Hydrological, data for a better understanding of water

Rivers

OpenStreetMap Waterways

Rivers, streams and canals mapped by OpenStreetMap contributors
The most detailed open river lines, updated continuously

Rivers (Natural Earth) over Blue Marble (NASA GIBS)

Source: OpenStreetMap
Resolution: Lines (mapped at local detail)
Time span: Continuously updated
Access type: API (external)
Formats: JSON (Overpass), Shapefile and PBF (Geofabrik extracts)
Coverage: Global (completeness varies by country)
Provider: download.geofabrik.de/

Open source Download manifest

# Overpass wants a user agent that identifies you; keep the box small
curl -A "your-project (you@example.org)" -G "https://overpass-api.de/api/interpreter" \
  --data-urlencode 'data=[out:json][timeout:90];way["waterway"~"^(river|stream|canal)$"](-20,-75,5,-50);out geom;' \
  -o waterways.json

import requests

query = """[out:json][timeout:90];
way["waterway"~"^(river|stream|canal)$"](-20,-75,5,-50);
out geom;"""
r = requests.post("https://overpass-api.de/api/interpreter", data={"data": query},
                  headers={"User-Agent": "your-project (you@example.org)"})
ways = r.json()["elements"]
lines = [[(p["lon"], p["lat"]) for p in w["geometry"]] for w in ways]
print(len(lines), "waterways")

const query = `[out:json][timeout:90];
way["waterway"~"^(river|stream|canal)$"](-20,-75,5,-50);
out geom;`;
const res = await fetch("https://overpass-api.de/api/interpreter", {
  method: "POST",
  body: new URLSearchParams({ data: query }),
});
const { elements } = await res.json();
console.log(elements.length, "waterways");

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