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  1. Vector Tile API Dev Guide
  2. HERE Vector Tile API concepts
  3. Tile layers - HERE Vector Tile API

Water layer

The water layer in the HERE Vector Tile API includes information about various water features such as rivers, lakes, oceans, and other bodies of water. The features of the water layer provide data on the classification and attributes of these features, allowing you to visualize them on a map.

The following figure illustrates sample features of the water layer rendered from the data:

View of the Mexico Gulf

The layer content has the following definition:

  • Layer name: water
  • Geometry types: point, line, polygon

The water layer comprises polygon geometries that depict oceans, riverbanks, and lakes. Additionally, it incorporates line geometries representing the centerlines of rivers and streams, as well as point geometries indicating the optimal positions for labeling polygons, ensuring duplication is avoided across tile boundaries.

Shared properties

Every feature in the water layer includes a set of properties that define it, regardless of the specific type of place it represents.

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Note

These properties are referred to as common properties in the Tilezen schema. For more information, see Tile layers.

The following properties are used to define a water feature.

  • name - The name of the water body. The name might be provided in multiple languages, depending on the available data.
  • id - A unique identifier for the water feature.
  • kind - The general type of water feature. For more information, see Kind definitions and sort ranks. For disputed water feature labels, see kind:xx.
  • sort_rank - A value used to prioritize the display order of different types of water features on the map. A water feature with a higher sort_rank value is displayed on top of a water feature with a lower sort_rank value.
  • min_zoom - The minimum recommended zoom level at which the water feature should be displayed.

Conditional properties

Some water features include properties that are specific only to their corresponding kind.

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Note

These properties are referred to as common-optional properties in the Tilezen schema. For more information, see Tile layers.

  • intermittent: true - This property marks features that sometimes run dry or disappear seasonally. Available only for kind stream.
  • display_class - This property indicates the importance of the corresponding water feature. The value is an integer from 1 (more important) to 8 (less important). Available for line and point geometries.
  • depth - The distance from sea level to the ocean floor. Available for the bathymetry kind only.
  • is_label: true - This property marks linear features which are generated from polygonal geometries. This property is available only for the line geometry.
  • kind:xx - Available for point geometries. An alternative to kind that reflects the geopolitical perspective of a country. The full list of available geopolitical views can be retrieved from the service.

To display map features according to a specific political perspective xx, a renderer must utilize kind:xx if available; otherwise, default to kind. For example:

International view:

kind: bay
kind:us=unrecognized_bay

USA view:

kind:us=bay

The following figure shows sample water features rendered on a map together with the associated metadata:

Water examples

Kind definitions and sort ranks

The kind parameter in the water layer describes the specific classification or category of a water feature. For example, the kind parameter might indicate whether a feature is a river, lake, ocean, canal, bay, swimming pool, and so on. The kind property helps to categorize and differentiate different types of water bodies or water-related elements on a map.

  • water (sort_rank: 200) - polygon
  • fjord (sort_rank: 200) - point
  • sea (sort_rank: 200) - point
  • strait (sort_rank: 200) - point
  • river (sort_rank: 201) - line or point
  • stream (sort_rank: 201) - line
  • canal (sort_rank: 201) - line
  • lake (sort_rank: 204) -line
  • bay (sort_rank: 205) - point
  • ocean (sort_rank: 205) - point
  • bathymetry (sort_rank: 206) - polygon
  • swimming_pool (sort_rank: 415) - polygon

Water kind:xx Values

  • fjord
  • sea
  • strait
  • river
  • bay
  • ocean
  • unrecognized_fjord
  • unrecognized_sea
  • unrecognized_strait
  • unrecognized_river
  • unrecognized_bay
  • unrecognized_ocean
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Note

All polygons correspond to water while points and lines are used for labeling.

Next steps

  • For more information about other layer feature types available in the HERE Vector Tile API, see Tile Layers.

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