Water gnomes
Mission 4
What is a watershed?
A WATERSHED IS AN AREA OF LAND WHERE ALL WATER THAT IS
UNDERNEATH OR THAT DRAINS OFF, GOES INTO THE SAME PLACE.
IT IS ALSO A PLACE WHERE MANY LIVING ORGANISMS LIVE, HUMANS
OR PLANTS OR ANIMALS.
Watersheds can vary in sizes, some can cross a state, country, or even
national boundaries. In the U.S., counting Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico,
there are about 2,267 watersheds.
how do watersheds work?
THE WAY WATERSHEDS WORK IS WHEN PRECIPITATION COMES DOWN AND RUNOFF GOES INTO A RIVER, STREAM,
LAKE OR POND, THEN THEY TRAVEL INTO ANOTHE RIVER, POND OR LAKE. KEEPS GOING ON INTO BIGGER WATER
SOURCES.
Some big watersheds sources are smaller watersheds, so they way they are all connected is usually by rivers. The good thing
about rivers, is that they can big or small but the only thing that matters is its source and secondly, not as important to rivers, the
target. If the source is big but the river is small the same amount fox water will get through if the source and the river both are big,
just the small river will take a longer amount of time to get to the target, but will cary the same amount of water.
So the way watersheds are connected is, like I said before, rivers. They are connected by rivers when there is a indent in the
ground. Another way is when the rivers are traveling to their target, they usually pick up more water on the way, but if its dry they
usually either have the same amount or lose water, but most of the time, they gain water.
Another way they are connected is by the water cycle. The water from one watershed can picked up and thrown down someplace
else or another watershed.
what are some of the key features of
watersheds?
THERE ARE MANY KEY FEATURES OF WATERSHEDS. SOME OF THEM ARE SIZE,
WATERSHED BOUNDARY, TERRAIN, AND SOIL TYPE.
The size of a watershed is important because even though many watersheds vary in size, bigger
watersheds may have different features and characteristics than smaller watersheds.
Watershed boundaries are equally important. One of the possible boundaries may be mountain
ranges. This is important to know because it determines whether the water in the watershed is flowing
toward, or away from the area.
The next key feature is the terrain of the watershed’s land. You can tell if the water is going to flow
quickly, or slowly, judging by the the way the sides slope.
Finally, the last key feature is the soil type. Sandy soils will absorb water quickly, where hard, clay soils
are less absorbent. Both can cause runoff, erosion, and groundwater, though.
what watershed do we live in, and why should we
take care of it?
OUR WATERSHED IS THE RIVER ROUGE. THE RIVER IS VERY IMPORTANT BECAUSE WE GET OUR WATER FROM
THERE.
The drain holes that you can see on the ground on your street are also part of the watershed because it connects to the River
Rouge. Now lets say that you saw someone about to poor salt and oil down the drain hole. What would you do?
do you know that it was connected to the River Rouge where you get all of your water from. The River Rouge is on the edge of
being polluted and so we need to make sure that we are not throwing stuff in there (like beer bottles, water bottles, cans, ext).
Since the River Rouge IS connected to us we need to take care of it because you don’t want to have some spit or whatever
somebody had in their mouth in your drinking water. It’s very important to keep the water clean because the water from our
watershed is connected to us.
Thanks for watching!