What is a Watershed Webquest?

Name: Dylan Jones

Access the following link and answer the questions:

http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/watershed.html

1. What is a watershed? The area of land where all of the water that falls in it and drains off of it
goes to a common outlet.

2. Watersheds can vary in size. True

3. What type of watershed is shown in the map? National 8-digit hydrologic units

4. The word watershed is sometimes used interchangeably with drainage basin or catchment.

5. Ridges and hills that separate two watersheds are called then drainage divide.

6. What does watershed consist of? surface water--lakes, streams, reservoirs, and wetlands--and all
the underlying ground water

7. Larger watersheds contain many smaller watersheds. It all depends on the outflow point.

8. What is the outflow point? all of the land that drains water to the outflow point is the watershed
for that outflow location.

9. Why are watersheds important? the streamflow and the water quality of a river are affected by
things, human-induced or not, happening in the land area "above" the river-outflow point.

A Watershed is a precipitation collector:

1. Name 6 factors that determine how much of the streamflow will flow by the monitoring site?
Precipitation, Infiltration, Soil Characteristics, Soil Saturation, Land Cover, Slope of the Land
2. What is the greatest factor controlling streamflow?
Precipitation
3. The amount of water that will infiltrate (soak in over time) depends on which four characteristics?
Evaporation, Transpiration, Storage, Water Use by People
4. Water from rainfall returns to the atmosphere largely through Evaporation.

5. The root systems of plants absorb water from the surrounding soil in various amounts through the
process of Transpiration.

6. Reservoirs store water and increase the amount of water that evaporates and infiltrates.

River Basins of N.C.:

http://wwweenorthcarolina.org/riverbasins-interactive.html
Choose one of the NC. River Basins and list out 10 facts about the one you
investigate. Also include one picture that best represents a main feature of
the River Basin.
Catawba River Basin
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Begins on the eastern slopes of the blue ridge mountains

Flows through the Pisgah National Forest

The basin is also a land of lakes

Contains most major dams of any North Carolina river

Dams along the basin created 7 reservoirs

Named for the tribe that first settled there

Most densely populated river basin in the state

More than 2 million people live there

The Catawba Indians have lived there for more than 10,000 years

Offers many biking, hiking, walking activites