Water Catchment Area

A water catchment area, also known as a drainage basin, is an area where water from rain, melting snow or ice, merges in a single area where it then meets with another body of water for example an estuary, reservoir, lake, sea, river or ocean. The water catchment area functions as a funnel as it collects all the water from one source and channels it into one area before directing it to another water source. The largest river basins, or water catchment areas, in the world are the Amazon basin, the River Plate basin, the Congo basin, the Nile basin and the Mississippi basin.