What this layer answers
Beyond the big flood maps, the everyday cause of a wet house is a creek or estero quietly running nearby. This layer finds the nearest waterway to your property, names it where we can, and measures the distance in meters.
It is also a legal layer. The Water Code of the Philippines requires a setback (an "easement") along waterways where you are not allowed to build. We check your measured distance against that required setback and flag a property that sits inside it.
Why it matters in the Philippines
Informal building right up to the edge of creeks and esteros is one of the most common reasons Metro Manila neighborhoods flood and then cannot drain. Water has nowhere to go because the channel has been narrowed.
A lot that violates the Water Code easement is not just a flood risk; it is a permit and demolition risk. Knowing the setback distance before you buy can save you from purchasing a structure the government can order removed.
How CheckHazard reads it
We measure the nearest-edge distance from your point to the waterway network (125,987 mapped rivers, creeks, and esteros) and recover the waterway's name where OpenStreetMap has one.
We then classify the waterway type and compare your distance to the required easement: 3 m for a creek or estero, 20 m for a river, and 40 m along a coastline or shore.
How to read your result
Water Code easements (Art. 51)
- Creek / estero
3 m setback required
No-build strip along the channel.
- River
20 m setback required
Wider no-build strip for larger flows.
- Coastline / shore
40 m setback required
Widest easement, along the sea.
The data behind it
The waterway network comes from OpenStreetMap contributors, the same open dataset used by mapping apps worldwide.
Some smaller channels are unnamed in OSM; in those cases we still report the distance and the easement, just without a name.
Source & license
ODbL · OpenStreetMap contributors