I've been playing with arcHydro and related processes a bit and have run into an obstacle. I have been creating stream networks from the flow accumulation, direction, and stream order functions. When converted from raster to polygon each segment of the streams is a unique feature within the output feature class. I would like it so that if there is no change in order from one segment to the next, that it is the same feature. Easy enough, dissolve.
The issue now is that where two streams of the same order come together to form a stream of a greater order, the two smaller order streams dissolve into 'one' stream as they share a vertex (their shared outlet which is the inlet of the greater order stream subsequent). Difficult to describe without visuals but I'm hoping this was clear.
EDIT I'm attaching some visuals to help clarify.
The first image is the layer as it converts from raster; with each line segment being it's own feature.
The second image is following a dissolve. The 'conflict' areas are those circled in red, where a common vertice has caused two streams of the same order to dissolve together when in fact they only share an outlet. For my purposes, I don't want this to be the case. Hoping the visuals help clarify.