Chapter 2

Water is the source of all life on earth. The distribution of water, however, is quite varied; many
locations have plenty of it while others have very little. Water exists on earth as a solid (ice), liquid or gas
(water vapor). Oceans, rivers, clouds, and rain, all of which contain water, are in a frequent state of
change (surface water evaporates, cloud water precipitates, rainfall infiltrates the ground, etc.).
However, the total amount of the earth's water does not change.

The hydrological cycle

The hydrologic cycle is a conceptual model that describes the storage and movement of water between
the biosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere, and the hydrosphere (seeFigure 2.1). Water on this planet can
be stored in any one of the following reservoirs: atmosphere, oceans, lakes, rivers, soils, glaciers,
snowfields, and groundwater. Water moves from one reservoir to another by way of processes like
evaporation, condensation, precipitation, deposition, runoff, infiltration, sublimation, transpira-tion,
melting, and groundwater flow. The oceans supply most of the evaporated wa-ter found in the
atmosphere. Of this evaporated water, only 91% of it is returned to the ocean basins by way of
precipitation. The remaining 9% is transported to areas over landmasses where climatological factors
induce the formation of precipitation. The resulting imbalance between rates of evaporation and
precipitation over land and ocean is corrected by runoff and groundwater flow to the oceans. The water
cycle involves the exchange of energy, which leads to temperature changes. When water evaporates, it
takes up energy from its surroundings and cools the environment. When it condenses, it releases energy
and warms the environment. These heat exchanges influence climate.

processes:
Precipitation

Definition 2.2. The moisture that falls from the atmosphere as rain, snow, sleet, or hail.

Precipitation varies in amount, intensity, and form by season and geographic lo-cation. These factors
impact whether water will flow into streams or infiltrate into the ground. In most parts of the world,
records are kept of snow and rainfall. This allows scientists to determine average rainfall for a location
as well as classify rain storms based on duration, intensity and average return period.

Interception[1] refers to precipitation that does not reach the soil, but is instead intercepted by the
leaves, branches of plants and the forest floor. It occurs in the canopy (i.e. canopy interception), and in
the forest floor or litter layer (i.e. forest floor interception [2]). Because of evaporation, interception of
liquid water generally leads to loss of that precipitation for the drainage basin

snowmelt:
In hydrology, snowmelt is surface runoff produced from melting snow. It can also be used to describe
the period or season during which such runoff is produced.

2.5 Runoff
Definition 2.7.

Runoff is the movement of water, usually from precipitation, across the earth’s surface towards stream
channels, lakes, oceans, or depressions or low points on the earth’s surface. The characteristics that
affect the rate of runoff include rainfall duration and intensity as well as the ground’s slope, soil type and
ground cover. Precipitation may fall directly to the surface or be intercepted by plants, ulti-mately
reaching the ground. Once on the ground, water can infiltrate into the soil or move across the surface as
runoff. Surface runoff generally occurs when the rainfall intensity exceeds the rate of infiltration, or if
the soil is at its water holding capacity. Infiltration and water holding capacity are both a function of soil
texture and struc-ture. Soils composed of high percentages of sand allow water to infiltrate through
them quite rapidly because they have large, well-connected pore spaces. Clay soils have low infiltration
rates due to their smaller sized pore spaces. However, there is actually a smaller total amount of pore
space in a unit volume of coarse, sandy soil than that of soil composed mostly of clay. As a result, sandy
soils fill rapidly and generally generate runoff sooner than clay soils. If the rainfall intensity exceeds the
infiltration capacity of the soil, or if the soil has reached its field capacity, surface runoff occurs. Water
runs across the surface as either confined or unconfined flow. Unconfined flow moves across the surface
in broad sheets of water often creating sheet erosion. Confined flow refers to water confined to
channels. Stream flow is a form of confined flow.

Infiltration:

Definition 2.5. Infiltration is the entry of water into the soil surface. Infiltration constitutes the sole
source of water to sustain the growth of vegetation and it helps to sustain the ground water supply to
wells, springs and streams. The rate of infiltration is influenced by the physical characteristics of the soil,
soil cover (i.e. plants), water content of the soil, soil temperature and rainfall intensity. . Infiltration is
controlled by soil texture, soil structure, vegetation and soil moisture status. High infiltration rates occur
in dry soils, with infiltration slowing as the soil becomes wet. Coarse textured soils with large well
connected pore spaces tend to have higher infiltration rates than fine textured soils. vegetation also
affects infiltration, see Figure 2.2. For instance, infiltration is higher for soils under forest vegetation than
bare soils.

Subsurface flow:

Subsurface flow, in hydrology, is the flow of water beneath earth's surface as part of the water cycle.

In the water cycle, when precipitation falls on the earth's land, some of the water flows on the surface
forming streams and rivers. The remaining water, through infiltration, penetrates the soil traveling
underground, hydrating the vadose zone soil, recharging aquifers, with the excess flowing in subsurface
runoff. In hydrogeology it is measured by the Groundwater flow equation.

2.2 Evaporation
Definition 2.3. Evaporation is the phase change of liquid water into a vapor. Evaporation is an important
means of transferring energy between the surface and the air above. The energy used to evaporate
water is called ”latent energy”. Latent energy is ”locked up” in the water molecule when water
undergoes the phase change from a liquid to a gas. Eighty-eight percent of all water entering the
atmosphere originates from the ocean between 60 degrees north and 60 degrees south latitude. Most
of the water evaporated from the ocean returns directly back to the ocean. Some water is transported
over land before it is precipitated out.

Sublimation

The state change directly from solid water (snow or ice) to water vapor by passing the liquid state.

Deposition

This refers to changing of water vapor directly to ice.

Advection

The movement of water through the atmosphere. [9] Without advection, water that evaporated over the
oceans could not precipitate over land.

Condensation:
Condensation is the change of the physical state of matter from gas phase into liquid phase, and is the
reverse of vapourisation. The word most often refers to the water cycle.

transpiration:
Transpiration is the process by which plants return moisture to the air. Plants take up water
through their roots and then lose some of the water through pores in their leaves. As hot air
passes over the surface of the leaves, the moisture absorbs the heat and evaporates into the
air.
Percolation:
Percoloation is the downward movement of water through soil and rock. Percolation occurs
beneath the root zone. Ground water percolates through the soil much as water fills a sponge,
and moves from space to space along fractures in rock, through sand and gravel, or through
channels in formations such as cavernous limestone.