what is a watersheds
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How Watersheds Work ­A watershed is an area of land that feeds all the water running under it and draining off of it into a body of water.It combines with other watersheds to form a network of rivers and streams that progressively drain into larger water areas. Topography determines where and how water flows.Ridge tops surrounding a body of water determine the boundary of a watershed. Imagine turning an open umbrella upside down in the rain.t combines with other watersheds to form a network of rivers and streams that progressively drain into larger water areas. Topography determines where and how water flows. Ridge tops surrounding a body of water determine the boundary of a watershed.
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How Watersheds Work The Environmental Protection Agency defines a watershed as any body of land that flows downhill into a waterway. Basically, watershed is a broad term used to describe how water flows across land to feed streams, rivers and lakes [source: Environmental Protection Agency ]. All of these watersheds fit together like puzzle pieces to form our land masses. All land masses feed into a body of water, whether it feeds into the Mississippi River or your backyard pond. Obviously, water cannot travel uphill, so all watersheds are determined by topography.
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Drainage Basins and Watersheds Often, small drainage basins or watersheds combine with one another, creating larger and larger networks of drainage basins. All of these combined drainage basins are together referred to simply as a drainage basin, or as one watershed. The area between two drainage basins is known as a drainage divide. In North America a massive drainage divide known as the Continental Divide separates the water that flows towards the Pacific Ocean, with water that drains towards the Gulf of Mexico, and towards the Atlantic Ocean.
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What is a watershed? A watershed is the area of land where all of the water that falls in it and drains off of it goes to a common outlet.Watersheds can be as small as a footprint or large enough to encompass all the land that drains water into rivers that drain into Chesapeake Bay, where it enters the Atlantic Ocean.ot all precipitation that falls in a watershed flows out. To picture a watershed as a plastic-covered area of land that collects precipitation is overly simplistic and not at all like a real-world watershed.
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Drainage basin Each drainage basin is separated topographically from adjacent basins by a perimeter, the drainage divide making up a succession of higher geographical features (such as a ridge, hill or mountains) forming a barrier.n North America, the term watershed is commonly used to mean a drainage basin, though in other English-speaking countries, it is used only in its original sense, to mean a drainage divide, the former meaning an area, the latter the high elevation perimeter of that area.
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- Watershed Search. 17. 18. estuary: a place where fresh water mixes with salty sea water watershed: all the land area that drains into a body of water habitat: the place where a plant or animal lives food chain: the transfer of energy (food) from plants to one or moreorganisms.lants An estuary food web begins with theproducers. Plants use sunlight energy forphotosynthesis, combining carbon dioxide(CO 2) and water (H 2 O) to make sugar andoxygen. The sunlight energy is stored inthe plants which can be eaten and used byanimals.
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Watershed Analysis: What, How, Influencing Factors & Applications In simple words watershed is a region of land within which water flows down into a specified body, such as a river, lake, sea, or ocean; a drainage basin. The word watershed is sometimes used interchangeably with drainage basin or catchment. Ridges and hills that separate two watersheds are called the drainage divide.
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Drainage Basins and Watersheds Drainage Basin / Watershed. The precipitation that falls into a valley, and on surrounding interfluves flows downward usually creating a stream or river. The area of land that contributes water to a stream or river is called a watershed, or drainage basin. Small drainage basins generally contribute to streams, while the water from larger drainage basins come together to form large rivers.
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Drainage Basins: Definition & Characteristics This type of water is referred to as runoff, because it is water that falls on the ground and flows across the surface until it hits a stream. Each waterway has a drainage basin, or watershed, which is an area of land where all precipitation that falls will drain or flow downhill into a specific stream.Based on where rain falls, and in what drainage basin, determines what waterway it will end up traveling to.he drainage basin of a larger river system is comprised of many branching networks. It starts at high elevation with first-order streams, which are small streams that originate from springs. First-order streams are where the system begins, and they do not have any other streams flowing into them.
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Drainage basin Drainage basin, also called Catchment Area, or (in North America) Watershed, area from which all precipitation flows to a single stream or set of streams.
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- A drainage basin or catchment basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain, melting snow, or ice converges to a single point at a lower elevation, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean.n closed (endorheic) drainage basins the water converges to a single point inside the basin, known as a sink, which may be a permanent lake, dry lake, or a point where surface water is lost underground.
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What is Watershed Management? Watershed management is an adaptive, comprehensive, integrated multi-resource management planning process that seeks to balance healthy ecological, economic, and cultural/social conditions within a watershed.
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- A watershed (or drainage basin) is the geographic. area from which water in a particular stream, lake. or estuary originates (Figure 2). All lands in the. watershed drain toward the stream, lake or bay. and contribute pollutants to these waters.
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Watershed Management A watershed is an area of land in which all of the water that enters it, drains into a common waterbody.Also known as a drainage basin, it can be thought of as a funnel that collects surface water and ground water and drains it into a single stream, lake, ocean, or other reservoir. watershed is an area of land in which all of the water that enters it, drains into a common waterbody.
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What is a watershed? A watershed is the area of land where all of the water that falls in it and drains off of it goes to a common outlet. Watersheds can be as small as a footprint or large enough to encompass all the land that drains water into rivers that drain into Chesapeake Bay, where it enters the Atlantic Ocean.he word watershed is sometimes used interchangeably with drainage basin or catchment. Ridges and hills that separate two watersheds are called the drainage divide. The watershed consists of surface water--lakes, streams, reservoirs, and wetlands--and all the underlying ground water.
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Catchment groups A catchment is the area of land feeding a river system. All the water deposited on the ground within the catchment combines and flows down to form a single interconnected network of waterbodies including streams, rivers, lakes, wetlands and aquifers.
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- 1 Drainage basin-the area of land drained by a river. 2  Catchment area-the area within the drainage basin. 3  Watershed-the edge of highland surrounding a drainage basin.4  It marks the boundary between two drainage basins. 5  Source-The beginning or start of a river. 6  Confluence-the point at which two rivers or streams join. Watershed-the edge of highland surrounding a drainage basin. 2  It marks the boundary between two drainage basins. 3  Source-The beginning or start of a river. 4  Confluence-the point at which two rivers or streams join.
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Why are Watersheds important? Watersheds are more than just drainage areas in and around our communities. They are necessary to support habitat for plants and animals, and they provide drinking water for people and wildlife. They also provide the opportunity for recreation and enjoyment of nature.
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- A watershed describes an area of land that contains a common set of streams and rivers that all drain into a single larger body of water, such as a larger river, a lake or an ocean. For example, the Mississippi River watershed is an enormous watershed. All the tributaries to the Mississippi that collect rainwater eventually drain into the Mississippi, which eventually drains into the Gulf of Mexico. Rainwater that falls on more than half of the United States subsequently drains into the Mississippi.
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- A tributary. is a smaller stream or river that joins a larger stream or main river. A watershed boundary, also called a drainage divide, marks the outer-most limit of a watershed. A watershed is a tract of land drained by a river and its tributaries.Anything that affects a watershed may eventually impact its tributaries and river as well as the water body at the mouth of the river.he. river mouth. is the place where a river flows into a larger body of water, such as another river, a lake, or an ocean. Upstream. is in the direction of or nearer to the source of a river.
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- A drainage basin or catchment basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain, melting snow, or ice converges to a single point at a lower elevation, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean.or example, a tributary stream of a brook that joins a small river is tributary of a larger river, which is thus part of a series of successively smaller area but higher elevation drainage basins. Similarly, the Missouri and Ohio rivers are each part of their own drainage basins and that of the Mississippi River.
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Watershed Management There is more than one watershed in Columbia, and all of them are defined by the same principle — the water that falls onto the ground drains into streams, rivers and other bodies of water. A watershed is defined as the area that drains to any specific body of water. Columbia is in the Little Patuxent River Watershed, the Middle Patuxent River Watershed and the Dorsey Run Watershed. Smaller watersheds within each of these drain to the streams that feed the rivers.
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What is a watershed? Watersheds are important because the streamflow and the water quality of a river are affected by things, human-induced or not, happening in the land area above the river-outflow point.idges and hills that separate two watersheds are called the drainage divide. The watershed consists of surface water--lakes, streams, reservoirs, and wetlands--and all the underlying ground water.
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Introduction to the River The Mississippi River watershed is the fourth largest in the world, extending from the Allegheny Mountains in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west. The watershed includes all or parts of 31 states and 2 Canadian Provinces.
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Water Resources APES In North America, the term watershed is commonly used to mean a drainage basin, though in other English-speaking countries, it is used only in its original sense, to mean a drainage divide, the former meaning an area, the latter the high elevation perimeter of that area.n North America, the term watershed is commonly used to mean a drainage basin, though in other English-speaking countries, it is used only in its original sense, to mean a drainage divide, the former meaning an area, the latter the high elevation perimeter of that area.
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WATER MANAGEMENT Also referred to as Watershed Management, it is the analysis, protection, development, operation, or maintenance of the land, vegetation, and water resources of a drainage basin for the conservation of all its resources for the benefit of its residents.