Drainage Basin Review Sheet

Key Terms:
What is a drainage basin? A drainage basin is an area of land drained by the main
river and its boundaries

What is a watershed? A watershed is a boundary made of a ridge of higher land that

separates one drainage basin from another

What is a source? The source is where the river begins

What is a mouth? The end of a river where it meets the sea

What is a confluence? The junction where two rivers meet

What is a tributary? A small channel that flows out of the main channel

What is a distributary? A small channel that flows into the main channel

Introduction
The formula for drainage density: the total length of all the streams in the drainage
basin / the total area of the drainage basin

Where is density the highest and the lowest? Density is the highest in impermeable
rocks and clays. It is the lowest in permeable rocks and clays. The higher the density,
the higher the risks of flooding.
What does the drainage basin store? The drainage basin stores water, either in its
main river and lake or underground in soils and rocks.

What is the distribution of water? Rivers form a part of the hydrological cycle.
- The seas and oceans contain 97% of the world’s water. However, as it is
saltwater, it cannot be used by terrestrial plants and animals like humans.
- 2% of the water is stored in ice caps and snow in the alpines and arctic areas.
- The remaining 1% is fresh water on land or water vapor in the atmosphere. As
the amount of freshwater is limited, it is constantly recycled.

What is the hydrological cycle?

The hydrological cycle is the constant recycling of water between the sea, air, and
land. As no water is added or lost, it is a closed system.

What type of system is the drainage basin?

The drainage basin is a part of the hydrological cycle. However, it is an open system.
Why is it an open system? The drainage basin is an open system because it has:
- Inputs: water enters the system in the form of precipitation
- Outputs: water is lost to the system either when the river carries it to the sea
or through evapotranspiration. Evapotranspiration is a process through which
moisture is directly lost either from rivers and lakes (evaporation) or from
vegetation (transpiration)
- Stores: where water is held for example in a pool or lake on the surface or in
soil and rock underground.
- Transfers: the process through which water flows or moves throughout the
system. This includes infiltration, surface runoff, and throughflow.

What is the open system like during summer?

When it rains, water is intercepted by trees and plants. In summer, the rain is short
and light. Interception is the greatest in summer as most of the water is intercepted
by the leaves. Little water reaches the ground as most of it is stored in leaves and lost
through evaporation.
What is the open system like during heavy rain?
When the rain is heavy and long, water drips from the leaves of vegetation and forms
pools (surface storage) in the ground. As the soil becomes increasingly wet, the water
starts to infiltrate through the soil. Infiltration is the downward movement of water
through tiny pores in the soil. It is the greatest in permeable rocks and sands and the
least in impermeable rocks and clay. The water is then stored in the soil or is slowly
transferred sideways or downward. The movement of water sideways is known as
throughflow. It can later end up like a spring in the valley side. The movement of
water downwards is known as percolation. Percolation forms groundwater which is
water stored in the depth of rocks. Groundwater flow is the slowest transfer of water.
The fastest movement of water is surface runoff or overland flow. Surface runoff
happens when the storm is too heavy to infiltrate the soil where it is impermeable or
saturated. The level of saturation is when all the pores of soil have been filled with
water. It is known as the water table. Although some rain may fall directly on the river,
it mainly comes from throughflow, groundwater flow, and surface runoff. Rivers carry
the water to the sea where it is lost to the system.

River Discharge and Flood Hydrographs

What is discharge?
Discharge depends on the volume and velocity of the river. It is volume * velocity.
Discharge is the amount of water passing through the river at a given point over a
certain period of time. It is measured in cumecs or cubic meters per second.

What is velocity? It is the speed of the river measured in meters per second.
What is volume? It is the amount of water in the river system. It is the amount of
water in the channel measured in cubic meters.

What happens to discharge? In some drainage basins, after a storm, the river level
and discharge increase rapidly. This can cause frequent and occasionally serious
flooding. However, following the storm, it can fall as quickly as it rose, and dry spells
become low afterward. In other drainage basins, a more even flow is maintained.

What does a hydrograph show? The hydrograph shows the amount of discharge in a
river at a given point
What does a flood hydrograph show? A flood hydrograph shows how a river
responds to a storm.

What happens to discharge after the storm begins? The discharge does not
increase immediately after a storm begins. This is because little water reaches the
river directly from the rain. The first water to reach the river is through surface runoff
complemented by throughflow. The rising limb shows a gradual increase in
discharge. Lag time is the gap between peak rainfall and peak discharge. Rivers with
shorter lag times and higher discharges are more likely to flood than rivers with
longer lag times and lower discharges.

What are the factors affecting the shape of a flood hydrograph

- Relief: steeper slope; faster runoff. Gentle slope; slower runoff
- River use: Limited use. Used for industrial, domestic, and farming purposes.
Dams are built.
- Rock type: surface runoff on impermeable rocks. Throughflow and groundwater
flow in permeable rocks.
- Land use: footpaths made of cement, use of tarmac (impermeable layer); many
drains (surface runoff); arable land exposes more soil. Limited use of tarmac,
cement, or drains. Tree corps and arable farming reduce the chances of surface
runoff
- Soil: thin soil; cannot be infiltrated. Deeper soil; more infiltration
- Vegetation: thin grass and moorland; less interception. Forest; most
interception. Roots delay throughflow and absorb moisture.
Evapotranspiration reduces the chances of water reaching the river.
- Drainage density: higher density means more streams to collect water. Lower
density means fewer streams to collect water.

What are the major causes of river flooding?

Extreme weather conditions can cause a river to flood. Torrential thunderstorms,
continuous rainfall, melting of heavy snow while it is raining, etc. can increase river
discharge. During summer, the high temperatures increase evapotranspiration and
there is less water available to the river. However, the ground becomes hard and
cannot be infiltrated when it rain. Extremely cold temperatures can also freeze the
ground, making it impermeable.

River Processes
What are river processes? River processes are anything a river does that can change
the land around it.

What is energy in a river most needed for? 95% of energy in a river is needed to
overcome friction. The most friction occurs in the wetted perimeter. The wetted
perimeter is where the water comes in contact with the river bank and bed.

What happens when the volume of water increases? When the volume of water
increases due to a period of heavy rainfall, the velocity of the river increases. As less
water is in contact with the wetted perimeter, there is less friction. The surplus
energy can be used to carry transport material. The greater the velocity, the greater
amount and size of material can be carried.

What is load? The material that is transported by the river is known as a load.

Transportation
What is transportation? Transportation is moving broken bits of land from one place
to another.

What are the four processes of transportation? Traction, saltation, suspension, and
solution.

What is traction? The rock is so heavy that it rolls along the river bed. It cannot be
lifted. This requires the most energy.

What is saltation? Materials like pebbles are heavy so it sinks to the bottom of the
river. However, the river has enough energy to pick it up and drop it repeatedly along
the river bed, causing it to bounce.

What is suspension? The river has enough energy to pick up lightweight insoluble
particles such as sand
What is the solution? Soluble minerals like salt dissolve into the river as it is being
transported by it.

Deposition
What is deposition? Deposition is when the river lacks enough energy to carry its
load any further so it drops it. Deposition starts with the heaviest material first.

Where and when does deposition occur? It occurs following a dry spell when the
discharge and velocity are low or where the current slows down.

Example
In the horseshoe bend of the Colorado River, outside of the bend, the river has high
velocity and high energy. It moves very fast and erosion occurs on the riverbank
However, inside the bend, the water is moving much slower. It has less energy so it
starts dropping its load.

Meanders and Ox-Bow Lakes

What is a meander?
As a river approaches its mouth, its flows over a flat plain where it develops
increasingly large plains called meanders.
What happens in a meander?
- When a river reaches a meander, most of the water is directed towards the
outside of the bend where the friction is reduced and the river velocity
increases.
- Here, there is enough energy for the river to carry material through suspension.
- The outside bank of the meander is eroded by the material through corrasion.
- The bank will be undercut, collapse, and forms a small river cliff.
- Lateral erosion takes place.
- Inside of the bend, there is less water as well as more friction. So the velocity is
less. As the river has less energy here, it deposits its load. The deposited
material builds up to form a gentle slip-off slope.

What happens due to the continual erosion?

Continual erosion causes the neck of the meander to get narrower and narrower till
the river cuts it off, usually during a flood. The course is now shortened and the river
takes the fastest course. Deposition is likely to occur near the bank, causing the
original meader to be blocked off from the main channel. This creates a
crescent-shaped ox-bow lake. It usually dries up except during periods of heavy rain.
River Courses

What is the upper course?

In the mountainous course, a
river passes through a steep
slope. Its water, therefore,
rushes down with great
speed. Under such a
condition the water can dig
the river bed very deeply and
carries or pool down heavy
boulders and pebbles. Erosion and transportation are the main activities of a river in
the upper course.

What is the middle course?

As a river leaves the hilly area and enters a plain, its middle course starts. The slope
of the river bed is less on a plain. Hence, the speed of the current is also less,
compared to the upper course. The river is fed by many tributaries and its volume of
water increases.

What is the lower course?

The last part of a river near its mouth is called the lower course. In this part, the slope
of the river bed is not very steep. The current is also very slow. A deposition is the
main activity of a river at this stage. The silt and other materials carried by the river
are deposited. The river channel is blocked very often and new branch channels are
dugout.

Erosion
What is erosion? Erosion is the breaking down of land

How does a river erode its banks? A river uses the load it transports to erode its
riverbank. The more the velocity, the more load the river can carry and the faster it
can erode the land.
What is vertical erosion?
Any spare energy possessed by a river near its source or in the upper course of the
river will be used to transport large boulders along its bed. This results in the river
cutting rapidly downwards, leading to verticle erosion. Vertical erosion involves the
wearing away and deepening of the river bed. This is mostly by hydraulic action.

What does vertical erosion lead to?

Vertical erosion leads to the development of steep-sided narrow valleys shaped like V.

Why are valley sides steep? The valley sides are steep due to soil and loose rock
being washed downhill following periods of heavy rainfall. This material is added to
the load of the river

What are interlocking spurs? ​If there are areas of hard rock which are harder to
erode, the river will bend around them. This creates interlocking spurs of land.
Usually, protruding hillsides are those interlocking spurs whose view is restricted up
or down the valley

Waterfalls and Rapids

Where are waterfalls formed?
Waterfalls form when there is a sudden interruption of the course of a river.

What do waterfalls result from? Waterfalls may result from erosion by ice, change in
sea, level, and earth movements.

When do they form? They might form when rivers meet a band of softer, less
resistant rock, flowing over relatively hard, resistant rock. The underlying softer rock
is worn away and the harder rock is undercut. The undercut will become unsupported
and will collapse.

What happens to this process?

This process is likely to be repeated several times, causing the waterfall to retreat
upstream and leave behind a steep-sided gorge.

What are rapids?

Rapids are areas of shallow, fast-flowing water in a stream.

Floodplain and Levees

- When the river overflows its banks, it will spread out across any surrounding
flat land
- The sudden increase in friction reduces river velocity and silt will be deposited.
 - Each time the fiver floods another layer of silt is added, creating a floodplain
- The coarsest material will be dropped first, forming a natural embankment
called a levee

What happens to levees?

Sometimes levees are artificially strengthened to act as flood banks. The river can
flood above the floodplain. If the levee is broken down, widespread flooding may
occur.