page_title: Pfafstetter Coding System
section_title: History and use
hierarchical_section_title: Pfafstetter Coding System / History and use
caption_attribution_description: English: Example of a river system coded with the Pfafstetter coding system. The code attributes the numbers 2,4,6,8 to the primary tributary basins and the numbers 1,3,5,7,9 to inter-basin regions.
context_page_description: The Pfafstetter Coding System is a hierarchical method of hydrologically coding river basins. It was developed by the Brazilian engineer Otto Pfafstetter in 1989. It is designed such that topological information is embedded in the code, which makes it easy to determine whether an event in one river basin will affect another by direct examination of their codes.
context_section_description: In the 1950s, Pfafstetter suggested the use of a hierarchical system of coding river basins, later described in a 1989 paper. The method was applied to Brazilian water networks, and has been used in a number of other applications.
caption: Coding continues recursively, with each new digit appended to the previously obtained code
exif: {}