Talk:Drainage divide

Pennine divide
What category of divide would the main Pennine divide (ie the line runnning N to S along the backbone of Northern England) be ? Two raindrops on either side of this watershed (British meaning) end up on different sides of Great Britain, but in different "Seas" rather than different "Oceans" (Irish Sea versus North Sea). Chris Jones, 24/Jan/2007 (not logged in)


 * It's a major water divide, but not a continental divide. -- Avenue 11:06, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Name of article
"Water divide" is a funny-sounding name, and without any context doesn't really help explain what this is. How about "hydrological divide", "drainage divide", "hydrological boundary", "watershed boundary", or something else? —Michael Z. 2006-03-30 16:22 Z 
 * I don't recall hearing ""hydrological boundary" or "hydrological divide" before. "Watershed boundary" has the duality problem. I've heard "drainage divide" plenty - it's my preferred term. Though often the context is clear and I drop "drainage". Daniel Collins 22:56, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Article was moved 18:51, 13 July 2007‎, to "Drainage divide". --Bejnar (talk) 01:05, 21 April 2012 (UTC)

"Watershed" in the sense of "drainage divide"
The lede includes "watershed" in its list of synonyms for "drainage divide". But it makes a kind of qualification sandwich of it:


 * A drainage divide, water divide, divide, ridgeline or (except in North America) watershed (Brit) is the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins

That isn't quite accurate, though. In North America,"Watershed" is indeed primarily used into mean "drainage basin". But even here, the word's original meaning of "drainage divide" is in wide metaphorical usage.

For example, this recent Washington Post article calls the Watergate scandal a "watershed" http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-watergate-watershed-a-turning-point-for-a-nation-and-a-newspaper/2012/06/04/gJQA2BxmIV_story.html. And this New York Times article says the 2012 Newtown Connecticut school shooting "could be a watershed": http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/us/religious-leaders-push-congregants-on-gun-control.html?_r=0 And in February 2013, CNN wrote that "Veteran activists feel America has reached a watershed moment in its writing of gay rights history." http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/02/us/gay-rights-watershed-moment. Also, in the summer of 2012, an editorial in Sports Illustrated said that the then-current child sexual abuse accusations against football coach Jerry Sandusky "should be watershed moment in our society". http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/michael_rosenberg/06/23/sandusky-verdict/index.html

Though the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, and Sports Illustrated are using the term metaphorically, it's clearly a metaphor that refers to the sense of a divide, not a catchment. As these examples show, that's a usage that's common in North America, and universally understood among educated American readers.

I propose to remove both parts of the qualification sandwich, so that the lede simply includes "watershed" in its list of synonyms for "drainage divide". TypoBoy (talk) 04:12, 4 December 2013 (UTC)


 * Nobody has objected to this post I made some three months ago, so I'm going to go ahead and simplify "(except in North America) watershed (Brit)" to "watershed". You might say it's a watershed moment for the drainage divide article. Heh. TypoBoy (talk) 01:38, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

European Watershed image and caption
The only image currently included in this article is the graphic from the European Watershed article. I think that the caption of the image should name that thing and link to its article. I tried making that change, but it was reverted. Can we discuss it?

The image is clearly included because it shows, on a map, the location of a very large drainage divide. It happens that this divide has a Wikipedia article. Linking to that article in the image caption here comes at a very small cost to the reader -- just two words -- and pays off in the form of a thorough description, which describes in detail an instance of the class of thing that is the subject of this article. That's a good bargain.

Naming the drainage divide in question is also worthwhile, because it shows the image's relevance to this article. It show that we have a reason for including the map, which is that the map is marked with one of the world's great drainage divides.

What do my fellow Wikipedians think? TypoBoy (talk) 23:26, 14 February 2017 (UTC)


 * The image in question illustrates the various drainage divides (shown as red lines) separating the various basins. It does not focus on the European watershed which is those divides separating the Atlantic flowing streams from those flowing into the Mediterranean Sea. The image far more than just that one divide. That is the reason for my edit. Vsmith (talk) 23:46, 14 February 2017 (UTC)


 * That makes sense to me. OK, I withdraw the suggestion; let's stick with what we have. TypoBoy (talk) 02:13, 15 February 2017 (UTC)


 * Seems also we should create an image with English labels. Any volunteers? Vsmith (talk) 23:49, 14 February 2017 (UTC)

Watershed
The lede was recently edited to remove "watershed" from the list of synonyms for "drainage divide", with an edit summary claiming that "watershed" doesn't mean "drainage divide", but rather "drainage basin". The truth is that watershed means both "drainage basin" and "drainage divide", and indeed the latter is the original meaning (from the German "Wasserscheide", meaning "water divide"), as well as both the primary meaning outside North America and the only meaning when it is used figuratively, even in North America.

I'm going to add "watershed" back to the list of synonyms of "drainage divide". Anybody who thinks it doesn't belong is welcome to make the case here in this talk section -- but if your supporting argument is "I didn't know that", it won't be persuasive. TypoBoy (talk) 04:10, 1 March 2019 (UTC)

Antarctic continental divide
I've removed the statement that Antarctica has no continental divide, based on two sources:  I suspect the statement was original research, and while I understand how the argument can be made ("all Antarctica drains into the Southern Ocean") I think it's best just to leave it out entirely barring some show of consensus in reliable sources. --Kent G. Budge (talk) 20:15, 3 April 2022 (UTC)