catchment basin

Because the city is located in a high mountain valley with no natural outlet, sudden rushes of rainwater tend to overwhelm the man-made drains; the catchment basins act as a buffer.

When they detect signs of an impending desert storm, tortoises will clamber to areas where they have gouged catchment basins in the sand.

The Netherlands is now filled with such catchment basins, many a boon to daily life but doubling as reservoirs for when the rivers swell.

Often the local resistance networks were ephemeral, mere “catchment basins” for K.G.B. counterintelligence.

The lawsuit by the local agencies seeks to force the federal government to upgrade the capacity of the pumps in the river as well as catchment basins in nearby canyons.