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[Ovg]

I sometimes turn them off when I want to have lots of stone, but most of the time I like 'em for all reasons given about and also for drowning traps.

[Itnetlolor]

I'm still new to handling aquifers, so what I usually do if I embark in a spot with some, I use DFHack's Reveal.exe to plot a dry course which doesn't require pumps, built walls, or any other trick. With a bit of geological planning, I can make a fort around aquifers, and not through them. I've made decent progress with one location, but because of the water being salty, I couldn't bring it to maturity, but I learned it was possible to puncture the land with aquifers without the need to go through them. You just need the right kind of embark.

When I'm done plotting a course, I shut off Reveal (unrevealing everything; I try to ignore anything I see, this is primarily to get underground and a quarry setup.), and continue and take caution when digging deeper as to not unleash a watery hell upon my fort.

[Loyal]

If I want an infinite source of water I'll embark next to a river. Aquifers are just not worth the hassle.

[Shoku]

Rivers kill fps and are more or less obnoxious. I'll take an aquifer over a river any day-

err, I mean, Death to everything I don't understand! I hate learning how things work and thinking of ways to use them! Aquifers go home! Rar!

[Shrugging Khan]

Rivers and oceans are a bitch to drain...so over time, as more and more things fall into them or drown in them, FPS will continuously go down, unless you undertake some titanic endeavour to empty them and get rid everything inside them. Aquifers have a minimal drown-able area, which to drain is piss-easy. FPS is safe!

[Mantonio]

Rivers kill fps and are more or less obnoxious. I'll take an aquifer over a river any day-

err, I mean, Death to everything I don't understand! I hate learning how things work and thinking of ways to use them! Aquifers go home! Rar!

Nice strawman. Armok would be proud. 

To be honest, I can get past one layer of aquifer fine. But how on earth are you supposed to get past two or three? I can imagine you doing it if you slowly used pumps and had a few years, but you DON'T have a few years! You need to prepare a food source and be ready for the inevitable Goblin assaults. I just don't see how anyone has the time.

Edit: To be more concise: You need to beat the aquifer to build the fort. But you need the fort to have time to beat the aquifer.

[Shrugging Khan]

Multiple biomes. MULTIPLE BIOMES.

I feel like nobody in this thread ever conceived of such a notion.

[Loyal]

Rivers kill fps and are more or less obnoxious. I'll take an aquifer over a river any day-

Aquifers kill productivity till you get past them and are more or less obnoxious. I'll take a river over an aquifer any day.

Rivers and oceans are a bitch to drain...so over time, as more and more things fall into them or drown in them, FPS will continuously go down, unless you undertake some titanic endeavour to empty them and get rid everything inside them. Aquifers have a minimal drown-able area, which to drain is piss-easy. FPS is safe!

Things falling in the river are very rarely a concern unless you've got the finesse and architectural acuity of a boulder. What, are you building a drowning trap over the river itself or something? And the few things that DO fall in the river do not have an impact on FPS when compared with any FPS-reducing factor on dry land whatsoever. If it's a brook you're working with, you don't have to worry about even that.

Multiple biomes. MULTIPLE BIOMES.

I feel like nobody in this thread ever conceived of such a notion.

At which point you are no longer working to beat the aquifer, you are working around it altogether.

[Lagslayer]

I like aquifers if I lack another source of infinite water.

[mrbobbyg]

Here's my 2 cents.

I'll go with an aquifer except for conglomerate.  Conglomerate aquifers are a total pain in the Urist unless you're freezing your way through. 

Are there folks hardcore enough to dig through 4+ levels of aquifer?  Because that's far more dwarfy than I.

Also, cave-ins are the dorfiest way to pierce one imo.

[Aspgren]

Aquifiers can be a challenge. I like them when they are a challenge.

My current fort is in a freezing desert WITHOUT an aquifier.. it's kinda hard. The dwarves live from plants gathered underground and from trading.
 Trading iron and gold for food ... but now the goblins are messing it up for me. They bumped off a diplomat and enough dwarves to start tantrums. No sign of a spiral yet though, got an artifact just in time to promote the dining room to legendary.. but another hit and I got problems.

Where was I? Oh. right. Aquifiers. I love them, they make it possible for insanely efficient above-ground fortresses and provide a nice challenge if I want to reach the caverns.

[expwnent]

I like aquifers. They're by far the largest (fastest) infinite source of water. It's a minor hassle to get past them, but once you have one entrance to the surface, you usually don't need a second. You don't have to dig to caverns and build pump stacks to get water to your dwarves. And you get free drainage in case you wanted to temporarily flood the world.

Freezing biomes + aquifers are my favorite. Very easy to get past the aquifer, but you still get access to it, and you can use bucket brigades to build cast ice walls.

[Itnetlolor]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this:
Aquifer use: Power plant for anywhere at any time.

Basically, you just need to secure a ground for making a working aquifer-powerstation. Good for those freezing biomes.

Simple Blueprint:
▓= Aquifer block
█= Solid/tiled/smoothed block
W= Waterwheel
*= Gear Mechanism
1-7= Water level
+= Floor tile

Side:
▓WWW
▓7773
▓███▓
Left= Source, Right= Drain
Top: z=0
██*██
▓WWW
▓WWW
▓WWW
██*██

Top: z=-1
▓████
▓+++
▓+++
▓+++
▓████
 
Top: z=-2
▓███▓
▓███▓
▓███▓
▓███▓
▓███▓

[Fishbulb]

Well yeah, but a water reactor gives you the same result. And it's literally anywhere, since it can be filled by bucket.

I mean, obviously you need water, but other than that, it's free power. Until Toady decides to implement the laws of thermodynamics.

[slothen]

if you have 2 layers of aquifer, then you dig out a space in the first layer and using a pump, drain that layer into itself while you dig a hole into layer two.  then the first layer will automatically drain into level two without the pump, meaning smoothing layer 1 takes minimal effort.  then you move to the next layer.