Chesapeake Watersheds

Maps

Master Drainage Map (PDF) (High Resolution - 6.4 megabytes [MB])Watershed Map

What Is a Watershed?

The term watershed refers to the geographic boundaries of a particular waterbody, its ecosystem, and the land that drains to it.

A watershed also includes groundwater aquifers that discharge to and receive discharge from streams, wetlands, ponds, and lakes. Large watersheds are sometimes referred to as river basins.

Everyone lives in a watershed. You and everyone in your watershed are part of the watershed community. The animals, birds, and fish are too. You influence what happens in your watershed, good or bad, by how you treat the natural resources, the soil, water, air, plants, and animals. What happens in your small watershed also affects the larger watershed downstream.

The following reports are now available online for the following watershed locations: