Lake
Area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake.
- Lake500 related topics
Limnology
Study of inland aquatic ecosystems.
This includes the study of lakes, reservoirs, ponds, rivers, springs, streams, wetlands, and groundwater.
Drainage system (geomorphology)
In geomorphology, drainage systems, also known as river systems, are the patterns formed by the streams, rivers, and lakes in a particular drainage basin.
Lagoon
Shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses.
In Latin America, the term laguna in Spanish, which lagoon translates to, may be used for a small fresh water lake in a similar way a creek is considered a small river.
Stream
Continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel.
Distributaries are often found where a stream approaches a lake or an ocean.
Water supply
Provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavors or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes.
Water supply systems get water from a variety of locations after appropriate treatment, including groundwater (aquifers), surface water (lakes and rivers), and the sea through desalination.
Fresh water
Any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids.
Fresh water may encompass frozen and meltwater in ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, snowfields and icebergs, natural precipitations such as rainfall, snowfall, hail/sleet and graupel, and surface runoffs that form inland bodies of water such as wetlands, ponds, lakes, rivers, streams, as well as groundwater contained in aquifers, subterranean rivers and lakes.
Salt lake
A salt lake or saline lake is a landlocked body of water that has a concentration of salts (typically sodium chloride) and other dissolved minerals significantly higher than most lakes (often defined as at least three grams of salt per litre).
River
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river.
Dry lake
Basin or depression that formerly contained a standing surface water body, which disappeared when evaporation processes exceeded recharge.
This term is used e.g. on the Llano Estacado and other parts of the Southern High Plains and is commonly used to address paleolake sediments in the Sahara like Lake Ptolemy.