Essential river guidelines for mapping

[RobA]

The parts about sea level in relation to salty lakes aren't generally true. Basins with internal drainage (lakes or salt pans with no outflow) are characteristic of arid regions and don't have any relation to sea level.
Virtually all of the salt lakes/playas (dried up salt lakes) in the Western US are well above sea level, for example, as are those in the Taklimakan and Alptiplano deserts in China and South America. Some of the more well-known examples of salt lakes such as the Dead Sea and Salton Sea are below sea level, but that's just coincidence. If you're a basin below sea level that's not full of water then it's because you're having internal drainage, not because you're below sea level.

The real trick is for this to happen the water has to evaporate, not seep into the earth. If the ground is porous, the water (minerals and all) will just drain away. It is only when the ground is non-porous, or when it evaporates faster than it seeps that the minerals build up and forms salt pan or salt flat.

-Rob A>