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Surface runoff (also known as overland flow or terrestrial runoff) is the unconfined flow of water over the ground surface, in contrast to channel runoff (or stream flow). It occurs when excess rainwater , stormwater , meltwater , or other sources, can no longer sufficiently rapidly infiltrate in the soil .
A well known runoff model is the linear reservoir, but in practice it has limited applicability. The runoff model with a non-linear reservoir is more universally applicable, but still it holds only for catchments whose surface area is limited by the condition that the rainfall can be considered more or less uniformly distributed over the area ...
Subsurface water may return to the surface in groundwater flow, such as from a spring, seep, or a water well, or subsurface return to streams, rivers, and oceans.Water returns to the land surface at a lower elevation than where infiltration occurred, under the force of gravity or gravity induced pressures.
Infiltration is a component of the general mass balance hydrologic budget. There are several ways to estimate the volume and water infiltration rate into the soil. The rigorous standard that fully couples groundwater to surface water through a non-homogeneous soil is the numerical solution of Richards' equation.
Runoff routing is a procedure to calculate a surface runoff hydrograph from rainfall. Losses are removed from rainfall to determine the rainfall excess which is then converted to a hydrograph and routed through conceptual storages that represent the storage discharge behaviour of overland and channel flow. [23] [24]
Runoff is the flow of water across the earth, and is a major component in the hydrological cycle. Runoff that flows over land before reaching a watercourse is referred to as surface runoff or overland flow. Once in a watercourse, runoff is referred to as streamflow, channel runoff, or river runoff. Urban runoff is surface runoff created by ...
A discharge is a measure of the quantity of any fluid flow over unit time. The quantity may be either volume or mass. Thus the water discharge of a tap (faucet) can be measured with a measuring jug and a stopwatch. Here the discharge might be 1 litre per 15 seconds, equivalent to 67 ml/second or 4 litres/minute. This is an average measure.
The water balance is also referred to as a water budget. Developing water budgets is a fundamental activity in the science of hydrology. According to the US Geological Survey: [4] An understanding of water budgets and underlying hydrologic processes provides a foundation for effective water-resource and environmental planning and management.