Data quality of the river network in Switzerland

Water is essential to life for us, and our ecosystems and water bodies can be sensitive to drought. Our landscape is criss-crossed by rivers that form river systems and water networks.

WaterWayMaps.org by Amanda McCann is an interactive map with a data set that shows the connections between rivers and waterways based on the unique OpenStreetMap data. It offers a topological view that shows how watercourses are connected. It can display the lengths of the waterways on the one hand, and on the other hand, it can group the waterways according to their confluence. This provides a better understanding of catchment areas and watersheds. WaterWayMaps.org, like OpenStreetMap, is open source.

WaterwayMap.org serves several purposes:

• It helps cartographers to find and correct errors in the OpenStreetMap data.
• It provides researchers and water managers with a useful tool for analysing river systems.
• It serves as a visualisation for anyone interested in geography and hydrology.

A research project by Prof. Stefan Keller, who uses it to study Switzerland's water network (2025).