Rivers

NEW TOPIC – WATER ON

THE LAND

Objective: To know the features of a river drainage basin.

To know how a river changes down its course.
To know what happens in the different stages of a

river system.

River Drainage Basins

What is a river?

• A large natural stream of water flowing in a channel

to the sea, a lake, or another stream.

What do we call the place
where a river starts?

What do we call the end of a
river?

Where does a river flow into?

What is a smaller river joining
a larger river called?

What is a river drainage basin?

A river basin is the area of
land inside an imaginary
line called the watershed.

The rain water will all flow
into one main river within
the river basin.

The watershed separates
different river basins - this is
usually a rigid of higher
ground.

Multiple Choice

A confluence is?

• Where a river begins.

• A smaller river that joins a bigger river.

• Where the river meets the sea.

• The point where 2 rivers meet.

River profiles – we can look at a river in 2 different ways:

A Long profile (from source to mouth)

A Cross profile

(cross section)

Make a copy of these
diagram onto your
paper.

How can we divide up a river valley?

Reorder

Put these in the order that they occur.

• Erosion

• Transportation

• Deposition

1

2

3

• 1
• 2
• 3

What can we find in each section of the river?

Upper

Middle

Lower

V-shaped valley

U-shaped valley

U-shaped valley

Steep gradient

Gentler slope

Flat land

Waterfall

meander

Flood plain

Shallow water

Deeper water

Deepest water

Narrow channel

Wider channel

Widest channel