Topographical Maps: Settlements, Land Use, Transport and Drainage, Part 2: Drainage, settlement patterns and features: visual lesson, ICSE Class 10 Geography (H.C.G. Paper 2)

Lesson

Where does the water go?

Rivers follow the slope of the land. On a topographical sheet you can find the direction of flow, recognise the pattern of the streams, see whether huts are clustered or dispersed, and sort features into natural and man-made. Our imagined sheet (not a real place) shows each of these.

In this lesson you will

Find the direction of flow of a river from contours or spot heights and from tributary junctions
Identify dendritic, trellis and radial drainage patterns
Distinguish clustered from dispersed settlements and give a reason for each
Classify features as natural or man-made

Imagined practice sheet, not a real place and not a Survey of India sheet
Topic	Key question
Direction of flow	From higher to lower: which way?
Drainage pattern	Tree, trellis or radial?
Settlement pattern	Huts together or apart?
Natural or man-made	Made by nature or by people?

Concept

Direction of flow of a river

Water always flows from higher to lower ground. Clues: (1) contour values or spot heights along the river decrease downstream; (2) where a river crosses contours, the V-shaped bends point upstream (towards higher ground); (3) tributaries join at acute angles pointing downstream. On the extract, the river crosses the 140 m contour at P and the 100 m contour at Q, so it flows from P towards Q, to the south-east.

Imagined practice sheet, not a real place and not a Survey of India sheet

Worked example

Worked example: which way does the stream flow?

Problem. The stream T1 on the extract has a bed height of about 217 m at A and about 149 m at B. In which direction does it flow?

Step 1. Water flows to the lower end: B (149 m).

Step 2. B lies east of A.

Answer. The stream flows from A to B, towards the east, and joins the main river there.

Imagined practice sheet, not a real place and not a Survey of India sheet

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