Find the weather map in the City and Region section. Plot the locations of at least four cities from the U.S. that are near large watersheds. Water carries materials with it wherever it travels.
Water naturally travels downhill or downstream.
Every creek or stream begins somewhere and connects to other streams. Several or many streams can join to become rivers. The water used by the people, plants, and animals living downstream is affected by what happens to the water upstream, and by what happens to it along its journey downstream. The word watershed refers to an area of land drained by a body of water. In other words, a watershed is all of the land surrounding a body of water like the Schuylkill River, whose rainfall falls back to that body of water, either directly like runoff from West River Drive, or indirectly, as with water flowing into the Schuylkill from the Wissahickon and Pennypack Creeks.