ABSTRACT

If, at the beginning, the concept of a watershed seemed rather straightforward, this chapter has shown that this is far from the case. From the subtleties of its definition to the many elements it encompasses, the concept of the watershed contains many mysteries that are of paramount interest to the hydrologist. Some of the mathematical concepts we were obliged to discuss are not always very intuitive, but they are nonetheless important tools for describing a watershed, and especially for understanding a watershed’s response to a particular event: rain.