That is what our wiki says: * "The way used should point in the direction of water flow." ([Waterways](//wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Waterways)) * "By convention the direction of the way should be downstream" ([Key:waterway](//wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:waterway)) Apparently the waterway creators in your example did not follow the convention. That's all. By the way, if you are using the editor Potlatch2 (which I assume due to your last edit's meta info) you can [change a way's directon](//wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Potlatch_2/Shortcuts) with the shortcut key V in case you want to change it. If you would use JOSM use the [reverse way](//wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/JOSM/Basic_editing#Splitting_and_combining_ways) tool (shortcut key R) in the tools menu similarly. For iD click a way and use the reverse tool in the pop-up toolbox (shortcut V). Have a look in the way's history first (to find any reason for the uncommon way direction).

That is what our wiki says: * "The way used should point in the direction of water flow." ([Waterways](//wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Waterways)) * "By convention the direction of the way should be downstream" ([Key:waterway](//wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:waterway)) Apparently the waterway creators in your example did not follow the convention. That's all. By the way, if you are using Potlatch2 (which I assume due to your last edit's meta info) you can [change a way's directon](//wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Potlatch_2/Shortcuts) with the shortcut key V in case you want to change it. Have a look in the way's history first (to find any reason for the uncommon way direction).

That is what our wiki says: * "The way used should point in the direction of water flow." https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Waterways ([Waterways](//wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Waterways)) * "By convention the direction of the way should be downstream" https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:waterway ([Key:waterway](//wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:waterway)) Apparently the waterway creators in your example did not follow the convention. That's all. By the way, if you are using Potlatch2 (which I assume due to your last edit's meta info) you can [change a way's directon](//wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Potlatch_2/Shortcuts) with the shortcut key V in case you want to change it. Have a look in the way's history first (to find any reason for the uncommon way direction).

That is what our wiki says: * "The way used should point in the direction of water flow." https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Waterways * "By convention the direction of the way should be downstream" https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:waterway Apparently the waterway creators in your example did not follow the convention. That's all. By the way, if you are using Potlatch2 (which I assume due to your last edit's meta info) you can [change a way's directon](//wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Potlatch_2/Shortcuts) with the shortcut key V in case you want to change it. Have a look in the way's history first (to find any reason for the uncommon way direction).