What authentication does this PDOK surface water API require?

No authentication is required. This is a public Dutch government open data service operated by Rijkswaterstaat. All endpoints are freely accessible without API keys or tokens.

What is the difference between vlakken and lijnen endpoints?

The /vlakken/ endpoints provide surface water bodies as polygon geometries representing areas. The /lijnen/ endpoints provide the same water bodies as line geometries representing linear features like river centerlines. Choose polygons for area analysis and lines for network modeling.

What regulatory framework does this data support?

This dataset forms the spatial foundation for the EU Water Framework Directive (Kaderrichtlijn Water, KRW) in the Netherlands. It defines the official water body boundaries used for ecological status reporting, monitoring network design, and water management planning.

How do I query water body data through Jentic?

Install with pip install jentic, search for 'Dutch surface water bodies', and Jentic returns the /vlakken/ or /lijnen/ endpoint schemas. Execute the GET call to retrieve all features or /vlakken/{id}/ for a specific water body polygon.

Which water management authority maintains this data?

Rijkswaterstaat (RWS), the Dutch national water authority, maintains this dataset. It is compiled from district-level data covering all surface water bodies under national management jurisdiction.

Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the PDOK Oppervlaktewaterlichamen API?

Yes. Because you run Jentic One yourself, your own rules decide which of this API's operations the agent may call, and it can invoke only the ones you allow. This service exposes read-only GET queries with the feature id in the URL path, so you can pin the agent to listing or reading water body polygons via /vlakken/ and /vlakken/{id}/, restrict it to line features via /lijnen/ and /lijnen/{id}/, or allow only a subset. Since the endpoints are public open data with no credential to manage, scoping is purely about which of these four read operations you permit.