River Environments Key Words

Key Words

1.1 Hydrological cycle

• Closed system: A fixed amount of water because neither leaves or enters

• Stores: Features that receive, hold and release water

• Transfers: The movement of water between stores in the hydrological cycle

• Reservoirs: An area where water is collected and stored for human use

• Groundwater: Water contained within the soil derived from percolation

• Aquifer: Permeable rock that can hold and transfer underground water

• Flows: Steady streams of movement from one point to another

• Evapotranspiration: Release of moisture from the land by evaporation and transpiration

1.2 Drainage Basins and their Features

• Open system: A system with outputs and inputs

• Discharge: Amount of water flowing in a river channel at a particular location and time

• Watershed: The boundary between neighbouring drainage basins

• Estuary: Mouth of a river as it enters the sea

• Channel network: Pattern of linked streams and rivers within a drainage basin

1.3 River Regimes and Hydrographs

• River regime: The seasonal variations in the discharge of a river

• Hydrograph: A graph showing the discharge of the water between the air, land, and sea

• Base flow: The usual level of a river

• Storm flow: The increase in stream velocity caused by a period of intense rainfall

• Dams: A large structure built across a river to hold back a large body of water for human use

• Abstraction: Removal of water from rivers, lakes, and from below the water table

1.4 Fluvial Processes

• Erosion: The wearing away and removal of material by a moving force

• Transport: The movement of a river’s load

• Deposition: The dropping…