A water divide, also known as a drainage divide, is an elevated area of terrain that separates two drainage basins in an elevated area. It can be a mountain, plateau, hill, mountain range, or even a valley floor. A water divide can act as a divider between the streams of water, and it is known by various names like watersheds, ridgelines, and land elevations. The different types of water divide are characterized based on how the water divide converges:

• Continental Water Divide: This is a division of water where water flows into different seas on both sides of it. An example is the Congo-Nile divide.

• Major Water Divide: The major divide is one in which the water on either side never meets but instead converges on the same sea. An example is the Yellow river basin and the Yangtze.

• Minor Water Divide: Minor divides are where the water eventually flows into the confluence of rivers on both sides. An example is the Mississippi River and Missouri drainage Divide.

A water divide can form natural boundaries that can be defined as political boundaries between two countries or two cities of a particular country. One prominent example of a water divide is the Continental Divide in North America, which effectively separates the watersheds of the Americas, determining whether the water flows westward towards the Pacific Ocean or eastward towards the Atlantic Ocean.