lake name text
Image alt text
Image caption text
Bathymetry alt text
Bathymetry caption text
অৱস্থান location text
স্থানাংক coordinates in {{coord}} template format
প্ৰকাৰ type of lake text
Primary inflows inflow river text
Primary outflows outflow river text
Catchment area catchment area text
Basin countries country text
Managing agency managing or owning organisation
Designation protection as a nature reserve, etc.
Built date built (for reservoirs; use {{Start date}})
First flooded date first flooded (for reservoirs; use {{Start date}})
Max. length length text
Max. width width text
Surface area area text
Average depth depth text
Max. depth max depth text
Water volume volume text
Residence time residence time of lake water
Shore length1 length of the shoreline
Surface elevation elevation text
Frozen frozen text
Islands islands text
Settlements settlement text
References reference text
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure.

This template can be used to add comparative, at-a-glance material to articles on lakes and similar water bodies. If there is a single article for the reservoir and the dam, please use instead of this template the integrated dam infobox template (template:Infobox dam).

{{Infobox lake
| lake_name          = {{SUBST:PAGENAME}}
| image_lake         = 
| alt_lake           = 
| caption_lake       = 
| image_bathymetry   = 
| alt_bathymetry     = 
| caption_bathymetry = 
| location           = 
| coords             = {{coord|89|59|59|N|179|59|59|W|region:ZZ_type:waterbody|display =inline,title}}
| type               = 
| inflow             = 
| outflow            = 
| catchment          = 
| basin_countries    = 
| date-built         = <!-- {{Start date|YYYY|MM|DD}} For man-made and other recent lakes -->
| date-flooded       = <!-- {{Start date|YYYY|MM|DD}} For man-made and other recent lakes -->
| agency             =
| length             = 
| width              = 
| area               = 
| depth              = 
| max-depth          = 
| volume             = 
| residence_time     = 
| shore              = 
| elevation          = 
| frozen             = 
| islands            = 
| cities             = 
| reference          =
}}
lake_name
name_of_lake
If the local name is added, use <br> from the English name. Avoid using templates, bolding or italics in this field.
image_lake
characteristic_image.png Please avoid sunset pictures or maps (For maps, use image_bathymetry).
If missing, the article is added to Category:Wikipedia infobox lake articles without image
see also: Wikipedia:WikiProject Lakes/Galleries
alt_lake
Alt text describing the image, for visually impaired readers and other applications where the image cannot be seen
caption_lake
Text about the image; avoid repeating the name of the lake, it's already in the first field of the infobox.
image_bathymetry
bathymetry_image.png (or other image, avoid maps showing only the location of the lake)
alt_bathymetry
Alt text for the bathymetry (or other) image
caption_bathymetry
Text about the bathymetry (or other) image
location
Text about the lake's location. Note the town/state/region the lake is located in. Names are listed in wikified form, without flags.
Add the country only if the lake is located in several countries or if there are several basin countries, but only one country the lake is located in.
coords
Latitude and Longitude coordinates of the lake. It is common to use the approximate center of the lake, or simply any notable portion of the lake for the coordinates. Coordinates are generally displayed in the infobox and on the top corner of the articles. For more, see WP:GEO and WP:Obtaining geographic coordinates
Sample coordinates: {{coord|47|01|10|N|8|24|04|E|type:waterbody_region:CH|display =inline,title}}
Coordinates-"Type:" for lakes is "waterbody".
If missing, the article is placed in Category:Wikipedia infobox lake articles without coordinates
type
type of lake. If it's a reservoir, add "[[reservoir]]".
For typologies, see Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Lakes#Lake_types and Lake#Types_of_lakes
Samples values with wikimarkup (only one or a few may apply): [[periglacial]], [[subglacial lake|subglacial]], [[artificial lake|artificial]] [[reservoir (water)|reservoir]], [[endorheic]], [[meromictic]], [[oxbow lake|oxbow]], [[rift lake]], [[underground lake|underground]], [[crater lake]], [[intermittent lake|intermittent]], [[:Category:Former lakes|former lake]], [[:Category:Shrunken lakes|shrunken lake]]; [[oligotrophic]], [[mesotropic]], [[eutrophic lake|eutrophic]], [[hypertrophic]]
inflow
major inflow sources — rivers, aquifers, glacial runoff, etc.
Use italics for any terms that are not place names, e.g. none
outflow
outflow waterway names.
If evaporation or seepage are notable outflows, they may be included.
Use italics for any terms that are not place names, e.g. evaporation
catchment
the area of catchment (in square kilometres) which includes the entire area of the drainage basin for that lake. This may include rivers and other lakes. If this can be accompanied with a map or drawing, include it with the article.
Sample value: 2124 km
basin_countries
which countries have drainage to/from or border the lake. To conform a standard, this should include all countries that are directly involved with the lake's ecology; this would include inflows, outflows, or physically contact the lake.
Countries are listed in unwikified form, without flags. For Antarctica, use "(Antarctica)".
agency
managing or owning organisation
designation
protected status as a nature reserve, etc.
date-built
date construction the lake/ reservoir started, if man-made.
date-flooded
date the lake/ reservoir was first flooded, if man-made or otherwise recent.
length
maximum length of the lake in km; the length of the lake at its longest dimension.
width
maximum width of the lake in km; perpendicular to the angle used to calculate length.
area
total area of the lake's surface in square kilometres; if this value varies drastically (due to evaporation or changes in flow), attempt to find a documented average value.
Sample conversion for imperial units: {{convert|1234|acre|abbr=on}} this renders as: ১,২৩৪ একৰ (499 হেক্টৰ)
depth
Average depth of the lake in metres
Sample conversion for imperial units: {{convert|123|ft|abbr=on}} this renders as: 123 ফুট (37 মিটাৰ)
max-depth
Maximum depth of the lake in metres.
volume
total volume of the lake (cubic metres or cubic kilometres)
Sample value: 11.8 km³</nowiki>
To convert acre-feet, use {{convert|1234567|acre.ft|abbr=on}} this renders as সাঁচ:Convert/acre.ft
residence_time
residence time of the lake water or lake retention time (generally in years). This is the mean time water spends in the lake.
shore
length of the shoreline in kilometres; this should not include values for waterways directly connected to the lake, and should reflect the shore at average surface area.
elevation
elevation above sea-level in meters; again, if this value varies due to variable inflow or outflow, attempt to use a documented average value. If at all possible, state the date at which the elevation was measured.
islands
total number of islands in the lake; it is common practice to also include the names of any notable islands in the lake.
islands_category
if there is a specific category for articles about islands in the lake, it can be added in this field (e.g. Islands of the Caspian Sea). "Islands" in the infobox then links to this category instead of Category:Islands in lakes.
cities
notable cities or settlements on or near the lakeshore.
frozen
Information about lake freezing: e.g. usual freezing date, months the lake is frozen, last years the lake was frozen, never, etc.
reference
references for some or all of the values. Rather than including full references in any of the previous fields, <ref name ="multiple"> and </ref> should be used in this field and cross-referenced in the other fields with <ref name ="multiple"/>. See Help:Footnotes on how to use the tags.
align
"align =left" allows to align the infobox left (default is right). This avoids collision with another infobox.

Imperial units should be converted to metric units, preferably using {{convert}}, e.g. {{convert|1234|acre|abbr=on}} this renders as ১,২৩৪ একৰ (499 হেক্টৰ)

The infobox has several maintenance categories connected to it:

The categories are hidden, i.e. the aren't visible in the standard display of the articles (see WP:Hidden_categories).

The HTML mark up produced by this template includes an hCard microformat, which makes the place-name and location parsable by computers, either acting automatically to catalogue article across Wikipedia, or via a browser tool operated by a person, to (for example) add the subject to an address book. Within the hCard is a Geo microformat, which additionally makes the coordinates (latitude & longitude) parsable, so that they can be, say, looked up on a map, or downloaded to a GPS unit. For more information about the use of microformats on Wikipedia, please see the microformat project.

If the place or venue has an "established", "founded", "opened" or similar date, use {{Start date}} (unless the date is before 1583 CE).

If it has a URL, use {{URL}}.

hCard uses HTML classes including:

  • adr
  • agent
  • category
  • county-name
  • extended-address
  • fn
  • label
  • locality
  • nickname
  • note
  • org
  • region
  • street-address
  • url
  • vcard

Geo is produced by calling {{coord}}, and uses HTML classes:

  • geo
  • latitude
  • longitude

Please do not rename or remove these classes; nor collapse nested elements which use them.

When giving coordinates, please don't be overly precise.