Explanation:
A watershed is simply the land that water flows across or through on its way to a common stream, river, or lake.
A watershed can be very large (e.g. draining thousands of square miles to a major river or lake or the ocean), or very small, such as a 20-acre watershed that drains to a pond.
A small watershed that nests inside of a larger watershed is sometimes referred to as a subwatershed. The beginnings of a water source are called headwaters. The spot where headwaters progressively join other water sources is called the confluence, and the endpoint of the waterways that open into the main body of water is called the mouth
Imagine turning an open umbrella upside down in the rain. Rain that hits anywhere within the umbrella's surface area would go to the bottom at the center of the umbrella. Any rain that didn't hit the umbrella would fall to the ground. The umbrella is like a watershed; it collects everything that falls into it
1)How big is a watershed?
The size of a watershed (also called a drainage basin or catchment) 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. A watershed can be small, such as a modest inland lake or a single county.
some watersheds encompass thousands of square miles and may contain streams, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and underlying groundwater that are hundreds of miles inland. The largest watershed in the United States is the Mississippi River Watershed, which drains 1.15 million square miles from all or parts of 31 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces stretching from the Rockies to the Appalachians!
2)Why are watersheds important to humans?
watersheds are necessary for virtually any high quality outdoor recreation sites involving the use of lakes, rivers, or streams. Great fishing opportunities are usually due to healthy watersheds that surround the waters that people love to fish.
Your drinking water, if it comes from a surface water source, might be substantially less expensive to treat, if a healthy watershed around the water source filters pollution for free.
Your property values may be higher, if you are fortunate enough to reside near healthy rather than impaired waters.
3) Why are watersheds important to wildlife?
natural vegetation in the landscape and good aquatic habitat. Healthy watersheds not only help protect water quality, but also provide greater benefits than degraded watersheds to wildlife that live there
4) In which water she’d do you live?
You should live in a healthy watershed which natural land cover supports:
dynamic hydrologic and geomorphologic processes within their natural range of variation,habitat of sufficient size and connectivity to support native aquatic and riparian species, and
physical and chemical water quality conditions able to support healthy biological communities
5) What part of environment, nature and man made make up a watershed?
Rivers, lakes, land, vegetation, drainage e.t.c
(Helpgeomorphologic: Pertaining to the study of physical landscapes (landforms) and the processes that create and mold them)
(Helphydrologic: Pertaining to the science dealing with the properties, distribution, and circulation of water.)
