If you are looking for information on what a drainage basin is, then you have definitely come to the right place. A drainage basin is a land mass where water can be found and they are present all over the world. Indeed, if you took the time to look, you’ll find that literally all of Earth’s seven continents have drainage basins in them, and that these play a very crucial role in nature as part of the water cycle that happens each and every single day. So if you would like to know more about drainage basins, just keep on reading the rest of the essential information and insights below.

What Is A Drainage Basin?

A drainage basin is a part of a larger area of land that holds a certain amount of water in it from melted ice or snow and rain. In a drainage basin system, you will find that water actually converges to one point that’s usually found at the very bottom. This point of convergence is where the water usually exits from the basin in order to connect or join with another body of water that’s larger, such as a lake, ocean, sea, river, or wetland. Drainage basins can be either closed or open. Closed basin systems have water that converges to a point found inside the basin itself, usually referred to as a sink, where the water usually disappears to underground.

Drainage basins are often likened to hydrologic units, but in reality they are actually quite different. Well, they are similar but nowhere near identical as most people might think. Hydrologic units are drainage areas wherein there is a multi-level drainage system set up because of the delineation. Drainage basins are more like a catchment area where water may be collected and let out through a single point of convergence.

There are over 350 known drainage basins all over the world, and as you can imagine they all vary in size and shape. The three largest basins on Earth are the Mississippi basin, the Congo basin, and the Amazon basin. The river that drains the largest amount of water from the largest drainage basin–the Amazon basin–of course is the Amazon river.

When it comes to drainage basins and watersheds, there are a number of different factors that can affect the amount of catchment or flooding. Some of these factors include size, shape, land use, soil type, and topography. In turn, many other factors affect the ones that have been enumerated above. And even small changes with regard to these factors can have very signifant changes to drainage basin systems over a certain amount of time.

So in summary, a drainage basin is:

• an area or an extent of land
• has surface water from melted ice or snow and rainwater
• linked to another type of waterbody such as a river or lake via an exit
• is important in terms of ecology, hydrology, and geomorphology

Without a drainage basin such as that in the Amazon, there Amazon river or any other similar river probably wouldn’t be what it is today. Overall, such drainage basins do affect the lives of those who near it by a huge factor since water is indeed an important resource. Hence, you should get the full picture of the advantages and disadvantages before you decide into living near one.