What is a Watershed?

What is a watershed?

A watershed (or drainage basin) is an area of land that drains all of its waters through a network of streams and rivers into larger bodies of water.

Everybody lives in a watershed because every part of the earth catches some form of water.

What is a Watershed?

• An area of land, from ridge top to ridge top, that collects, stores, and releases water to a common point, such as a river or a lake

What’s in a Watershed?

Streams Rivers Lakes Wetlands Hills Mountains

Farms Cities Houses Humans Animals Plants

Watersheds are separated by ridges of high ground called divides.

What separates one watershed from another watershed?

Every watershed is bounded by divides.

Different streams or rivers empty each watershed.

The WolfcreekWatershed

The Lower Great Miami River Watershed

Ohio Watersheds

Why is it important to know about watersheds?

We know this because of how much life we see around water.

WATER IS CRITICAL

FOR LIFE

Where is the water in this picture?

Every drop of water that touches the surface of the ground does one of three things …

1. It evaporates. Evaporation puts water back into the

atmosphere to again become rain or snow.

Every drop of water that touches the surface of the ground does one of three things … (cont’d)

2. It soaks into the ground. Once it soaks into the ground, it

becomes groundwater, also known as an aquifer.

3. It runs downhill along the ground. This is surface water, which makes

its way into streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, and eventually, into the ocean.

Watershed Science is …

• The study of all the chemical, physical and ecological processes within watersheds.

Sciences of Watershed Science

Economics Social Studies

HistoryGeography

Geology Biology

ChemistryPhysics Engineerin

g

Legal Studies

Art

Journalism

Mathematics

Also Involved in Watershed Science

Literature

We all live in a watershed.

Watershed

An area of land that drains all its water into a network of streams and rivers that drain the area is called a …

Topography is …

water flow

direction and

speed water flows

Earth’s land forms

and is shaped by

…and determines …

QUESTIONS?