nerowith.blogg.se - Summarize the steps of the water cycle.

#Summarize the steps of the water cycle. full#

As a result, the peak discharge, volume, and frequency of floods increase in nearby streams. In addition to increasing imperviousness, removal of vegetation and soil, grading the land surface, and constructing drainage networks increase runoff volumes and shorten runoff time into streams from rainfall and snowmelt. Severe erosion can occur when people manipulate the landscape without regard to how flowing rainfall runoff will erode exposed soil.Īs more and more people inhabit the Earth, and as more development and urbanization occur, more of the natural landscape is replaced by impervious surfaces, such as roads, houses, parking lots, and buildings that reduce infiltration of water into the ground and accelerate runoff to ditches and streams. in the basin, which prevent or delay runoff from continuing downstream

Topography, especially the slope of the land.

Physical characteristics affecting runoff:

Other meteorological and climatic conditions that affect evapotranspiration, such as temperature, wind, relative humidity, and season.

Precipitation that occurred earlier and resulting soil moisture.

Distribution of rainfall over the drainage basin.

Type of precipitation (rain, snow, sleet, etc.).

The concept is not that much different from the small capillaries in your body carrying blood to larger arteries, eventually finding its way to your heart, analogous to the ocean. Thus, this creek is a tributary to a river somewhere downstream, and the water in that river will eventually flow into an ocean. The small creek shown in the picture above will merge with another creek, eventually flowing into a larger river. Surface runoff can also be diverted by humans for their own uses. The other two-thirds is evaporated, transpired, or soaks ( infiltrates) into groundwater. Only about a third of the precipitation that falls over land runs off into streams and rivers and is returned to the oceans. Surface runoff is affected by both meteorological factors and the physical geology and topography of the land. Similar storms occurring in the Amazon jungle and in the desert Southwest of the United States will produce different surface-runoff effects. Much of the water in rivers comes directly from rainfall runoff from the landscape.Īs with all aspects of the water cycle, the interaction between precipitation and surface runoff varies according to time and geography. The runoff entering this creek is beginning its journey back to the ocean. The runoff in this case is flowing over bare soil and is depositing sediment into the river (not good for water quality). This picture gives a graphic example of how surface runoff (here flowing off a road) enters a small creek.

Water will flow along channels as it moves into larger creeks, streams, and rivers. During a heavy rain you might notice small rivulets of water flowing downhill. It is easy to see if it flows down your driveway to the curb and into a storm sewer, but it is harder to notice it flowing overland in a natural setting. When rain hits saturated or impervious ground it begins to flow overland downhill. Still, it is true that much of the water in rivers comes directly from runoff from the land surface, which is defined as surface runoff. That is "overly simplified" because rivers also gain and lose water to the ground. Many people probably have an overly-simplified idea that precipitation falls on the land, flows overland ( runoff), and runs into rivers, which then empty into the oceans.

#Summarize the steps of the water cycle. full#

The oceans are kept full by precipitation and also by runoff and discharge from rivers and the ground. In our section about water storage in the oceans we describe how the oceans act as a large storehouse of water that evaporates to become atmospheric moisture.