This paper presents a new numbering system based on the Pfafstetter codification scheme developed for stream networks. Its main advantage is the use of the segments' length instead of the catchments' areas for establishing the Pfafstetter code, therefore eliminating the need for elevation data. This methodology was then implemented in a software named Otto-Sys, developed for Arc/INFO workstation in AML. In order to present the results of this new approach, a case study was carried out for the stream network of the Caeté River, a tributary of Iaco River, belonging to the Amazon River basin. The details of such a digital hydrographic dataset led to 5 level-deep codes. Each codification level is stored as a new column of the attribute table and the corresponding level dictates the number of digits of the code. Once this codification scheme has been established, network-tracing tasks can be performed in any geographic information system using only attribute queries. This strategy speeds up such processes enabling them to be extended to real-time web-based devices.
Pfafstetter system; stream network numbering systems; network topology
