Tutorial: building dams and shaping rivers

[kbieniu7]

Hi All!

There has been a quite long bit of inactivity from my side. There's plenty of stuff that I should catch up with (including SCP files transfer...), but there's one thing that I've been working for quite long. Two years, actually. This weekend I found few hours to finally give it all a final polish.

I really like water. I mean, everything what is connected with hydrography, hydrology and river engineering. That was a part of my education at university and is a part of professional life. I could spend hours in SimCity shaping rivers, streams and creeks, forming lakes and seashores, as well as dams and resevoirs which are not so popular things to see among MDs.

So, I thought, that maybe I could write a quick tutorial about creating dams, shaping rivers and proper terraforming... a quick one... well... it turned out to be quite large in volume (43 pages), so I divided it into few chapters, where you could find:

Catchment basins – worth keeping in mind when terraforming
Basics about proper terraforming in order not to flood your country.

A little bit of hydrology. How it varies between regions?
Basics about hydrology (mostly about rainfalls).

Watercourse
How to shape rivers.

Water and humans
Some facts to keep in mind when locating your cities.

The never-ending battle
Floods and measures how to protect against them.

Dams and reservoir
Structure of dams and rules how to find a good place for them.

And as a separate file:

A step-by-step guide how to build a dam

I tried to describe some real-life mechanisms provided with real-life images and their SimCity counterparts. I'm aware that probably for almost everyone it would be too big in volume or too boring. However, maybe few realism-oriented players would find some of its parts useful... Or just as another text to read during your commute in a bus or train.

I've choosed a PDF format, mostly because it's more sure for the future. I'm really upset of possibility of loosing images hosted on an external server. They are on my google drive (4,5MB and 2,5MB, too big to attach it to the post). You can download them by clicking on the images below:

         

All information in this document is based on books, trusted internet sources, as well as my own university education and own experience. I tried to do my best, but if you manage to spot any kind of mistakes or discrepancy, feel free to share your comments. Most of examples are based on Poland and Europe and might be a bit biased, as obviously I have the biggest experience with this land.

Thanks for people who agreed to use their photos: Vizoria, Badsim and Korver.

I'd also recommend following video tutorials from Akallan where he has nicely shown in-game how to create rivers and ponds element-by-element:

SC4 - Phoenix Project Tutorial : create a river 1
SC4 - Phoenix Project Tutorial : create a river 2
SC4 - Phoenix Project Tutorial : create a river 3
SC4 - Phoenix Project Tutorial : create a pond

Cheers! 

[Silur]

Hello, kbieniu7. I am very glad to see you here. 
Always liked all Your themes and art. I wish You success.

[bladeberkman]

WOW!      Thank you for sharing these materials! Thoughtful and insightful.

[art128]

That's some dedication. I will take the time to read that.

I really love when people bring about their real life knowledge from their studies or work and apply it to the game.

+1 Karma point from me. 

[matias93]

You know you are playing the right simulation game when you can read treatises on how to simulate specific elements of the real world in it.

[brick_mortimer]

Thanks for writing this. 
I've seen titbits of this information in various replies you posted, but it's great to have it all in one comprehensive work 

btw, I've followed your suggestion and I start reading this morning on the train to work 

[911Diva]

    What a fantastic idea!!  Thank you for all your hard work!!!

Cindy

[Akallan]

Hello kbieniu,

That's a wonderful job, and two years of hard work! This is worth it, the didactic is very conpréhensive and well referenced. Thank you for all your work. And glad to see you're back on the forum!

Thank you for referencing my videos!

[mattb325]

Wow! So insightful and well put-together.....between this doc and akallans videos, hopefully I'll be able to make stunning rivers 

[Une_ame]

Thank you for this awesome tutorial ! 

I wonder if the same kind of tip exists for the connexion between plopable rivers and SC4 open water ? 

[PaPa-J]

This is an awesome tutorial, really put together well.  Thanks for your hard work on this.