Watershed

A diagram of the water cycle, ocean, atmosphere, clouds, ground, rivers and fields, runs in fixed steps. You set the cycle rates and how irrigation is split between fields, then run it. Keep every field's soil water inside its healthy band for the goal number of steps to win.

• Water is conserved: over-watering one field starves the others
• Sliders control evaporation, condensation, precipitation, runoff and per-field share
• Hold every field in band long enough and the basin is healthy

• Desktop: drag the rate and share sliders, then click Run or Step
• Phone & tablet: drag the sliders and tap Run/Step, touch-friendly

• Choose 2, 3 or 5 fields for rising difficulty
• Daily shared layout or endless Practice

• Balance the irrigation split before chasing the cycle rates
• Use single Steps near the goal to avoid overshooting a field's band
• Match precipitation to drainage so soil water settles rather than swings

Watershed is a water-cycle simulation about conservation of mass and resource balance, showing how water moves and is shared.

• Skills: the water cycle, conservation of mass, resource management, systems thinking
• Best for: roughly grades 5–10 (ages 10–16)
• For parents & teachers: the water cycle as a living system to manage.

Setting cycle rates and irrigation splits across ocean, atmosphere, cloud, ground, river and field is the water cycle as a system with flows you control.

Running it in fixed steps and watching the consequences is the original structure.

Making the rates adjustable exposes what the classroom diagram hides: the cycle conserves water but not its distribution. Water drawn for irrigation has to come from a reservoir that then holds less, and the delay between abstraction and shortage is why the problem is usually noticed late.

Watershed is an original water-cycle simulation about conservation of mass and resource balancing. It's free to play in your browser with nothing to download.

A free, original browser game on PlayPendium. No download, no install.