Wikipedia:WikiProject Lakes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lake Huron
Lake Huron - Lake Huron and the other Great Lakes
Lake Huron and the other Great Lakes
Location North America
Coordinates 45°0′N, 83°0′W
Lake type glacial lake
Primary outflows St. Clair River
Basin countries Canada, United States
Max. length 332 km
Max. width 245 km
Surface area 59,600 km²
Average depth 59 m
Max. depth 229 m
Water volume 3,540 km³
Residence time (of lake water) 22 years
Shore length1 6,157 km
Surface elevation 176 m
Islands Mackinac, Manitoulin
Settlements see article
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure.
Shortcut:
WP:LAKES

This WikiProject aims to consolidate and unify pages relating to lakes around the world. This page includes guidelines and a number of resources we can use to achieve our goal. All editors are welcome to join this project; if you wish to participate, please add yourself to the list of participants below.

Please remember that these are guidelines only, and may not apply in every situation. However, the lake infobox should be included on every lake oriented article. In addition, please add the project message box to the talk page of any lake article you encounter (see project message box below) - this will allow other editors to find this project, and add the talk page to the WikiProject Lakes category.

Contents

[edit] Title

WikiProject lakes

Lakes
articles		 Importance
Top High Mid Low None Total
Quality
Featured article FA 3 3
A 1 1 2
Good article GA 1 8 9
B 4 5 2 1 27 39
Start 3 10 22 15 587 637
Stub 1 13 31 117 3302 3464
Assessed 8 29 55 134 3928 4154
Unassessed 1 20 1 2 978 1002
Total 9 49 56 136 4906 5156

[edit] Scope

This WikiProject aims primarily to describe the Earth's lakes in a consistent and complete fashion, complete with {{Infobox lake}} template.

[edit] Parentage

The parent of this WikiProject is WikiProject Geography.

[edit] Descendant WikiProjects

Currently proposed & under consideration: Wikipedia Reservoir project.

[edit] Similar Wikiprojects

For naming in geography:

Projects covering other geographical features:

[edit] Lakes needing attention

New articles with Infobox
New articles for "waterbodies":
AlexNewArtBot/WaterbodiesSearchResult

Please post more as you come across them, and remove them as they are brought up-to-spec.

[edit] Popular articles

From Top 100,000 of February 2008

[edit] Participants

Everyone is welcome to join this project, simply add your name to the list below if you wish to participate.

[edit] Userbox

Placing {{User WikiProject Lakes}} on your user page will add this userbox to your page and add you to the list of users category.

WikiProject Lakes
 This user is a member of WikiProject Lakes.


[edit] Naming

See also: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (landforms)

As of the first stages of development, no written-in-stone rules apply to lake articles, however this may change. Please discuss this in the project's talk page.

[edit] Multiple lakes with the same name

Due to the fact that there are countless lakes in the world with the same name, the following method of disambiguation is proposed:

  • The most important lake can stay at the un-disambiguated title, lesser known ones add a qualifier. Perhaps Fork Lake, Fork Lake (disambiguation), Fork Lake (Alberta).

[edit] Lakes with multiple names

Some lakes have names with multiple spellings which vary with the different countries the lake borders. Occasionally, a lake can have several genuinely distinct names. The following rules are suggested for choosing a primary name for such a lake:

  • If the lake is particularly famous under one name, then choose that name.
  • If the portion of the lake that uses a particular name is much more distinct than other sections, then use that as the article's name.
  • If everything else is equal, then choose the name for the largest portion of the lake.

[edit] Article structure

[edit] Lead paragraph

The first paragraph should be a self-contained description including the most important things to know; name(s) - both historic and current - in bold, location (continent/countries/seaboards), and notable facts about the lake, such as largest port (see Wikipedia:Lead section for guidelines).

[edit] Hydrology

The narrative description of the lake should proceed from the main inflows of the lake downstream to its outflows, noting direction, major tributaries, human settlements, and statistics. This should be at least a paragraph, may be several paragraphs for famous lakes.

This section can include numerical data on length, volume, drainage basin, etc.

Info on water basins can be found at World resources Institute (site is down; archive). Antarctic water basin information can be researched using USGS maps [1]

[edit] Geology

The evolution of some lakes has been well explored. Such information should be placed here, with a suitable discussion of all POVs when possible.

[edit] Natural history

Mention distinctive plants and animals associated with any part of the lake.

[edit] History

Describe what is known about the different inhabitants along the river, along with a description of the scientific exploration expeditions/efforts.

[edit] Economy

Countless lakes have been used as means of transportation, fishing, power generation, etc, and are still used so today. All such information should be described here. Stylistically, this can be a good segue from history, connecting past uses of the lake to present-day uses.

[edit] Lists

List the cities and towns around the lake, complete with identifiable info such as population.

List the major flora and fauna such as species of interest.

[edit] References and external links

Preferably refer to history, ecology, public policy, books, websites, etc.

[edit] Infobox

See

[edit] Images

There should be at least one picture, preferably a typical view. Important lakes should have additional pictures illustrating their notable features. Maps of the lake's drainage basin would be an asset.

Articles where the infobox doesn't include an image yet are listed on:

See also: Wikipedia:WikiProject Lakes/Galleries

[edit] Indexing

The article List of lakes is only for major lakes, ordered by continent.

[edit] Categories

[–] Lakes
[+] Lakes by country
[+] Lakes by continent
[+] Lakes by type
[+] Lakeshore cities
[+] Lake cryptids
[+] Fictional lakes
[+] Former lakes
[+] Islands in lakes
[+] Lists of lakes
[+] Salt flats
[+] Shipwrecks in lakes

The main subcategories of Category:Lakes are listed on the right.

[edit] Categorization by location

[–] Lakes by continent
[+] Lakes of Africa
[+] Lakes of Antarctica
[+] Lakes of Asia
[+] Lakes of Europe
[+] Lakes of North America
[+] Lakes of Oceania
[+] Lakes of South America

Every article should belong to a category. If the lake is restricted to one or more states/provinces in a country, use separate categories for each one, e.g. Lake Tahoe belongs in Category:Lakes of Nevada as well as Category:Lakes of California. If it is restricted to one country, list in Category:country lakes. If it exists within several countries, list in each country category and maybe Category: continent lakes.

Please use categories carefully to get the right one(s) linked on your page. It is fine to use more than one ... in fact it may be encouraged. However, don't categorize a lake where it doesn't belong. If there are any questions, please use the Talk page.

[edit] Categorization by type

If the category for the specific Lake#Types_of_lakes is available, please add it in addition to the category by location.

[edit] Other lake-related articles

[edit] List articles

See Category:Lists of lakes for a comprehensive list.

Please add more as you find them

Infoboxes:

Articles with lake project message on related talk page:

[edit] Related categories

[edit] Project message box

The message box {{lake project}} or {{lake project|class=|importance=}} is available to add to talk pages of lake articles and gives:

WikiProject Lakes
 WikipediaWikiProject Lakes is part of WikiProject Lakes, a WikiProject which aims to systematically improve lake-related articles using the tools on the Project page. You are welcome and encouraged to edit the article attached to this page and to join the project.
WikiProject Lakes
??? This article has not yet received a rating on the Project's quality scale. Please rate the article and then leave a short summary here to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article.

[edit] Sources/References/External links

Please put any additional sources you come across here.

Languages