Uganda Waterways from OpenStreetMap for Flood Modeling

OpenStreetMap provides water features across Uganda, including rivers, streams, canals, lakes, and ponds. The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) exports this data, which is useful for flood-risk modelling and watershed analysis. Completeness varies by region, with urban areas usually well-mapped and remote areas potentially incomplete.

Use Cases

• Model flood-risk based on the mapped network of rivers and streams.
• Conduct watershed analysis using the dataset's lakes, ponds, and water bodies.
• Create environmental basemap context for planning using the comprehensive water feature data.

Strengths

• Data is available in multiple geospatial formats including GEOPACKAGE, KML, SHP, and GEOJSON.
• The dataset is derived from OpenStreetMap, a free, collaborative world map built by volunteers.
• It includes features tagged with `waterway`, `water`, or `natural=water`.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Completeness varies by region; remote areas may be incomplete and require cross-checking with local field knowledge.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

OpenStreetMap

Collection Method

Volunteer-contributed mapping and exported by the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-15 09:24:55.661725

Geography

Uganda