GC: n
CT: A watershed is the area of land where all of the water that is under it or drains off of it goes into the same place. John Wesley Powell, scientist geographer, put it best when he said that a watershed is: “that area of land, a bounded hydrologic system, within which all living things are inextricably linked by their common water course and where, as humans settled, simple logic demanded that they become part of a community.”
Watersheds come in all shapes and sizes. They cross county, state, and national boundaries. In the continental US, there are 2,110 watersheds; including Hawaii Alaska, and Puerto Rico, there are 2,267 watersheds.
S: EPA – http://water.epa.gov/type/watersheds/whatis.cfm (last access: 9 January 2015)
N: 1. “line separating waters flowing into different rivers,” 1803, from water + shed in a topographical sense of “ridge of high ground between two valleys or lower ground, a divide,” perhaps from shed (v.) in its extended noun sense of “the part of the hair of the head” (14c.). Perhaps a loan-translation of German Wasser-scheide. Figurative sense is attested from 1878. Meaning “ground of a river system” is from 1878.
2. The area draining naturally to a water course or to a given point. (Definition standardized by ISO.)
3. Surface area drained by a portion or the totality of one or several given watercourses.
4. The term “drainage” refers to a specific valley. We commonly use watershed to describe locations in the landscape and so the conditions can vary between drainages (which means between valleys). Drainage refers to the “river” which all the water of that valley drains into. (Reference: Avalanche Specialist, Parks Canada.)
5. In North America, the term watershed is often used instead of catchment area. In the UK, watershed means the line separating two adjacent catchments.
6. drainage basin: term used by Parks Canada.
7. catchment area; catchment basin; gathering ground: terms standardized by ISO.
8. drainage basin; drainage: terms officially approved by the Avalanche Bulletin Terminology Standardization Committee.
9. drainage basin: expression reproduced from the Glosario Provisional de Términos Jurídicos with the permission of the United Nations Office at Geneva.
S: 1. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=watershed&searchmode=none (last access: 9 January 2015). 2. TERMIUMPLUS. 3. GDT. 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8. TERMIUMPLUS.
SYN: hydrological basin
S: GDT; TERMIUMPLUS.
