What is a Drainage Basin? — Revision Notes | KS3 Geography

Quick recap

3 clips

Short clips from the lesson video. Watch a couple to jog your memory, then try the Brain dump below.

Brain dump

Before you look at anything else, write down everything you can remember about this lesson: key words, facts, examples. Spelling doesn't matter. Then see which of the 8 key terms you remembered.

2:00

Everything you remember

Key terms

Watershed: The ridge of high ground that forms the boundary between one drainage basin and the next, where rain on each side flows into a different river system
Drainage basin: The whole area of land that drains into one river, including all of its tributaries
Source: The point where a river begins, often at a spring high in the hills; on a map it's where a blue line starts, usually surrounded by tightly packed contour lines
Spring: A point where groundwater is forced back up to the surface, often forming a river's source
Tributary: A smaller river that flows into a bigger one
Confluence: The exact point where two rivers meet; on a map it's where two blue lines merge into one
Mouth: The point where a river finally reaches the sea; on a map it's where the blue line meets the coast
Estuary: An area where fresh river water mixes with salty sea water, often forming mudflats and salt marsh

What this lesson covers

How well do you know each one? Be honest: red means go back over it.

Explain what a drainage basin is and why Britain has hundreds of them
Describe the source of a river and explain why a basin can have many sources
Compare a tributary with a confluence in a river system
Describe how an estuary forms where a river meets the sea
Explain how a watershed separates one drainage basin from another
Identify sources, confluences, mouths and watersheds on an Ordnance Survey map

Test yourself

Cover the answer, say it out loud, then check the full quiz on the lesson page.

How many sources can a single drainage basin have?
Which of these is NOT true of a river mouth?
On an Ordnance Survey map, where would you look to find a watershed?

Topic quiz

15 questions on this topic only — not mixed with anything else, one at a time.

Question 1 of 15

Spelling challenge

Read the definition, then type the correct spelling of the term. Uses the same terms as above.

Score: 0/0