Stream ordering and Bifurcation Ratio: There are many different ways to order streams, one of the most

common is Strahlers stream ordering. The ordering system is fairly simple. All streams start off as order one. If two order one streams join (converge), then they become a order two stream. if then two order streams join, then they become and order three stream. The stream order will only increase if two streams of the same order join. If an order two stream and an order three stream join, then the resulting river will remain order three. The Bifurcation ratio, looks at the relationship between the streams in different orders. The drainage basin to the right has 7 order one streams, 4 order two streams and 2 order three streams. To calculate the bifurcation ratio you divide the number of order 1 streams by the number of order 2 streams (7/4=1.75 ), then divide the number of order two streams by the number of order three streams (4/2=2). You then add together the results (1.75+2=3.75) and divide by the total sets of values (3.75/2=1.875). The drainage basin to the right therefore has a bifurcation ratio of 1.86. The higher the bifurcation ratio, the shorter the lag time is likely to be and the higher the peak discharge is likely to be.