1 river bifurcates and becomes the same river?

[caters]

Sorry for that sort of dam drawing there. I had to do that to make sure the blue for the river wasn't all over the place.

Anyway, the image you see here is of Region 2 of Kepler Bb which is north of Region 1. I am not all that good at drawing a river but as you can see here, the river comes from even further north(possibly from a lake). The crater lake you see here has much more drastic changes than the river. The river is never completely dry. The crater lake however is in the summer completely dry and in the winter a lot of it is frozen. So these seasons correspond to when the river is shallower and less likely to flood. In contrast, spring and fall are when the river is deeper and more likely to flood. The river at some point makes a sharp turn and starts heading southwest. Then it bifurcates into 2 streams as it heads to the mountain range in Region 1.




This second image here is of Region 1. It has much more diversity. First off it has mountains further north and west than anything else. These 2 streams merge together to form the same river that was miles upstream. There is a lake that comes off of this river. There is also an isolated lake. This lake was originally connected to the other lake which was connected to the river but over time deposition rate got higher and higher until there was no more water flowing into the lake. There is also a forest and some rolling hills. Far out to the east and south is the very first city in progress. I call it Flatwoods because while there are forests relatively close to the city, it is mostly flat grassland. In fact pretty much all the land in both of these regions is grassland.

But if a river bifurcates and then those streams merge back into a river, is it really the same river or is it a different river? Because I have assumed that as long as there is no true branching going on(this bifurcation and merge, I don't consider branching) that it is the same river but now I am not so sure.

I got several replies that said that a river heading towards a mountain range requires water to go uphill. I disagree. I view water flow as electrical flow. In both cases it takes the path of least resistance which in this case is flowing between the mountains of the mountain range.

[Redrobes]

See:

https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...ead.php?t=3822

If you disagree then comment into this thread and show some examples in real life regions.

[Voolf]

But if a river bifurcates and then those streams merge back into a river, is it really the same river or is it a different river? Because I have assumed that as long as there is no true branching going on(this bifurcation and merge, I don't consider branching) that it is the same river but now I am not so sure.

It is the same river and the land between two strings is called river island.

I got several replies that said that a river heading towards a mountain range requires water to go uphill. I disagree. I view water flow as electrical flow. In both cases it takes the path of least resistance which in this case is flowing between the mountains of the mountain range.

I am not entirely sure what you are saying here, but water never goes uphill unless it's pushed by some force (human made mashine etc.) that opposes gravity.

[Mark Oliva]

water never goes uphill unless it's pushed by some force (human made mashine etc.) that opposes gravity.

However, rivers can appear to go uphill. This is the case where the river bed goes uphill, which happens in some locations where a river creates a channel through mountains. Once the water behind the rise in the river bed rises above the level of the river bed, it will flow on over the river bed if whatever channels the water still is higher than the water level and there is no lower path out of the channel. Depending upon the size of the stream, this usually forms anything from a pool to a lake before the water flows through the channel where the river bed is higher. In such cases it may seem that the river is flowing uphill, but it actually is doing what water almost always does, maintaining its own level.

Lest someone thinks it needs to be pointed out again: The comments above do not rule out the fact that tides sometimes can cause streams near coasts to flow temporarily uphill. That is an entirely different matter.

[waldronate]

I view water flow as electrical flow. In both cases it takes the path of least resistance

The path of least resistance for water flow is the path of steepest descent (that is, the shortest distance downhill). However, it's difficult to get the initial conditions in such a way that is analogous to rainfall + river flow because river flow is more a diffuse source to multiple sink than the classic strong source / strong sink situation usually encountered in electrical systems. Lichtenberg figures in a thin sheet are a rough approximation to river flow in uniform nearly-flat material because they are a strong source or sink with a diffuse opposite, but those are pretty uncommon conditions in electrical systems.

[Voolf]

However, rivers can appear to go uphill. This is the case where the river bed goes uphill, which happens in some locations where a river creates a channel through mountains. Once the water behind the rise in the river bed rises above the level of the river bed, it will flow on over the river bed if whatever channels the water still is higher than the water level and there is no lower path out of the channel. Depending upon the size of the stream, this usually forms anything from a pool to a lake before the water flows through the channel where the river bed is higher. In such cases it may seem that the river is flowing uphill, but it actually is doing what water almost always does, maintaining its own level.

Lest someone thinks it needs to be pointed out again: The comments above do not rule out the fact that tides sometimes can cause streams near coasts to flow temporarily uphill. That is an entirely different matter.

That is true, i havent think about that. But as you said this is temporarily thing and sooner or later it will flow down again.