Robust Inference of the Flow Direction in River Networks

An algorithm has been designed to infer the flow direction of a river network represented in a vector data model. It is based on the connectivity of channels and heuristics about the angles at which channels intersect at junctions, but it requires no information about the elevation of the terrain. The algorithm finds first the main branches of a network, from which it then infers the destination. Empirical tests with digitized river networks have demonstrated the robustness of the algorithm.