River source
Starting point of a river / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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"Headwater" redirects here. For other uses, see Headwater (disambiguation).
This article is about the heads of rivers. For the insurance company, see RiverSource.
The headwater of a river or stream is the farthest point on each of its tributaries upstream from its mouth/estuary into a lake/sea or its confluence with another river. Each headwater is considered one of the river's sources, as it is the place where surface runoffs from rainwater, meltwater and/or spring water begin accumulating into a more substantial and consistent flow that becomes a first-order tributary of that river. The tributary with the longest course downstream of the headwaters is regarded as the main stem.