Would it overflow

dwarf-fortress

I'm in need of lots of water (and power :)), but I'd like to eliminate fun and seeing how water always gets me (I love water; my dwarves less so) I thought I'd ask here before building.

pump stacks

  1. Top left: Ignore
  2. Bottom center: Pump stack
  3. Top right: Reservoir

The reservoir continues 5z up and down. Below the reservoir there's a small (12×2 tiles) basin for my dwarves to fish from, like so:

_________
-> wwwwww|
    |wwww|
    |wwww|    ______
    |wwwwwwwwww -> to water dump

If I were to glitch pump water to the top would it overflow the basin?
FYI, the water dump channel is rather small (1×1 channel) and enlarging it is incredibly dwarfy inconvenient.

Best Answer

It could overflow. It depends how quickly the water can leave the basin to the water dump.

If the basin isn't full and the water always has somewhere to flow, everything will be fine. The water will flow through the basin and into the water dump. This does assume the water dump actually leads somewhere of course.

If, however, the water can't escape fast enough, water pressure will cause fun. Water pressure means that water in a system will rise to make everything level, even if it flows around a U-bend (as you've done. The water will continue to flow into the basin and the basin will overflow, flooding the room above.

For safety, you may want to add an emergency shutoff switch or pressure plate if it does overflow so you can shut off the pumps.