A watershed —
is an area of land that drains to a certain creek, river, or
lake.
The edges of a watershed will be at the top of a hill or mountain.
All the rain that falls on one side of the hill drains to one creek or river (or 'watershed').
All the rain that falls on the other side of the hill drains to a different watershed.
Illustration thanks to 'Rivers of Alabama'
A watershed may also be called:
- a drainage basin
- a river basin
- a catchment area (it catches the rain)
- a river valley, or
- a river and its tributaries.
The upper part of a watershed, where the creek or river gets started,
is called the 'headwaters'.
What is a Watershed? — Ask the Experts:
- United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
- Conservation Technology Information Center
— Purdue University
Be sure to view their videos. - Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
- The Rhode Island Watershed Partnership
- The Academy of Natural Sciences
-
Fairfax County, Virginia
This includes a nice illustration of a watershed and its boundaries. -
NCOneMap Watershed Map Viewer
It may be slow but is worth the wait, You can zoom into your region or neighborhood and you can select which features (layers) to show - roads, rivers, floodplains, etc. - The Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association
- The Center for Watershed Protection
-
MAP AS ART - This is a great lesson plan with resources to link stormwater and watershed
education into the North Carolina 5th grade Science, Social Studies, Information Skills, and Visual Arts curricula.
