — and unnavigable that definitely are (it’s got the Manchester Ship Canal on there, but not the Mersey we…

There's a difference between legally navigable and practically navigable. The Dee has a public right of navigation and therefore is tagged as boat=yes in OpenStreetMap. That's not to make any judgement as to whether or not you can get your boat through the Chester weirgate!

The Mersey ought to be tagged with boat=yes, though. I'm now wondering about Walton Lock which I think still has a right of navigation though is very definitely impassable...

Re: Waterway Map

#120

Post by s3krit »

Symbiote wrote: post #79
heads wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s always baffled me how the regard that the average Englishman holds for itinerant folk is wrapped in a big if statement: if (boat) … # All good else: raise TravellerAlert()

None of us have ever seen a marina or mooring place covered in litter and human waste, or been subjected to petty crime by the boaters.

I have, however, seen the Canal and River Trust's assets stolen from their working boats (steel fencing, tools, the door or something off an excavator if I heard the guy correctly). Not by boaters, but by the nearby travellers.
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