ROMMELYN JOYCE FERNANDEZ

BSCE 4B
WHAT IS WATERSHED?
 It’s a land area that channels rainfall and
snowmelt to creeks, streams, and rivers,
and eventually to outflow points such as
reservoirs, bays, and the ocean.
 It is a region or area drained by a river,
stream, etc.
 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.
 The word watershed is sometimes used
interchangeably with drainage basin or
catchment.
 Ridges and hills that separate two watersheds
are called the drainage divide.
 Larger watersheds contain many smaller
watersheds. It all depends on the outflow
point; all of the land that drains water to the
outflow point is the watershed for that
outflow location.
An example is the largest watershed in the United States is
the Mississippi River Watershed, which drains 1.15 million
square miles.
Shown here: an aerial view of Drakes Bay,
part of California's Tomales-Drake watershed.
La Mesa Watershed Reservation
in the PHILIPPINES
 The size of a watershed is defined on several
scales—referred to as its Hydrologic Unit
Codes(HUC)—based on the geography that is most
relevant to its specific area.