Wadi

Wadi (Arabic: وَادِي‎, romanized: wādī), alternatively wād (Arabic: وَاد‎), is the Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley. In some instances, it may refer to a dry (ephemeral) riverbed that contains water only when heavy rain occurs. The term wādī is very widely found in Arabic toponyms. Some Spanish toponyms are derived from Andalusian Arabic where wādī was used to mean a permanent river, for example: Guadalcanal from wādī al-qanāl (Arabic: وَادِي الْقَنَال‎, 'river of refreshment stalls'), Guadalajara from wādī al-ḥijārah (Arabic: وَادِي الْحِجَارَة‎, 'river of stones'), or Guadalquivir, from al-wādī al-kabīr (Arabic: اَلْوَادِي الْكَبِير‎, 'the great river'). This word is widely used in Indian language, Marathi, which derived lots of words from Arabic. For example, many villages named in the state of Maharashtra like Boralwadi (Marathi : बोराळवाडी), Shewalwadi (मराठी : शेवाळवाडी), Mohammadwadi (Marathi : मोहम्मदवाडी), etc. as they are in hilly and dry terrain and be floody sometimes in Monsoon or rainy season in India. Wadis are located on gently sloping, nearly flat parts of deserts; commonly they begin on the distal portions of fans and extend to inland sabkhas or playas. In basin and range topography, wadis trend along basin axes at the terminus of fans. Permanent channels do not exist, due to lack of continual water flow. Wadis have braided stream patterns because of the deficiency of water and the abundance of sediments. Water percolates down into the stream bed, causing an abrupt loss of energy and resulting in vast deposition. Wadis may develop dams of sediment that change the stream patterns in the next flash flood.