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Watershed delineation is the process of identifying the boundary of a watershed, also referred to as a catchment, drainage basin, or river basin.It is an important step in many areas of environmental science, engineering, and management, for example to study flooding, aquatic habitat, or water pollution.
Watersheds of North America are large drainage basins which drain to separate oceans, seas, gulfs, or endorheic basins. There are six generally recognized hydrological continental divides which divide the continent into seven principal drainage basins spanning three oceans ( Arctic , Atlantic and Pacific ) and one endorheic basin.
Other terms for a drainage basin are catchment area, catchment basin, drainage area, river basin, water basin, [3] [4] and impluvium. [5] [6] [7] In North America, they are commonly called a watershed, though in other English-speaking places, "watershed" is used only in its original sense, that of the drainage divide line.
Grey areas are endorheic basins that do not drain to the ocean. The list of drainage basins by area identifies basins (also known as "catchments" or, in North American usage, "watersheds"), sorted by area, which drain to oceans , mediterranean seas , rivers, lakes and other water bodies.
This map of United States water resource subregion hydrologic units updated boundaries to include the ocean as well as the portions of the basins that cross international borders For the use of hydrologists, ecologists, and water-resource managers in the study of surface water flows in the United States, the United States Geological Survey ...
A drainage divide, water divide, ridgeline, [1] watershed, water parting or height of land is elevated terrain that separates neighboring drainage basins. On rugged land, the divide lies along topographical ridges , and may be in the form of a single range of hills or mountains , known as a dividing range .
About two billion years ago, environmental tension altered the environment around the Mississippi River System basin, creating the mountain systems in North America. Erosion put further stress on the areas within the rivers, shaping depressions in the ground. Many years after this, the land continued to be molded into the Mississippi River ...
The watershed transformation treats the image it operates upon like a topographic map, with the brightness of each point representing its height, and finds the lines that run along the tops of ridges. There are different technical definitions of a watershed.