What is a watershed?

Answer 1

"Depending on where we live, we cross quite a few brooks, creeks, runs, branches, gulches, arroyos, bayous, ditches, or channels as we drive to work each day. Each stream we cross is part of a massive network of perhaps three million streams that drain to the rivers and, ultimately, to the sea. Each stream has its own watershed that circumscribes all of the land that drains to the point where we cross it. "

http://www.cwp.org/whats_a_watershed.htm

Answer 2

A watershed is an area of land in which all the natural water sources drain into the same location. You usually define the watershed by the bodies of water that drain into it.

Example - Rivers X, Y, & Z are all part of the Lake Smith watershed. Technically though, the land defines the area because if rain falls in that land area, it will eventually make its way to the same drain as the rivers.

Answer 3

As I understand it, it is the area of land that feeds water into a particular river system. The Ohio River system encompasses the watershed area for which rainwater drains into the Ohio River and its tributaries. The area is bounded by something called a headwater, which is the dividing line from which rain drains into one watershed area or another. For example, the Continental Divide is the dividing line from which water drains into the Pacific Ocean, or else the Arctic, Atlantic or Gulf watershed systems.

Answer 4

Watershed - The total land area that contributes runoff to a stream or river is called a watershed. It may also be called a drainage basin or catchment area.

Answer 5

here's an illusturation pic. of a watershed http://www.wildeducation.org/programs/nww06/watershed_illustration2.jpg

Answer 6

Isn't this the top of the range of mountains where the rain falls down one way on one side, and down the other side of the mountain on the other side?

Answer 7

A shed full of water.