Template talk:Infobox body of water/Archive 2

Archive 1

Archive 2

Archive 3

Image alignment

Could somebody set <center>...</center> for the image (maybe within or after | image_lake = ), see Lake Balaton and Schliersee (lake)? It looks a bit ugly right now... --Scriberius (talk) 19:22, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

I added "center" at Template:Infobox lake/sandbox, but I'm not sure which difference it makes (please check Template:Infobox lake/testcases). -- User:Docu

If font size is increased in the browser or non-wrapping texts are lenghty, the nowrap addition (see previous section) increases the width of the infobox. This leads to the image being left aligned.

To solve it, I'd remove the nowrap and add center just in case. -- User:Docu

Additional Information to be added in the Template on Infobox lake

The following may be considered for addition, since most lakes are under severe stress of eutrophication due intense pollution and hence need restoration.

• 1. Year of Construction
• 2. Present status of the lake
• 3. Management Agency in charge of the lake
• 4. Is it a Ramsar site ?
• 5. Is it a WWF site?
• 6. Govt. agency funding restoration
• 7. International Agency(ies) involved with restoration

Bathymetric information is not very useful for the common reader of lake articles and could be deleted.

It may also be necessary to create a template on the Classification of lakes to be followed in different countries. I am creating one for the Lakes of India article. Can I post the Infobox for discusions here to arrive at a consensus?--Nvvchar (talk) 10:50, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

I agree with your proposed additions (and am ambivalent on the deletions; but if some readers find them useful, I feel they should stay). "Year of construction" should be "Year of completion", and added using {{Start date}}, for microformatty goodness. Perhaps your points 2,4, and 5 could be combined into some sort of "status" or "designation" field? (Perhaps a parallel with the conservation status in {{Taxobox}}?). Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 11:32, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Update: In the sandbox, I've added fields for "Completion date" (which might be more than a year, including a month or even a specific day-date, if there was a topping-out or similar ceremony), "Managing agency" & "Designation" (For Ramsar & WWF, which can be linked). Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 10:41, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

In general, it's a good idea to add more useful fields to the infobox, even if they are not used frequently or mainly for lakes of one country.

Most fields are optional, that is if they are not used, they are not displayed. Rather than removing fields from the template itself, I'd just not add them to articles where they are not needed.

To some extend (2) is handled by "type=". As types are not standardized, a specific field for eutrophic status is probably preferable. (4) and (5) might go into one field (with possibly Template:Infobox Protected area) providing more information). -- User:Docu

New fields: group of lakes, sections

In some cases, I'd have found the following fields helpful:

• group = (name of the group of lake is part of, e.g. Great Lakes, Finger Lakes. Currently "location=" is sometimes used for this. e.g. Lake Erie on Template:Infobox lake/testcases)
• sections = (names of sections of the lake, sub-basins, bays, etc., e.g. Lake Lucerne on Template:Infobox lake/testcases).

To test them, I added the fields to the Template:Infobox lake/sandbox. I'd like to add the following fields to the live template -- User:Docu

Area of Lake

Should the area of a lake include or exclude the surface area of any islands in the lake? Some pages at the Atlas of Canada give two figures for the area of lakes, one including and one excluding the area of any islands (referred to as the "total" and "net" area respectively). See Lakes. --papageno (talk) 18:58, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Ocean Field

Should the infobox have a ocean field where the lake drains into not just the country ? For instance lakes in Canada could go into the Atlantic . Pacific or Artic Oceans -- Cherry1000

Sounds good to me. Maybe we could add the name of the river that drains it into the ocean? Any suggestions for a field name? -- User:Docu