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A watershed or water basin is the region of land that drains into a specified body of water, such as a river, lake, sea, or ocean. Rain that falls anywhere within a given body of water's watershed will eventually drain into that body of water. A map of the primary watersheds in the world can be found at [1].
The term watershed can also mean the topographical dividing line between water basins: watersheds usually run along mountain ridges. Current usage is watershed divide.
Each area of a drainage basin has its own drainage system.
Watersheds constitute a very important type of ecoregion. They do things such as provide habitats for animals, lessen flooding, and prevent erosion. Pollution anywhere within the watershed can potentially affect life anywhere downstream from it.
Watersheds have been important historically in determining boundaries, particularly in regions where trade by water has been important. For example, the English crown gave the Hudson's Bay Company a monopoly on the Indian trade in the entire Hudson Bay watershed, an area called Rupert's LandRupert's Land was a territory consisting of much of modern Canada. It was originally owned by the Hudson's Bay Company, and was named after Prince Rupert, the first governor of the company. The charter granted to the Company by King Charles II gave it a m. The company later acquired the North American watershed of the Arctic OceanThe Arctic Ocean located entirely in the north polar region, is the smallest of the world's five oceans (after the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, and Southern Ocean), and the shallowest. It occupies a roughly circular basin and covers an are (the North-Western TerritoryThe North-Western Territory at its greatest extent, 1859 The North-Western Territory was a region of British North America until 1870. Named for where it lay in relation to Rupert's Land, the territory at its greatest extent covered what is now Yukon, mai). These lands later became part of CanadaCanada historically the Dominion of Canada is the second-largest, and northernmost, country in the world. It is a decentralized federation of 10 provinces and 3 territories, governed as a constitutional monarchy, and formed in 1867 through an act of Confe as the Northwest TerritoriesA former territory in the United States is called Northwest Territory . Northwest Territories Territoires du Nord-Ouest ( In Detail) ( In Detail) Motto: None Capital Yellowknife Official Languages Chipewyan, Cree, Dogrib or Tli Cho, English, French, Gwich, making up the majority of Canada's land area.
Today, bioregional democracyBioregional democracy (or the Bioregional State is a set of Electoral Reforms designed to force the political process in a democracy to better represent body and environment concerns, e. water quality. This movement is variously called bioregional democra can include agreements of states in a particular watershed to defend it. These include the Great Lakes CommissionThe Great Lakes Commission is an eight-state compact United States agency established in 1955 through the Great Lakes Basin Compact, in order to "promote the orderly, integrated and comprehensive development, use and conservation of the water resources of, which deals with the largest fresh watershed in the world.