science

List of drainage basins of South Africa

List of drainage basins of South Africa is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand List of drainage basins of South Africa rather than just read about it. In short: A drainage basin is an extent of land where water from rain and melting snow or ice drains downhill into a body of water, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea or ocean. The drainage basin includes both the streams and rivers that convey the water as well as the land surfaces from which water drains into those channels, and is separated from adjacent basins by a drainage divide.

Key takeaways

List of drainage basins of South Africa belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect List of drainage basins of South Africa to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of List of drainage basins of South Africa from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A drainage basin is an extent of land where water from rain and melting snow or ice drains downhill into a body of water, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea or ocean. The drainage basin includes both the streams and rivers that convey the water as well as the land surfaces from which water drains into those channels, and is separated from adjacent basins by a drainage divide. The drainage basin acts like a funnel, collecting all the water within the area covered by the basin and channelling it into a waterway. Each drainage basin is separated topographically from adjacent basins by a geographical barrier such as a ridge, hill or mountain, which is known as a water divide. Other terms that are used to describe a drainage basin are catchment, catchment area, catchment basin, drainage area, river basin, water basin and watershed. The drainage basins in South Africa do not correspond with the Water Management Areas, and have the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, and X. The Area A comes close to the same area that the Limpopo WMA seems to cover. Apart from these letters they seem to have no name referring to them. What seems to be the case though is that each area refers to some major river systems and their tributaries (a region for each major river system).

List of drainage basins

A ^ Drainage basin code assigned by the Department of Water Affairs (South Africa); see for details. B ^ The Limpopo River Basin is not wholly located within South Africa, it straddles four countries, Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe. C ^ The Tugela and Vaal drainage basins are linked with the Tugela-Vaal Water Project, an interbasin transfer scheme across the Drakensberg watershed that supplies additional water to the Vaal River when required. The Drakensberg Pumped Storage Scheme forms an integral part of this scheme. D ^ The Gariep Dam on the Orange River basin is linked via the Great Fish River basin to the Sundays River basin by the Fish-Sundays Transfer Scheme.

See also Drainage basin List of reservoirs and dams in South Africa List of rivers of South Africa Water Management Areas Geography of South Africa

References

External links Hydrology Map where one can zoom into a drainage system FROC - Reference frequency of occurrence of fish species in South Africa

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with List of drainage basins of South Africa

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what List of drainage basins of South Africa claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to List of drainage basins of South Africa before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about List of drainage basins of South Africa ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of List of drainage basins of South Africa

In research: List of drainage basins of South Africa appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses List of drainage basins of South Africa in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: List of drainage basins of South Africa is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Lists of drainage basins, Lists of landforms of South Africa, Rivers of South Africa, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for List of drainage basins of South Africa outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study List of drainage basins of South Africa in 20 minutes

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Close the page and write down what List of drainage basins of South Africa means in your own words.
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Frequently asked questions

What is List of drainage basins of South Africa in simple terms?

Why does List of drainage basins of South Africa matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study List of drainage basins of South Africa?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on List of drainage basins of South Africa.