Strahler-order (sub) basins

[SimonAiken]

Just another re post from the Spatial Analyst forum, hopefully you guys can shed some light on this question.

Is it possible to generate watersheds/basins that are numbered according to the strahler stream order scheme?
So basically you would have all your order 1 basins with a single headwater stream, then your order 2 basins with two order 1 streams etc

There must be a simple way to do this?

I have been playing with a bunch of different solutions today with no luck.

Would appreciate if anyone could share some light on this.

[MarkBoucher]

Here's a possible solution:

1. Using Spatial Analyst hydrology tools, calculate the stream order.


2. Convert the stream order raster to polylines using the Conversion Tools/From Raster/Raster to Polyline (use the grid Value for the field).


3. Do an Analysis Tools/Overlay/Spatial Join between the watershed/subbasin and the new stream polyline features.


4. Transfer the stream order over to the catchments.

I did this with a sample data set. It worked, but the results were not exactly what I expected. Could be because there are some first order watersheds that come in to the main river, and the spatial join transferred the stream order to them. If your results look good or you find a different solution, please share.