Wikidata:WikiProject Rivers

This is the project that will try to maintain and improve river items in Wikidata.

The project started with lists taken from English Wikipedia, en:List of rivers of Europe and similar articles.

Work

• Don't have country: 4417 (river (Q4022)), 59 (stream (Q47521)), 382 (watercourse (Q355304))
• Don't have mouth: Belarus (627), Canada (2936), Russia (32 596), Ukraine (202), USA (39 816), China (1473)

River Properties

In Wikidata there are several properties to describe rivers and other waterways.

Title	ID	Data type	Description	Examples	Inverse
mouth of the watercourse	P403	Item	river mouth: the body of water to which the watercourse drains	Vltava <mouth of the watercourse> Elbe	-
origin of the watercourse	P885	Item	river source: main source of a river, stream or lake	Inn <origin of the watercourse> Lunghinsee	-
watershed area	P2053	Quantity	drainage basin: size of a stream's watershed (drainage basin)	Po <watershed area> 71,000 square kilometre	-
basin country	P205	Item	country that have drainage to/from or border the body of water	Vltava <basin country> Czech Republic	-
tributary	P974	Item	tributary: watercourse that flows into an other one (for lake inflows use P200)	Mississippi River <tributary> Missouri River	-
inflows	P200	Item	inflow: major inflow sources — rivers, aquifers, glacial runoff, etc. Some terms may not be place names, e.g. none	Lake Baikal <inflows> Upper Angara	-
outflows	P201	Item	channel runoff: rivers and other outflows waterway names. If evaporation or seepage are notable outflows, they may be included. Some terms may not be place names, e.g. evaporation	Lake Ontario <outflows> St. Lawrence River	origin of the watercourse
lake on watercourse	P469	Item	lake: lake or reservoir through which the river or stream flows	Missouri River <lake on watercourse> Lake Sharpe	-
category for the water basin	P1200	Item	the Wikimedia category associated with the basin of a bodies of water	Danube <category for the water basin> Category:Danube basin	-
instance of	P31	Item	instance of: that class of which this subject is a particular example and member; different from P279 (subclass of); for example: K2 is an instance of mountain; volcano is a subclass of mountain (and an instance of volcanic landform)	Volga <instance of> river	-
instance of	P31	Item	instance of: that class of which this subject is a particular example and member; different from P279 (subclass of); for example: K2 is an instance of mountain; volcano is a subclass of mountain (and an instance of volcanic landform)	Panama Canal <instance of> canal	-
instance of	P31	Item	instance of: that class of which this subject is a particular example and member; different from P279 (subclass of); for example: K2 is an instance of mountain; volcano is a subclass of mountain (and an instance of volcanic landform)	Molenbeek <instance of> stream	-
instance of	P31	Item	instance of: that class of which this subject is a particular example and member; different from P279 (subclass of); for example: K2 is an instance of mountain; volcano is a subclass of mountain (and an instance of volcanic landform)	Rhine <instance of> main stream	-
distance from river mouth	P2148	Quantity	river mile and river mouth: qualifier for P974 statements on streams	→ Property talk:P2148	-
discharge	P2225	Quantity	discharge: volume rate of water flow which is transported through a given cross-sectional area	Ab-donbal qanat <discharge> 0.16 cubic metre per second	-

The item is likely to have at least one of the following identifiers.

Title	ID	Data type	Description	Examples	Inverse
Gewässerkennzahl	P1183	String	waterbody number: a number to hydrographically order rivers and streams, use more specific properties where possible	Pfreimd <Gewässerkennzahl> CZ/4-01-02-001	-
GeoNames ID	P1566	External identifier	GeoNames: identifier in the GeoNames geographical database	Piton de la Fournaise <GeoNames ID> 935877	-
GNIS Feature ID	P590	External identifier	identifier for geographic objects in the United States issued by the USGS. For Antarctica, use Property:P804	Lebanon <GNIS Feature ID> 867976	-
Sandre river ID	P1717	External identifier	identifier of the French national Water Information System	Rivière du Mât <Sandre river ID> 402-0100	-
State Water Register Code (Russia)	P884	External identifier	identifier of a body of water in Russia	Voyevolikhan <State Water Register Code (Russia)> 17040200112117600008474	-
Lake ID (Sweden)	P761	External identifier	Identification code for lakes in Sweden, for lakes important enough also used, with SE- prefix, as EU_CD	Orlången <Lake ID (Sweden)> 656833-162888	-
EU Surface Water Body Code	P2856	External identifier	unique EU identifier for a surface water body	Orlången <EU Surface Water Body Code> SE656833-162888	-
LAWA waterbody ID	P3866	External identifier	identifier for bodies of water in Germany according to the Bund/Länder-Arbeitsgemeinschaft Wasser (LAWA)	Rhine <LAWA waterbody ID> 2	-

How to use

• Add one of the properties P31 (river, canal, stream) to the watercourse.
• Add the mouth of watercourse to the watercourse. This might be the next larger river, an estuary or a sea.
• The coordinate of the watercourse is usually placed at its mouth, where it discharges to the next river or sea.
  • coordinate location (P625) qualifier applies to part, aspect, or form (P518): river mouth (Q1233637), river source (Q7376362)

Notes

• OpenStreetMap relation ID (P402) can be used to link a watercourse or body of water to its corresponding relation in OSM but there are no properties for nodes or ways (previous proposals were rejected because OSM IDs are not stable enough). If you want to link OSM and Wikidata, it's a good idea to add Wikidata tags to the objects in OpenStreetMap.

Watercourses, waterbodies and systems

Waterways can flow into other waterways like rivers, canals and stream or into waterbodies.

Here is a list of different watercourses: main stream (Q573344), river (Q4022), stream (Q47521), tidal creek (Q27250), canal (Q12284), gracht (Q523166), watercourse (Q355304),

Here is a list of geographical objects (mostly waterbodies) where a watercourse might flow into (mouth of the watercourse (P403) possible values) : ocean (Q9430), sea (Q165), mediterranean sea (Q986177), adjacent sea (Q1973404), marginal sea (Q204894), strait (Q37901), gulf (Q1322134), bay (Q39594), bayou (Q812585), harbor (Q283202), inlet (Q1172599), sound (Q491713), cove (Q31615), firth (Q558116), fjord (Q45776), fjard (Q319714), estuary (Q47053), wetland (Q170321), group of lakes (Q5926864), lake (Q23397), glacial lake (Q211302), salt lake (Q188025), salt pan (Q935277), rift lake (Q6341928), volcanic crater lake (Q204324), endorheic lake (Q12779976), pluvial lake (Q7205721), Rift Valley lakes (Q2915867), meromictic lake (Q1165822), monomictic lake (Q4862338), reservoir (Q131681), ribbon lake (Q2623499), artificial pond (Q3253281), lagoon (Q187223), estuarine lagoon (Q3705882)

Watercourses are part of watersystems: drainage basin (Q166620), drainage system (Q285451)

River Lists

Lists of Rivers / Watercourses

• /Europe
• /Asia
• /Russia
• /North America

Tools

Wikidata contraint violation checks in for rivers:

• Possible errors of mouth of watercourse: Wikidata:Database_reports/Constraint_violations/P403
• Possible errors of river references: Wikidata:Database reports/Constraint violations/P1183
• Possible errors of lake and river combinations: Wikidata:Database reports/Constraint violations/P469

Mix'n'match: GNIS Streams entity resolution

General Wikidata tools are here

Check queries

Ideally these queries should be empty at all times.

#Rivers without any coordinates
SELECT * WHERE {
  ?river wdt:P31/wdt:P279* wd:Q355304 .
  MINUS { ?river p:P625 [] }
}

Try it!

#Rivers where the source and mouth are more than 3500 km apart
SELECT * WHERE {
  ?river wdt:P31/wdt:P279* wd:Q355304 .
  ?river p:P625 [ ps:P625 ?coord1 ; pq:P518 wd:Q7376362 ] .
  ?river p:P625 [ ps:P625 ?coord2 ; pq:P518 wd:Q1233637 ] .
  BIND(geof:distance(?coord1, ?coord2) AS ?dist).
  FILTER(?dist > 3500 ).
}

Try it!

#Rivers where the source and mouth are more less 100 m apart
SELECT * WHERE {
  ?river wdt:P31/wdt:P279* wd:Q355304 .
  ?river p:P625 [ ps:P625 ?coord1 ; pq:P518 wd:Q7376362 ] .
  ?river p:P625 [ ps:P625 ?coord2 ; pq:P518 wd:Q1233637 ] .
  BIND(geof:distance(?coord1, ?coord2) AS ?dist).
  FILTER(?dist < 0.1 ).
}

Try it!

SELECT ?item ?itemLabel ?pic ?count ?coor ?dist (ROUND(?dist/10) as ?layer)
WITH
{
  SELECT ?item (COUNT(DISTINCT ?down) as ?count)
  {  ?item wdt:P177 wd:Q19686 ; wdt:P2674* ?down } 
  GROUP BY ?item
  ORDER BY DESC(?count) ?item
} as %ct
WHERE 
{
  INCLUDE %ct
  ?item wdt:P177 wd:Q19686 .
  OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P18 ?pic }
  wd:Q19686 p:P625 [ ps:P625 ?coor_orig ; pq:P518 wd:Q7376362 ] .
  OPTIONAL { ?item wdt:P625 ?coor }
  FILTER ( ?item != wd:Q1868889 )
  BIND(ROUND(geof:distance(?coor_orig, ?coor)) as ?dist)
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "[AUTO_LANGUAGE],en". }
}
ORDER BY DESC(?count) DESC(?dist) ?item

Try it!

• See also: list of bridges

Usage of River Data

Created by SPARQL query service.

See also

• Wikidata:Infoboxes task force/places
• Wikidata:List_of_properties/Geographical_feature#River
• Wikipedia River Project
• OpenStreetmap Waterways Project
• Wikidata:WikiProject Taiwan/Water