Drainage basins and watersheds

Aegean Drainages

Aegean Drainages (FEOW ecoregion 424) is a temperate coastal-river freshwater ecoregion of southeastern Greece and Aegean islands, defined by Abell et al. 2008, with main rivers Spercheios, Asopos, and Boeotic Kifissos and disputed boundaries.

Albertine Highlands

The Albertine Highlands is a freshwater ecoregion, FEOW number 541, located entirely within eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and covering the watersheds of high-lying rivers that flow toward the Lualaba River in the Congo Basin.

Amazonas Estuary & Coastal Drainages

Amazonas Estuary & Coastal Drainages, FEOW freshwater ecoregion 323 in Brazil, covers the Amazon estuary and coastal rivers from Itapicuru to Caciporé; 180,000 m3/s discharge, 23 endemic fishes, and the Araguari channel capture.

Amazonas Guiana Shield

Amazonas Guiana Shield (FEOW ecoregion 315): freshwater ecoregion on the southern Guiana Shield in Brazil, Guyana, and Suriname; clearwater rivers Jari, Paru, Trombetas, upper Rio Branco; about 430 fish species, nearly 40 endemic; threatened by gold mining and mercury.

Bacias hidrograficas

Bacias hidrograficas is the Portuguese term for drainage basins, or watersheds: land areas that drain water, sediment, and dissolved materials to a common stream outlet.

Balkash - Alakul

Balkash - Alakul (FEOW ecoregion 624) is the endorheic freshwater ecoregion of lakes Balkhash, Sasykkol, and Alakol in Kazakhstan, China, and Kyrgyzstan, defined by endemic fish such as Balkhash perch and marinka now threatened by introduced species.

Bass Strait Drainages

Bass Strait Drainages, FEOW freshwater ecoregion 809 by Peter Unmack: rivers of northern Tasmania and the Victorian coast draining to Bass Strait, 105,000 km², three endemic fish, united by a glacial land bridge.

Cantabric Coast - Languedoc

Cantabric Coast - Languedoc (FEOW ecoregion 403) is a temperate coastal rivers freshwater ecoregion from Galicia to the French Mediterranean coast, spanning the Garonne-Adour-Dordogne and lower Rhône drainages, with about a dozen endemic fish and the Camargue, Western Europe's largest delta.

Catchment area

A catchment area is the land where rain and snowmelt drain downhill into a common river, lake, or sea, known in some regions as a drainage basin or watershed.

Central & Western Europe

Central & Western Europe (FEOW ecoregion 404) is a temperate floodplain-rivers freshwater ecoregion spanning 19 countries from England to Belarus, with Coregonus-dominated endemism in alpine lakes and 70-90% floodplain loss in its large rivers.

Central Prairie

Central Prairie is a temperate upland rivers freshwater ecoregion, FEOW ID 146, covering the lower Missouri and upper Arkansas river watersheds across Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, with endemic darters.

Chiapas - Fonseca

Chiapas - Fonseca, ecoregion 201 in the Freshwater Ecoregions of the World scheme, covers Pacific coastal rivers and lakes from Oaxaca, Mexico, to southern Honduras.

Chin Hills - Arakan Coast

Chin Hills - Arakan Coast is a freshwater ecoregion (FEOW 719) covering lower Brahmaputra headwaters and coastal basins draining to the Bay of Bengal in India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar.

Columbia Glaciated

Columbia Glaciated (FEOW ecoregion 120) is a freshwater ecoregion covering the glaciated upper third of the Columbia River basin in British Columbia, Washington, Idaho, and Montana; temperate upland rivers, no endemic fish, snowmelt-dominated flows.

Columbia River drainage basin

The Columbia River drainage basin is the 669,000-square-kilometer watershed of the Columbia River across seven U.S. states and British Columbia, defined by snowmelt-driven runoff, 29 major federal dams, the 1964 Columbia River Treaty, and declining salmon runs.

Columbia Unglaciated

Columbia Unglaciated, FEOW freshwater ecoregion 121, is the never-glaciated lower two-thirds of the Columbia River basin in Oregon, Idaho, Washington, Nevada, and Montana, a Pleistocene refugium with endemic Oregon chub.

Comoros - Mayotte

Comoros - Mayotte is a freshwater ecoregion covering the volcanic Comoros Islands in the Mozambique Channel, spanning about 2,171 km² across Grande Comore, Mohéli, Anjouan, and French Mayotte.

Continental divide

A continental divide is a ridge or mountain crest that separates a continent's major watersheds, sending water on each side toward different oceans or seas.

Cuyan - Desaguadero

Cuyan - Desaguadero (FEOW ecoregion 340) is a montane freshwater ecoregion of western Argentina covering the Río Desaguadero drainage, with four endemic Trichomycterid catfishes and the Guanacache Ramsar wetlands.

Divide

Divide (drainage divide, water parting): elevated boundary separating drainage basins, from minor ridges to continental divides like the Rockies' Great Divide; divides migrate at 0.001–10 mm/yr and can shift with erosion, uplift, or pumping.

Dniester - Lower Danube

Dniester - Lower Danube is a freshwater ecoregion (FEOW 418) in southeastern Europe, covering the basins of the Dniester and Danube rivers, which both drain into the Black Sea.

Don (protected area)

Don is a freshwater ecoregion, unit 427 in the Freshwater Ecoregions of the World classification, covering the whole Don River basin and smaller rivers draining into the Sea of Azov.

Drainage basin

A drainage basin, also called a watershed or catchment, is an area of land draining all streams and rainfall to a common outlet, bounded by a drainage divide.

East Texas Gulf

East Texas Gulf (FEOW ecoregion 140) is a temperate coastal rivers freshwater ecoregion covering central Texas from eastern New Mexico, defined by the Brazos and Colorado watersheds and Matagorda Bay, with about 100 fish species and few endemics.

Eastern Borneo

Eastern Borneo is a freshwater ecoregion of eastern Borneo, entirely within Indonesia's East Kalimantan province, defined by a distinct fish assemblage centered on the Mahakam River basin.

Eastern Continental Divide

The Eastern Continental Divide is the drainage divide of the eastern United States separating Atlantic Ocean watersheds (Susquehanna, Potomac, Roanoke) from Mississippi River, Gulf of Mexico drainage, running partly through the Appalachian Mountains.

Eastern Iberia

Eastern Iberia (FEOW ecoregion 414, Ibero-Mediterranean ecoregion) is a freshwater ecoregion of northeastern Spain, Andorra, and France, covering Mediterranean-draining basins including the Ebro, Ter, and Júcar, with high Iberian fish endemism.

Eastern Taiwan

Eastern Taiwan (FEOW ecoregion 758) is a freshwater ecoregion covering basins east of Taiwan's Chungyang Range draining to the Philippine Sea, from Eluanbi to Wushibi, including Green Island and Orchid Island, with main rivers Lanyang and Peinan and few endemic fishes.

Esfahan (protected area)

Esfahan (FEOW ecoregion 449) is a freshwater ecoregion covering the endorheic Zayandeh River basin of central Iran, draining to the Gavkhuni salt marsh, with poor taxonomic exploration and a Critically Endangered endemic tooth-carp.