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[bluea]

I think this is a better variant of the "dig-to-edge-with-fortification, collapse brook" plan.

1) Two levels below the brook/river make the drain-to-edge-with-fortifications. A couple squares wider than the original brook.
2) Also two levels below, make a row of 'staircase ups' that cuts across the width of the water source.
3) Up to 'one level below' the water - match the stairs from part 2 with stairs down. With a door for access.
4) Expand just a little bit - like one square in all directions.
5) Cover the stairs with hatches (or bridges) and work until you're happy with the opening and closing mechanisms. Leave them open for now.
6) Designate all the walls for mining to attract all your miners - lock them in once you have a couple. (Cancel the mining of walls or don't, it doesn't really matter.)
7) Channel directly up into the brook.

If the steps are all followed carefully, you have a brook-sized drain at Z-2, lever-controlled hatches to bock the flow on Z-1, and no dwarf ever had to actually visit Z=0. The breaching is safe enough - the water rushes to the lower level without filling the intermediate level as long as the hatches are open. This plan takes more words to explain, but once you have a firm grip on what's going on, execution is pretty quick and results in a pretty tidy drain.

[Fist_Of_Armok]

That's close to what I did.  Just put drawbridges around it to direct it back at the river source tiles, and you can stop the river entirely!  See this thread:  http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=46385.0

...That, could work!

I'll definitely give it a try. It'll be an excellent use for all the Masterwork mechanisms I have saved up.

[kefkakrazy]

You could also do this: Divert the brook somehow to something that will drain it by means of holes in the floor. You can do this by mining under the brook then dropping a cavein onto the weak spots (where there's empty space under the brook). Have the water divert to an appropriate container, such as a quarry or other place where you have the spare room. You can install crusher drawbridges down there to ensure that the water never fills, if you must.

You now have a waterfall going down into subterranean areas. This is desirable, for this is Step One, and the brook will go into the hole. Hopefully your hole covers the entire width of the brook, so you have a nice one-tile-wide strip of open space that goes from one side to the other.

You can now, while the brook drains into the bowels of whatever you're draining it into, send dwarves in (quickly, now, before it fills up whatever you are draining it into!) and have them build constructed walls over the holes. Because there is floor next to it, the holes can be built over (considered to have support) but because there is no floor THERE, the dwarves will have no trouble with going in on the dry side and building walls there.

I came up with this one day when I accidentally dug a small channel that opened the fort to the brook. The easiest way to plug such a hole is to dig a channel that drains someplace, so it won't fill, and build a wall over the channel, so that you get no problems with water being in the tile (since, there being a hole there, there won't be).

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 O - - O
  (the rest of the brook is now dry, having been successfully dammed)

Easy-peasy, and it requires no magma and works with constructed walls (since, even though they deconstruct on cavein, they can, as anyone who has built a megaproject over their fort and had to make small adjustments knows, still punch through floors as long as there's no wall underneath). The walls even stop the brook from draining any further once you have them in, since they plug it up completely! Handy, that.

[denito]

Hey Kefkakrazy, that gives me an idea:  your technique of building walls over holes could be combined with my technique (or with other methods!).  For instance, my technique doesn't work very quite as well when there is a river source but no river exit, for instance when a river drains into a lake or the ocean.  (I'm working a site like this at the moment.)  Surprisingly the pumps do still make a cavity, somehow, but that cavity will also have extra water falling into it while the river flows "backwards" a small amount.  But suppose you channeled out or caved in the space under the pumps.  Then you could build walls over the hole.

Or, start with your method, punching a hole through the river bottom, but instead of draining into a large chamber that takes time to fill, just use a small chamber with a pump stack to return the water back to the top & dump it on the source tiles.  Then you have a hole where you can build walls, but also more time to build them.

[Fist_Of_Armok]

You could also do this: Divert the brook somehow to something that will drain it by means of holes in the floor. You can do this by mining under the brook then dropping a cavein onto the weak spots (where there's empty space under the brook). Have the water divert to an appropriate container, such as a quarry or other place where you have the spare room. You can install crusher drawbridges down there to ensure that the water never fills, if you must.

You now have a waterfall going down into subterranean areas. This is desirable, for this is Step One, and the brook will go into the hole. Hopefully your hole covers the entire width of the brook, so you have a nice one-tile-wide strip of open space that goes from one side to the other.

You can now, while the brook drains into the bowels of whatever you're draining it into, send dwarves in (quickly, now, before it fills up whatever you are draining it into!) and have them build constructed walls over the holes. Because there is floor next to it, the holes can be built over (considered to have support) but because there is no floor THERE, the dwarves will have no trouble with going in on the dry side and building walls there.

I came up with this one day when I accidentally dug a small channel that opened the fort to the brook. The easiest way to plug such a hole is to dig a channel that drains someplace, so it won't fill, and build a wall over the channel, so that you get no problems with water being in the tile (since, there being a hole there, there won't be).

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

~~~~
~~~~
 ~~~~
  ~~~~

Becomes

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

~~~~
~~~~
 .  .  .  .
  * * * * (mud)
 

Becomes

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

~~~~
~~~~
 O - - O
  (the rest of the brook is now dry, having been successfully dammed)

Easy-peasy, and it requires no magma and works with constructed walls (since, even though they deconstruct on cavein, they can, as anyone who has built a megaproject over their fort and had to make small adjustments knows, still punch through floors as long as there's no wall underneath). The walls even stop the brook from draining any further once you have them in, since they plug it up completely! Handy, that.

Make a movie. I'm having trouble visualizing this.

For right now, I've got my dorfs working on a waterwheel, and a windmill already built.

[Edzako]

How game determines what are brooks and what aren't ? Meaning I would dig 3 tiles wide channel around my fortress entrance connected with brook at the beginning and end with some minimal drainage under it, to flush gobos/elves away. Would they still consider it a brook and cross it, or it would count as channel ?