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[Moleculor]

So I've started my first game of DF in a year or three. I'm starting in a barren granite wasteland (with a little bit of black-sand desert to the north west). A brook runs through the area, splitting it in two.

The area is a relatively flat valley between two sloping hills to the east and west, neither of which is really suitable for a grand dwarven mining entrance, so...

I'm thinking of trying to make an above-ground fort to protect the entrance to a mine in the center of the area.

I'm just not sure how I secure the brook running through the middle. If I build my fort with the river running through it, can I secure it at all? Or do I have to avoid the brook?

The area is hot, so I doubt it'll ever freeze, so waiting for it to turn to ice and mining parts out to place grates down is not an option.

[Melting Sky]

Aside for temporarily damming it with magma I don't think there is a way to install grates to secure it. Depending on the biome there may not be many attackers who can swim to get into your fort but if you tend to get alligators, crocodiles or any other similarly nasty amphibious critters in your area then you should probably create some sort of seal-able access to the brook if its going to flow inside your fort. For instance you could put a walled path that extends out from your fortress's main building that leads to the brook but put a drawbridge gate at the end of the path so you can seal it if something nasty is in the water. You probably want to trap the path as well just in case you aren't paying attention when a gator decides to come crawling up out of it.

[martinuzz]

I've seen creatures (my own dwarves) get through gates and wall grates, in my swimming pool. They're not climbing out, they're actually going through grate and  fortification (It's roofed shut). They are not pathing through it though, they were being pushed through by water flow, when I empty the pool.
So even damming it off with obsidian, then restoring flow with fortifications, or installing grates, might still allow some water creatures to enter your enclosed brook area.

The only way that I can think of, that *might* work, depending on how exactly a riverbed's code operates, is to dam two sides off, in such way that water is pumped in over one dam, and pumped out again over the other dam. I don't think creatures can be sucked through pumps, although you never know in DF. First establish from which side the brook enters your map. Be sure to pump in from that side, and out on the other. Also, build the exit dam and pump first, then then entry one.
I do not know how the brook floor tile will handle this. It could overflow (because your pumps pressurize the water to +1), or it could prevent overflowing, because riverbed is a special kind of tile.

EDIT: your FPS probably will not like this very much

[KingKaol]

I always just dig straight down in a flat area and start putting walls up right away. The brook 'floor' tiles may prevent creatures from sneaking under the wall but the better option I think would be to leave the brook outside of your walls and just dig a well shaft for access to water (maybe with a fortification to prevent intruders; I had a were-creature try to swim in but he turned back into a human and drowned).

[i2amroy]

Brook floor tiles are impenetrable to creatures, yes, so there shouldn't be any problems with building your fortress right on top of the brook. If it was a stream, on the other hand, then you would certainly need to secure it in some way.

[Garath]

in previous versions a brook had 'solid' floor as surface and creatures couldn't go down into the water without first removing this covering. This has been changed, or am I confusing it with a different type of small water flow?

edit:
Oh right, I should read all the previous posts first next time (especially if there are so few of them)

[pisskop]

Brook floor tiles are impenetrable to creatures, yes, so there shouldn't be any problems with building your fortress right on top of the brook. If it was a stream, on the other hand, then you would certainly need to secure it in some way.

This.

If it is a brook you dont need to secure it so long as you don't penetrate the top layer.  Perhaps you want a waterwheel, or divert the water to some above-ground source, though?
To secure those or actual river the best bet is to try to do it as close to yourself as possible.  Enemies can go through grates or bash down floodgates, but you can make a good go at security.

-a floodgate/someotherwaterflowdevice will be able to stop flow, which will prevent things from traveling through fortifications.  Placing your floodgate as close to a fortification as possible (but away from the BDs) will let you control the flow and stop travel.

-Cage traps should be effective one-time prevention methods.

-Bridges in the pipe or directly above the access to it will work.  So will grates above the source, if you care to attach them to levers.

-A fun idea I played with was actually using current to kill aquatic BDs.  A drainage pipe that drops 20+ zlevels will kill or maim most threats that cannot fly.

I dont know if aquatic animals will trip pressure plates.   hmmmm . . .

---

Ohh, you could also make a path with grates so your marksmen can shoot whatever is invading.

[i2amroy]

The other alternative is to use a basic u-bend system. Basically you dig into the bottom of the river, go down a few z-levels, then go over, then come back up a few more z-levels, placing a grate in the upward portion. Pressure will cause water to be forced up through the grate, allowing for safe well access above that (and making it be clean water if it is deep enough). However flow can't push creatures up through grates, nor can building destroyers destroy grates that are one level above them (making it completely impenetrable). Just make sure to properly account for pressure, when put through a u-bend water will normally rise to 1 level below where it is coming from (so in this case it will rise to 1 level below river level). To Get water to extremely lower levels you may need to cap the pressure at a certain point with a diagonal bend, then put your u-bend into place.