Template talk:Infobox body of water

Bordering countries
This template currently has a slot for the countries making up the "basin" -- presumably the drainage basin -- of a body of water, but none for the bordering countries. There is a big difference in many cases -- consider the Black Sea, whose drainage basin includes Switzerland (via the Danube) and the Bay of Bengal, whose drainage basin includes Tibet (via the Brahmaputra). Could we include a "bordering countries" slot? --Macrakis (talk) 19:34, 8 August 2021 (UTC)

Topo maps
Does this template have a parameter that can be used for topographic maps? Infobox mountain has topo_maker and topo_map while Infobox river has custom_label and custom_data that can be used for such things. Volcanoguy 12:12, 16 September 2021 (UTC)

native name parameters
I have started a discussion at, you participation would be appreciated.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 22:28, 27 December 2021 (UTC)
 * As a result of the above referenced discussion, I have modified this template and fixed most of the attendant errors. Some errors I have not fixed.  Articles with native name errors are listed in .  This search returns a list of articles using  in.
 * —Trappist the monk (talk) 23:18, 9 January 2022 (UTC)

Dead internal anchor link
'Types' links to 'Body_of_water#Waterbody_types' which is a dead link. It should be changed to 'Body_of_water#Types' Ted BJ (talk) 03:33, 23 October 2022 (UTC)
 * ✅ — hike395 (talk) 12:00, 23 October 2022 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 11 April 2023
Please, would someone see if can get a standard map parameter, usually integrated along with pushpin map, for an alternative usage: map, map_size, map_caption, map_alt ౪ Santa ౪  99°  20:06, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the template. This template already has image_map and map_size and image_size and alt_map and caption_map, which are rendered in the infobox's image parameter; and and bunch of pushpin_xxx parameters that are rendered in the infobox's image2 parameter. As such, it is unclear what the requester is proposing.
 * Where is map described as a standard? Can you give a few examples of infobox templates that use this standard? – Jonesey95 (talk) 19:09, 12 April 2023 (UTC)
 * I did't say it's "described" as a "standard" nor did I implied that there is some specific policy which compels te creator(s) to integrate such or any other particular parameter for that matter, what I meant is when most templates carry parameter map and/or map_image, along the other similar parameters such as pushpin_map, or at least has mapframe or embedded, to serves as an alternative, then it usually considered a standard. Here's few of many examples with different combinations, all major infoboxes: Template:Infobox river, Template:Infobox islands, Template:Infobox cave, Template:Infobox settlement, Template:Infobox park, Template:Infobox spring,  ౪ Santa ౪  99°  03:17, 14 April 2023 (UTC)
 * And there is no image_map in this infobox. ౪ Santa ౪  99°  03:27, 14 April 2023 (UTC)
 * It's here:
 * As for standardizing map parameters in infoboxes, there was a failed attempt to start standardization at Maps in infoboxes in 2017. It's a hairy problem. – Jonesey95 (talk) 04:02, 14 April 2023 (UTC)
 * As for standardizing map parameters in infoboxes, there was a failed attempt to start standardization at Maps in infoboxes in 2017. It's a hairy problem. – Jonesey95 (talk) 04:02, 14 April 2023 (UTC)

Short description generated is never optimal
The short description “Body of water” is awful, practically useless, and makes WP look less encyclopedic to casual readers.

Can the template instead generate something like “type in location” from the parameters?

I’m not making a formal edit request just yet as I’m not sure if that’s the best alternative.

RadioactiveBoulevardier (talk) 05:34, 21 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Can you please give a few examples where "Body of water" is "awful" and "useless", failing to meet the purposes of a short description?
 * If you find an article for which "Body of water" is a bad short description (SD), it is trivial to override the SD that the infobox provides by adding a short description template at the top of the article with more appropriate content. – Jonesey95 (talk) 16:53, 21 April 2023 (UTC)
 * I am arguing that it is never very useful for readers, and undermines WP’s quality and encyclopedic nature.
 * Furthermore, if an article is missing a short description entirely, it is somewhat more likely to attract editor attention.
 * What I’m suggesting is that a more specific shortdesc could be automatically generated from the parameters already in the template, say “type” and “location” -> e.g. “Endorheic lake in Graustark Region, Ruritania”
 * RadioactiveBoulevardier (talk) 19:49, 23 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Two issues with your suggestion —-
 * type is only used on about 1/3 of the infoboxes
 * type is not always a noun phrase, and sometimes has extraneous wiki markup (see, e.g., Utah Lake)
 * — hike395 (talk) 00:11, 24 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Module:Type in location deals with most of those kinds of issues. --Trialpears (talk) 09:43, 24 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Trialpears! That is a very handy module. We could add it to this infobox. — hike395 (talk) 13:33, 24 April 2023 (UTC)
 * I can’t even figure out what to edit in the sandbox. Where is Template:Auto short description even transcluded?
 * Should I make an edit request even though I can’t figure out exact code to propose, per WP:IAR and WP:BOLD? RadioactiveBoulevardier (talk) 18:28, 26 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Take a look at Infobox hospital, Infobox shopping mall, Infobox museum, Infobox dam, and Infobox airport for examples. The full list is here. – Jonesey95 (talk) 18:51, 26 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Added call to Module:Type in location to the sandbox, ptal. — hike395 (talk) 19:49, 27 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Added call to Module:Type in location to the sandbox, ptal. — hike395 (talk) 19:49, 27 April 2023 (UTC)


 * Can we merge the change from sandbox? RadioactiveBoulevardier (talk) 21:50, 28 April 2023 (UTC)
 * ✅ —— see Category:Pages using infobox body of water with auto short description for the articles where this is working. — hike395 (talk) 01:37, 29 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Are you sure it’s working? I don’t see any difference. RadioactiveBoulevardier (talk) 00:13, 16 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Ameenpur Lake has the auto SD "Artificial lake in Hyderabad" that is generated from the infobox. – Jonesey95 (talk) 02:23, 16 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Every other example I found doesn’t though. RadioactiveBoulevardier (talk) 22:16, 18 May 2023 (UTC)
 * OK, I'll click on a couple more random ones. Anacoco Lake says "Reservoir in Louisiana, US". Backstairs Passage says "Strait in South Australia". When you are reporting a problem, always provide a link to a page where the problem is occurring. – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:05, 21 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Huh, it seems to be working perfectly now. I don’t remember which pages I had originally tried but it was five or six randomly chosen ones. RadioactiveBoulevardier (talk) 18:26, 16 June 2023 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 13 May 2023
Could this infobox please be edited to allow for embedded infoboxes and child templates? This would be especially useful for bodies of water which are also Protected areas (such as Ramsar Wetlands, national parks or marine reserves), which currently need to use Template:Infobox landform to embed Template:Infobox protected area instead. Turnagra (talk) 06:41, 13 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Pictogram voting wait.svg Already done Use module. See Firth of Tay for an example. – Jonesey95 (talk) 13:43, 13 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Oh, my bad! I was busy scouring it for an  parameter, but that makes sense - thank you! Turnagra (talk) 18:52, 13 May 2023 (UTC)

Should we add a new parameter of Date_Drained?
There is already a useful Date_Flooded parameter which shows when the body of water came into existence. However there is nothing to show when it ceased to exist.

I have been studying lakes for the last 3 years and have found many examples in wikipedia of 'Ancient' lakes, lakes which have dried out or are about to dry out (e.g. Aral Sea) or where the dam has broken. Sadly the instances of lakes drying out is increasing due to manmade interference with the water supply to the lake, and/or global warming increasing evaporation. There are also cases, especially with glacial lakes and landslide lakes, where the 'natural' dam has broken naturally or been broken by man in the name of safety to downstream places.

There are also many examples of Reservoirs where the manmade dam has broken. (e.g. Sanford Lake) While it could be argued that these should have used 'Infobox dam' instead of this Infobox, it is a fact that about 80% of the reservoir articles actually use this 'Infobox body of water', so the argument for adding this new parameter holds for them as well, just on saving the sheer amount of effort to changing thousands of article to use a different infobox.

If others agree with this suggestion, it would seem a very simple and safe parameter to add as it would not affect any existing article?MWchat (talk) 11:20, 15 October 2023 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 16 November 2023
I suggest that native_name be moved to the subheader. It makes little sense for it to be all the way in the body, completely separate from the name by the image and the location parameters. Đại Việt quốc (talk) 22:07, 16 November 2023 (UTC)
 * ✅. Note that other infoboxes I checked are inconsistent about this. If anyone else feels strongly that this should be reverted, feel free to ping me and I'll do so. * Pppery * it has begun... 02:28, 19 November 2023 (UTC)