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A watershed or water basin is the region of land that drains into a specified body of water, such as a river, lake, sea, or ocean. Rain that falls anywhere within a given body of water's watershed will eventually drain into that body of water. A map of the primary watersheds in the world can be found at [1].
The term watershed can also mean the topographical dividing line between water basins: watersheds usually run along mountain ridges. Current usage is watershed divide.
Each area of a drainage basin has its own drainage system.
Watersheds constitute a very important type of ecoregion. They do things such as provide habitats for animals, lessen flooding, and prevent erosion. Pollution anywhere within the watershed can potentially affect life anywhere downstream from it.
Watersheds have been important historically in determining boundaries, particularly in regions where trade by water has been important. For example, the English crown gave the Hudson's Bay Company a monopoly on the Indian trade in the entire Hudson Bay watershed, an area called Rupert's LandRupert's Land was a territory consisting of much of modern Canada. It was originally owned by the Hudson's Bay Company, and was named after Prince Rupert, the first governor of the company. The charter granted to the Company by King Charles II gave it a m. The company later acquired the North American watershed of the Arctic OceanThe Arctic Ocean located entirely in the north polar region, is the smallest of the world's five oceans (after the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, and Southern Ocean), and the shallowest. It occupies a roughly circular basin and covers an are (the North-Western TerritoryThe North-Western Territory at its greatest extent, 1859 The North-Western Territory was a region of British North America until 1870. Named for where it lay in relation to Rupert's Land, the territory at its greatest extent covered what is now Yukon, mai). These lands later became part of CanadaCanada historically the Dominion of Canada is the second-largest, and northernmost, country in the world. It is a decentralized federation of 10 provinces and 3 territories, governed as a constitutional monarchy, and formed in 1867 through an act of Confe as the Northwest TerritoriesA former territory in the United States is called Northwest Territory . Northwest Territories Territoires du Nord-Ouest ( In Detail) ( In Detail) Motto: None Capital Yellowknife Official Languages Chipewyan, Cree, Dogrib or Tli Cho, English, French, Gwich, making up the majority of Canada's land area.
Today, bioregional democracyBioregional democracy (or the Bioregional State is a set of Electoral Reforms designed to force the political process in a democracy to better represent body and environment concerns, e. water quality. This movement is variously called bioregional democra can include agreements of states in a particular watershed to defend it. These include the Great Lakes CommissionThe Great Lakes Commission is an eight-state compact United States agency established in 1955 through the Great Lakes Basin Compact, in order to "promote the orderly, integrated and comprehensive development, use and conservation of the water resources of, which deals with the largest fresh watershed in the world.
One can divide up the world among the watersheds of the oceans and largest seas.
The Atlantic OceanFor other uses, see Atlantic (disambiguation The Atlantic Ocean is Earth's second-largest ocean, covering approximately one-fifth of its surface. The ocean's name, derived from Greek mythology, means the " Sea of Atlas". This ocean occupies an elongated, watershed consists of the Saint Lawrence River and Great Lakes watersheds, plus the Eastern Seaboard, Canadian Maritimes, Newfoundland and Labrador in North America; nearly all of South America (that portion east of the Andes); northern Europe; and the greatest portion of western Sub-Saharan Africa.
The Caribbean Sea watershed consists of all of the American interior (the Louisiana Purchase, which involved the watershed of the Mississippi River); eastern Central America; and far northern South America.
The Mediterranean Sea watershed consists of much of northeastern Africa, including Egypt, Libya, and Sudan (the Nile watershed), as well as southern and eastern Europe, Turkey, and the Levant.
Of course, the previous two can be considered part of the Atlantic watershed, since the Caribbean Sea is part of the Atlantic ocean, and the Atlantic drains into the Mediterranean due to its higher evaporation.
The Indian Ocean watershed consists of the eastern coast of Africa, the coasts of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, the Indian subcontinent, Burma, and most of Australia.
The Pacific Ocean watershed consists of much of China, southeastern Russia, Japan, Korea, most of Indonesia and Malaysia, the Philippines, the rest of the Pacific islands, and the northeast coast of Australia; as well as Alaska, British Columbia, the western United States and Central America, and the coast of South America (the smaller portion west of the Andes).
The Arctic Ocean watershed consists of the aforementioned Rupert's Land, and most of the territory of Russia.
In addition to the oceanic watersheds, there are numerous endorheic watersheds, inland basins which drain into no ocean. The largest of these consists of much of the interior of Asia, and drains into the Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea. Other basins include the Great Basin in the United States, much of the Sahara Desert, the watershed of the Okavango River, highlands near the African Great Lakes, the interiors of Australia and the Arabian Peninsula, and parts in Mexico and the Andes.
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