OS Open Rivers

A free dataset showing the high-level view of watercourses in Great Britain. OS Open Rivers GIS data contains over 144,000 km of water bodies and watercourses map data. These include freshwater rivers, tidal estuaries and canals.

  • Networks
  • Download
  • OS OpenData Plan (FREE)
  • Premium Plan
  • Public Sector Plan

This product is updated every six months

Get this ProductView Technical InformationFree to use for everyone
© Crown copyright and database rights. Ordnance Survey 2025
Get this ProductView Technical InformationFree to use for everyone

What OS Open Rivers provides you with

Solve challenges

Model simple what-if scenarios. OS Open Rivers lets you answer questions like ‘which rivers would be affected by a toxic discharge from this site?’

Water quality data

For sharing water quality data, this is ideal. OS Open Rivers lets you tag information with the river IDs used by environment agencies so everybody can use it.

Comprehensive map data

OS Open Rivers GIS data contains over 144,000 km of water bodies and watercourses map data. These include freshwater rivers, tidal estuaries and canals.

OS Open Rivers

Technical information

© Crown copyright and database rights. Ordnance Survey 2025

Specifications

Access
  • Download
Data theme
  • Water
Data structure
Vector
Coverage
Great Britain
Scale
1:15 000 to 1:30 000
Format
  • ESRI Shapefile
  • GeoPackage
  • GML
  • Vector Tiles
Ordering area
  • All of Great Britain
Publication months
  • April
  • October
OS Data Hub plan
  • OS OpenData Plan (FREE)
  • Premium Plan
  • Public Sector Plan

Documents and Support

Technical documentation

  • OS Open Rivers technical documentation
    Visit docs.os.uk to access all technical documentation for this product, including getting started guide, technical specification, release notes, and other supporting documents.
    link

OS Open Rivers

Get this product

What you get

Key features
  • Solve challenges
  • Water quality data
  • Comprehensive map data
Category
Networks
Access
  • Download
Data structure
Vector
Update frequency
Every six months
View technical information

How to access

OS OpenData is free

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Take the next step by signing up to the OS Data Hub and create your first project today.

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Go to the OS DataHub

Get help

Further support

For further help about how our data can transform your organisation, contact us today

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