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A Glossary of Water TermsBy Andrew McKean Want to help to keep your local water sources clean? First, get familiar with the terms you will need to know. Jul 9, 2008
Acre Foot: The volume of water required to cover 1 acre of land (43,560 square feet) to a depth of 1 foot. Equal to 325,851 gallons of water. Alluvial: Deposited by running water Banks: The sides of a river or stream between which the water normally flows
Base Flow: Sustained flow of a stream in the absence of direct runoff. It includes natural and human-induced streamflows. Natural base flow is sustained largely by ground-water discharges.
Bed: Also called the river bed, the bottom of the river or stream
Brackish: Water that is saltier than river water but less salty than sea water
Channel: An area that contains flowing water confined by banks
Channeled: Grooved or cut deeply, usually by running water
Consumptive Use: That part of water withdrawn that is evaporated, transpired by plants, incorporated into products or crops, consumed by humans or livestock, or otherwise removed from the immediate water environment. Also referred to as water consumed.
Cubic Feet Per Second (cfs): A rate of the flow, in streams and rivers, for example. It is equal to a volume of water one foot high and one foot wide flowing a distance of one foot in one second. One "cfs" is equal to 7.48 gallons of water flowing each second. As an example, if your car's gas tank is 2 feet by 1 foot by 1 foot (2 cubic feet), then gas flowing at a rate of 1 cubic foot/second would fill the tank in two seconds.
Delta: A large, silty area at the mouth of a river at which the river splits into many different slow-flowing channels that typically have muddy banks. New land is often created at deltas as the flow slows and sediment drops out of the current.
Discharge: The volume of water that passes a given location within a given period of time. Usually expressed in cubic feet per second.
Domestic Water Use: Water used for household purposes, such as drinking, food preparation, bathing, washing clothes, dishes, and dogs, flushing toilets, and watering lawns and gardens. About 85% of domestic water is delivered to homes by a public-supply facility, such as a county water department. About 15% of the Nation's population supply their own water, mainly from wells.
Effluent: Wastewater, such as sewage or water from a factory or farm, or even precipitation that is gathered from parking lots and streets and routed to waterways
Erosion: The process in which a material is worn away by a stream of liquid (water) or air, often due to the presence of abrasive particles in the stream.
Estuary: The area where a river meets the sea or ocean, where fresh water from the river meets salt water from the ocean
Flood: An overflow of water onto lands that are used or usable by man and not normally covered by water. Floods have two essential characteristics: the inundation of land is temporary; and the land is adjacent to and inundated by overflow from a river, stream, lake, or ocean.
Flood, 100-Year: A 100-year flood does not refer to a flood that occurs once every 100 years, but to a flood level with a 1 percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year.
Gaging Station: A site on a stream, lake, reservoir or other body of water where observations and hydrologic data are obtained. The U.S. Geological Survey measures stream discharge at gaging stations.
Ground Water: (1) water that flows or seeps downward and saturates soil or rock, supplying springs and wells. The upper surface of the saturate zone is called the water table. (2) Water stored underground in rock crevices and in the pores of geologic materials that make up the Earth's crust.
Headwater(s): (1) the source and upper reaches of a stream; also the upper reaches of a reservoir. (2) the water upstream from a structure or point on a stream. (3) the small streams that come together to form a river. Also may be thought of as any and all parts of a river basin except the mainstream river and main tributaries.
Hydrologic Cycle: Another name for water cycle
Industrial Water Use: Water used for industrial purposes in such industries as steel, chemical, paper, and petroleum refining. Nationally, water for industrial uses comes mainly (80%) from self-supplied sources, such as a local wells or withdrawal points in a river, but some water comes from public-supplied sources, such as the county/city water department.
Leaching: The process by which soluble materials in the soil, such as salts, nutrients, pesticide chemicals or contaminants, are washed into a lower layer of soil or are dissolved and carried away by water.
Lentic Waters: Ponds or lakes (standing water).
Lotic Waters: Flowing waters, as in streams and rivers.
Meander: A waterway that follows a winding route
Mouth: The end of a river or stream, the point at which it empties into a larger body of water
Nephelometric Turbidity Unit (NTU): Unit of measure for the turbidity of water. Essentially, a measure of the cloudiness of water as measured by a nephelometer. Turbidity is based on the amount of light that is reflected off particles in the water.
Non-Point Source (NPS) Pollution: Pollution discharged over a wide land area, not from one specific location. These are forms of diffuse pollution caused by sediment, nutrients, organic and toxic substances originating from land-use activities, which are carried to lakes and streams by surface runoff. Non-point source pollution is contamination that occurs when rainwater, snowmelt, or irrigation washes off plowed fields, city streets, or suburban backyards. As this runoff moves across the land surface, it picks up soil particles and pollutants, such as nutrients and pesticides.
Oxbow: A deep meander, often a former channel that has been cut off from the active stream or river. Oxbows can also be very tight turns in a river or waterway.
Oxbow Lake: A stagnant lake that is formed along a winding river when the river changes course because of soil erosion, leaving an abandoned stream channel cut off from the rest of the river.
Point-Source Pollution: Water pollution coming from a single point, such as a sewage-outflow pipe.
Potable Water: Water of a quality suitable for drinking.
Prior Appropriation Doctrine: The system for allocating water to private individuals used in most Western states. The doctrine of Prior Appropriation was in common use throughout the arid West as early settlers and miners began to develop the land. The prior appropriation doctrine is based on the concept of "First in Time, First in Right." The first person to take a quantity of water and put it to beneficial use has a higher priority of right than a subsequent user. The rights can be lost through nonuse; they can also be sold or transferred apart from the land. Contrasts with riparian water rights.
Rill: A very small channel of water caused mainly by runoff water that has eroded the soil.
Riparian: Located along the banks of a river, stream or other body of water.
Riparian Water Rights: The rights of an owner whose land abuts water. They differ from state to state and often depend on whether the water is a river, lake, or ocean. The doctrine of riparian rights is an old one, having its origins in English common law. Specifically, persons who own land adjacent to a stream have the right to make reasonable use of the stream. Riparian users of a stream share the streamflow among themselves, and the concept of priority of use (Prior Appropriation Doctrine) is not applicable. Riparian rights cannot be sold or transferred for use on nonriparian land.
Riverine: Related to, similar to, or formed by, a river
Runoff: Water that drains into a river, stream or other waterway from uncontrolled streams, drains, sewer lines or other network of tributaries, both natural and artificial. Runoff can originate from snowmelt, precipitation, effluent, and irrigation return water.
Salinity: The amount of salt dissolved in water
Sediment: Small particles of soil, rocks or other debris that are transported by water or the wind.
Seepage: (1) The slow movement of water through small cracks, pores, Interstices, etc., of a material into or out of a body of surface or subsurface water. (2) The loss of water by infiltration into the soil from a canal, ditches, laterals, watercourse, reservoir, storage facilities, or other body of water, or from a field.
Silt: Very tiny particles of soil or minerals, generally defined as being between 3 and 60 microns in diameter
Siltation: The deposit or accumulation of very tiny soil particles (silt)
Source: The origin of a stream or river
Storm Sewer: A sewer that carries only surface runoff, street wash, and snow melt from the land. In a separate sewer system, storm sewers are completely separate from those that carry domestic and commercial wastewater (sanitary sewers).
Streamflow: The water discharge that occurs in a natural channel. A more general term than runoff, streamflow may be applied to discharge whether or not it is affected by diversion or regulation.
Suspended Sediment: Very fine soil particles that remain in suspension in water for a considerable period of time without contact with the bottom. Such material remains in suspension due to the upward components of turbulence and currents and/or by suspension.
Thermal Pollution: A reduction in water quality caused by increasing its temperature, often due to disposal of waste heat from industrial or power generation processes. Thermally polluted water can harm the environment because plants and animals can have a hard time adapting to it.
Tributary: A river, stream or waterway that flows into a larger stream, river or lake
Trunk: The main course of a river
Turbidity: The amount of solid particles that are suspended in water and that cause light rays shining through the water to scatter. Thus, turbidity makes the water cloudy or even opaque in extreme cases. Turbidity is measured in nephelometric turbidity units (NTU).
Water Cycle: The natural cycle in which the sun's energy evaporates water into the atmosphere, where the water vapor condenses and later returns to the earth as precipitation (rain, snow, sleet, etc.)
Water Quality: A term used to describe the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water, usually in respect to its suitability for a particular purpose.
Watershed: The expanse of land that drains water into a particular stream, river or lake
Xeriscaping: A method of landscaping that uses plants that are well adapted to the local area and are drought-resistant. Xeriscaping is becoming more popular as a way of saving water at home.
Source: U.S. Geological Survey. For a comprehensive directory of water, water properties and evaluation methods, water conservation and even more glossary terms, visit (http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/mwater.html)
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