
A watercourse is the
channel
Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to:
Geography
* Channel (geography), in physical geography, a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water.
Australia
* Channel Country, region of outback Austr ...
that a flowing
body of water
A body of water or waterbody (often spelled water body) is any significant accumulation of water, generally on a planet's surface. The term most often refers to oceans, seas, and lakes, but it includes smaller pools of water such as ponds, wetla ...

follows.
In the UK, some aspects of criminal law, such as the Rivers (Prevention of Pollution) Act 1951, specify that a watercourse includes those rivers which are
dry for part of the year.
In some jurisdictions, owners of land over which the water flows may have the legal right to use or retain some or much of that water. This right may extend to
estuaries
An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water
Brackish water, also sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment having more salinity
File:IAPSO Standard Seawater.jpg, upInternational Associatio ...

,
river
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

s,
stream
A stream is a body of water
(Lysefjord) in Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway,Names in the official and recognised languages: Bokmål
Bokmål (, ; literally "book tongue") is an official written standard for the No ...

s,
anabranch
An anabranch is a section of a river
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course wit ...
es
and
canal
Canals are waterways channels
Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to:
Geography
* Channel (geography), in physical geography, a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water.
Australia
* ...

s.
See also
*
Aqueduct (water supply)
An aqueduct is a watercourse constructed to carry water from a source to a distribution point far away. In modern engineering, the term ''aqueduct'' is used for any system of pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, and other structures used for this pur ...
*
Environmental flow
Environmental flows describe the quantity, timing, and quality of water flows required to sustain freshwater
Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water
Water is an Inorganic compound, inorganic, Transp ...
*
Hydrology
Hydrology (from Ancient Greek, Greek wikt:ὕδωρ, ὕδωρ, ''hýdōr'' meaning "water" and wikt:λόγος, λόγος, ''lógos'' meaning "study") is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and ...
*
Physical geography
Physical geography (also known as physiography) is one of the two fields of geography
Geography (from Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece
Greece ( el, Ελλάδα, , ), officially the Hell ...
*
Qanat
A qanat or kariz, is a system for transporting water from an aquifer
An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing permeability (Earth sciences), permeable rock, rock fractures or unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Groun ...

*
Wadi
Wadi ( ar, وَادِي, wādī), alternatively ''wād'' ( ar, وَاد), North African Arabic Oued, is the Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley
A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, ...

References
External links
Watercourseat the
Online Etymology Dictionary
The ''Online Etymology Dictionary'' is a free online dictionary
In computer technology and , online indicates a state of connectivity and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an , but (especia ...
Course
Course may refer to:
Directions or navigation
* Course (navigation), the path of travel
* Course (orienteering), a series of control points visited by orienteers during a competition, marked with red/white flags in the terrain, and corresponding ...
{{Hydrology-stub