Wikipedia:WikiProject Rivers

First, an important note for everyone to remember:

A few Wikipedians have gotten together to make some suggestions about how we might organize data in articles about rivers. These are only suggestions, things to give you focus and to get you going, and you shouldn't feel obligated in the least to follow them. But if you don't know what to write or where to begin, following the below guidelines may be helpful. Mainly, we just want you to write articles!

River articles by quality and importance
Quality	Importance
	Top	High	Mid	Low	NA	???	Total
FA		1	7	12			20
FL			1	2			3
GA		3	9	11			23
B	8	26	43	23		7	107
C	8	29	48	29		22	136
Start	9	74	262	542		309	1,196
Stub		25	358	2,048		12,554	14,985
List	1	7	11	27	4	77	127
Category					854		854
Disambig					68		68
File					3		3
Project					8		8
Template					96		96
NA					19		19
Assessed	26	165	739	2,694	1,052	12,969	17,645
Unassessed						4,374	4,374
Total	26	165	739	2,694	1,052	17,343	22,019

Title

WikiProject Rivers

Scope

This WikiProject aims primarily to describe the Earth's rivers in a consistent and complete fashion.

Hierarchy definition

No classification of Rivers has been defined. See this proposal on dividing a topic into a hierarchy.

Related projects

Parentage

The parent of this WikiProject is the WikiProject Geography.

Descendant WikiProjects

No descendant WikiProjects have been defined.

Similar WikiProjects

For naming in geography:

• WikiProject Country subdivisions#Naming

Projects covering other geographical features:

• WikiProject Glaciers
• WikiProject Lakes
• WikiProject Mountains
• WikiProject UK Waterways

Participants

• Advanstra
• Afil
• AlexNebraska
• All Is One
• Alvar☮
• Analogdemon
• AndrewEnns
• Andy Mabbett
• Awickert
• Bermicourt
• Bolonium
• Cgoodwin
• Chase I
• Chemicalinterest
• ChristopherM
• ContrillionAU
• CQ
• Crackerbelly
• Daniel Case
• Darwinek
• Dentren
• Ericleb01
• Finetooth
• Gerrit
• Gjs238
• Hydrogen Iodide
• Imars
• J293339
• Jdorje
• Jezhotwells
• Jonathan.s.kt
• Juliancolton
• Kevin Borland, Esq.
• Kieran
• Kitia
• Kmusser
• Kuru
• LeheckaG
• Little Mountain 5
• Llywrch
• Lonewolf BC
• Lotheric
• Magnetawan
• Malepheasant
• Markussep
• MCalamari
• Me101223
• Michael E. Degnan, Jr.
• Mike Cline
• Narthring
• Nebraska3
• Nowhither
• Papayoung
• Pete
• Peter Shearan
• Pfly
• Pim Rijkee
• Pollinator
• Rmhermen
• Ruhrfisch
• SatuSuro
• Sculptorjones
• Shannon1
• Shogun
• Southern Texas
• Spencer
• Stan Shebs
• stavros1
• Tarif
• The Bushranger
• Tim P
• TomCat4680
• Triglav
• Vdiest
• VerruckteDan
• Walt Pohl
• Weissmann
• Wikiacc
• youngamerican

Naming

See also: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (geographic names)

River articles may be named "X", "X River", or "River X", depending on location and most common usage. "River X" is used for rivers in the UK and Ireland. "X river" is not recommended. When common usage does not include the word "River", but disambiguation is required (e.g. the river Inn in central Europe), brackets should be used: Inn (river). Country-specific exceptions to this rule should be discussed within WikiProject Rivers and/or that country's WikiProject.

If different rivers with the same name exist, use bracket-disambiguation (e.g. Vils (Danube), Turiec (Váh), Bistriţa River (Siret), Colorado River (Texas)).

Multiple rivers with the same name

Because there are lots of rivers in the world with the same name (e.g. the Columbia River has two tributaries named the Salmon River, another flows into the lower Fraser River and one more has been identified in Nova Scotia), not all of which are recent namings in the Americas (e.g. there are four rivers in England called River Avon), the following method of disambiguation is proposed:

• The most important river can stay at the undisambiguated title, lesser known ones add a qualifier. So. Jordan River, Jordan River (disambiguation), Jordan River (Utah)
• In practice, most rivers needing disambiguation have been identified by the smallest appropriate political entity. So Colorado River and Colorado River (Texas).
  • Always use parentheses for the disambiguator for U.S., New Zealand and Australian rivers, not a comma. For example Indian River (Michigan) not Indian River, Michigan which is actually a town. (British rivers have used the River, place format. For example River Wye, Derbyshire. )
• A river can be identified uniquely as a tributary of another river. It should be named with the name of the principal river following in parentheses. So St. Joseph River (Lake Michigan) and St. Joseph River (Maumee River)
• If a river with a shared name empties directly into a lake or definable sea, then the name of that body of water could follow in parentheses, as in Churchill River (Hudson Bay).
• Failing that, the name of the continent could follow in parentheses, as in Litani River (South America).

Rivers with multiple names

Some rivers have names with multiple spellings which vary with the different countries the rivers pass through. An example would be the Cunene River in Angola, which is known as the Kunene River in Namibia. Occasionally, a river can have several genuinely distinct names. For example, the Cuando River not only has the variant spelling Kwando, it's also called the Linyanti and the Chobe. The following rules are suggested for choosing a primary name for such a river:

• If the river is particularly famous or most commonly mentioned under one name, then choose that name.
• If the section of the river that uses a particular name is much longer than other sections, then use that as the name.
• If everything else is equal, then choose the name for the section of the river closest to the river's mouth, since generally that is where the river is widest.

It is important that all the alternate names redirect to the name chosen for the article title. This helps prevent the creation of duplicate articles.

Article structure guidelines

Lead paragraph

The first paragraph should be a self-contained description including the most important things to know; name(s) – both historic and current – in bold, location (continent/countries/seaboards), and notable facts about the river, such as longest, second longest, main waterway of a country, etc. It should summarize all main points presented in the article.

Source

In some cases when the source of the river is complex, such as a network of smaller streams, or a spring and cave system, the source can be described on the article page separately from the course. In simpler cases, such as when a river merely originates from a lake, it would be unnecessary to have a separate subheading describing the source.

Course

The narrative description of the course should proceed from the main headwater of the river downstream to its mouth, noting direction, size, major tributaries, human settlements, waterfalls, dams, and so forth. This should be at least a paragraph, may be several paragraphs for long rivers. This section can include numerical data on length, volume, drainage basin, etc.

Info on major water basins can be found at World resources Institute (site is down; archive)

For the largest one or two tributaries of the river, a short description of them should be added (perhaps under a "Tributaries" subsection) with "main" links.

Watershed

Include information about the geography and distribution of drainage basins, the location of mountain ranges, valleys, major cities, etc. Mention climate of the different areas of the watershed, and information about water quality, etc.

River modifications

In this section describe the dams, diversion canals, bridges and culverts, roads, and other engineering projects associated with or with a big impact on the river.

Natural history

Mention distinctive plants and animals associated with any part of the river. This section may also be titled Wildlife or Biology.

Geology

The evolution of some rivers has been well explored (e.g., the Missoula Floods and their effect on the Columbia River). Such information should be placed here, with a suitable discussion of all POVs when possible. See also Glacial geology of the Genesee River.

History

Describe what is known about the different inhabitants along the river, along with a description of the scientific exploration expeditions/efforts. Typically, start from indigenous people and work up from there.

Economy

A countless number of rivers have been used as means to transport people, goods, etc., and are still used so today. All such information should be described here. Stylistically, this can be a good segue from history, connecting past uses of the river to present-day uses.

Lists

• List the tributaries, starting from the mouth and going upstream. Add important subtributaries in sublists. Major tributaries should be links, if there is a reasonable chance of article content, minor tributaries should be just names.
• List the cities and towns along the river, also in upstream order.
• List dams, locks, waterfalls, rapids, if there are more than a couple and/or they're not mentioned in the lead or course narrative.
• List crossings of the river.

References and external links

Preferably refer to history, ecology, public policy, books, websites, etc.

Images

There should be at least one picture, preferably a typical view. Important rivers should have additional pictures illustrating their notable features. Maps of the river's course and of its watershed are highly desirable.

Map

Every river article should include a map. Wikipedia:WikiProject Maps gives advice on the conventions to be used. The map should be included in the Geobox template. Route maps are optional, a sample can be seen at {{River Medway map}}.

Geographical coordinates

Every river article should include geographical coordinates. Wikipedia:WikiProject Geographical coordinates/Linear gives advice on the positioning of these coordinates. The coordinates of the source and mouth should be included in the Geobox template, other significant points may be included inline the text using {{coord|x|y}}. The draft proposals for features that may be handled by this project suggest:

feature	main coordinates	further recommended coordinates	optional additions	examples
river	estuary/mouth	source, major confluences	crossings, other confluences, boundaries crossed, weirs, major changes in direction, islands
valley	???	both ends?	watersheds, rivers, settlements, landmarks, features
canal	midpoint5	both ends	junctions, wharves, crossings, locks
bridge	midpoint	both ends	features crossed, support pillars

Indexing

Every river article should be indexed in lists of rivers and indexed in list of rivers by continent, along with its major tributaries.

Categories

Every article should have a category. If a river is restricted to one country, list in Category:rivers of country. If it runs through several, list in each country category.

In the United States, the county(s) in which the river flows may be added as a category; this information can be found via GNIS.

Articles

A detailed list of recognized content is available at Rivers recognized content.

Article alerts

Categories for discussion

• 26 Jan 2012 – Category:Rivers of Salzburg (talk · edit · hist) was CfDed by Tsuchiya Hikaru (t · c)

Featured article candidates

• 17 Jan 2012 – Missouri River (talk · edit · hist) was FA nominated by Shannon1 (t · c); see discussion

Requests for comments

• 04 Jan 2012 – Periyar (river) (talk · edit · hist) has an RfC by Pearll's sun (t · c); see discussion

Lists

• Lists of rivers
• List of rivers by average discharge
• List of rivers by continent
• Category:Lists of rivers by country
• List of rivers by length
• List of river name etymologies
• List of drainage basins by area

See also: User:AlexNewArtBot/WaterbodiesSearchResult

Categories

Subpages

• List of all subpages of this page

Templates

Project banner

The {{River|class=|importance=|attention=|mapneeded=|needs-infobox=}} template banner is available to add to the talk pages of river articles and gives:

• |mapneeded=yes will add the article's talk page to Category:River articles needing maps

Assessment

An article can be rated by quality and importance; for example, using {{WikiProject Rivers|class=Stub|importance=Low}}. For detailed instructions on quality grading, see: WikiProject Rivers/Assessment. There are many articles that still need to be assessed. You may help us to assess them, please see Category:Unassessed River articles for the complete list.

Infoboxes

Infobox river

The template {{Infobox river}} can be used for representative images and basic information about a river. See the template's documentation for instructions, examples and blank versions of the template to start with. You can see it in action on River Scheldt.

Geobox/type/river

River Irwell
River
The River Irwell at Salford, looking towards Manchester city centre
Country	United Kingdom
Constituent country	England
Tributaries
- left	Croal
- right	Roch, Irk, Medlock
Source
- location	Cliviger, Lancashire
- elevation	400 m (1,312 ft)
- coordinates	53°43′54″N 2°11′49″W
Mouth
- location	Manchester Ship Canal, Salford, England
- elevation	30 m (98 ft)
- coordinates	53°28′21″N 2°15′55″W
Discharge	for Adelphi Weir
- average	17.72 m3/s (626 cu ft/s)

There exists a new {{Geobox}} (version 2) template, at {{Geobox/type/river}}. It is an infobox template that has been adapted for all types of geographical locations. It can accommodate a wide range of data, where the input values can be either metric or imperial and the other figure is calculated automatically. It can have multiple values for river names, basin countries, discharges at various locations and coordinates of both source and mouth, which are linked to wiki maps, etc. The field names are not fully compatible with the earlier Infobox template (e.g. while there's just elevation field in the old template, the new one has source_elevation and mouth_elevation), It specifically allows the adding of maps. You can see it in action at:

• Amazon River
• Vltava
• Ostravice River (with two maps)
• Váh
• Ebro

Navigation boxes

A list of navigation boxes can be found at: Category:River navigation boxes.

Userbox

Place {{User WikiProject Rivers}} on your user page. This will add your user page to Category:WikiProject Rivers participants.

Code	Result	Users
{{Template:User WikiProject Rivers}}	This user is a member of WikiProject Rivers.	Transclusions
{{Template:User River}}	This user is interested in rivers and fluvial processes.	Transclusions

Resources

• transboundarywaters
• Rivers.html
• earthtrends maps (free registration required)
• U.S. Geological Survey Geological Name Information Server, lists all U.S. rivers with topo maps and many aerial photos. {{gnis}} links to specific entries.
• [NWIS] - USGS National Water Information System
• Database of Pan-Arctic River Discharge
• Hydrology of Canada

Tools

Main tool page: toolserver.org

• Reflinks - Edits bare references - adds title/dates etc. to bare references
• Checklinks - Edit and repair external links
• Dab solver - Quickly resolve ambiguous links.
• Peer reviewer - Provides hints and suggestion to improving articles.

External watchlist

• Wikiproject Watchlist - WikiProject Rivers

Directory of WikiProjects

WikiProject Council

Guide to WikiProjects