Drainage Baisin

Drainage basin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

Example of a drainage basin. The dashed line is the main water divide of the hydrographic basin
A drainage basin is an extent or area of land where water from rain and melting snow or ice drains downhill into a body of water, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea or ocean. The drainage basin includes both the streams and rivers that convey the water as well as the land surfaces from which water drains into those channels, and is separated from adjacent basins by a drainage divide.[1]
The drainage basin acts as a funnel by collecting all the water within the area covered by the basin and channelling it into a waterway. Each drainage basin is separated topographically from adjacent basins by a geographical barrier such as a ridge, hill or mountain, which is known as a water divide.
Other terms that are used to describe a drainage basin are catchment, catchment area, catchment basin, drainage area, river basin, water basin and watershed.[2] In the technical sense, a watershed refers to a divide that separates one drainage area from another drainage area.[3] However, in the United States and Canada, the term is often used to mean a drainage basin or catchment area itself. Drainage basins drain into other drainage basins in a hierarchical pattern, with smaller sub-drainage basins combining into larger drainage basins.[4]
The United States Environmental Protection Agency launched the website Watershed Central for the US public to exchange information and locate resources needed to restore local drainage basins in that country.
Contents[hide]   * 1 Major drainage basins of the world       * 1.1 Map       * 1.2 Ocean basins       * 1.3 Largest river basins       * 1.4 Endorheic drainage basins   * 2 Importance of drainage basins       * 2.1 Geopolitical boundaries       * 2.2 Hydrology       * 2.3 Geomorphology       * 2.4 Ecology       * 2.5 Resource management   * 3... [continues]

Read full essay