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- May 23, 2020
Question
QUESTION 4
HydrologicCycle and Various Methods of Water Use and Management
Hydrologicalcycle refers to the pathway in which global water transit indifferent states (ice, liquid and gas forms) before it return to theoriginal state. In this case, water goes through different processesincluding evaporation, condensation, and precipitation ("Descriptionof Hydrologic Cycle," 2016). Simply put, it is a cycleindicating the atmospheric water balance.
Watercycle involves several stages that accommodate water in any of thethree states of matter (Painoli & Losarwar, 2011). Water from thesurface of the earth evaporates and rises to the clouds. There itundergoes condensation as temperature decreases with attitude to formice droplets. Other waters from the land evaporate, sometimescarrying small solid particles with them. Also, plants absorb waterand later transpire in the form of gasses which also rises tocondense into ice in the clouds. After sometimes, the ice becomes bigand heavy and with dust particles trapped, turbulence begins insidethe clouds. Consequently, rain forms and fall to the surface of thewater as precipitation, joining the other water on the surface andocean.
Duringrainfall, some water is interrupted from the original pathway byplants through interception. And when on the ground, it infiltratesinto the soil. The proportion of infiltrating water is absorbed byplant while other beyond plants reach percolates towards theunderground reservoirs ("Description of Hydrologic Cycle,"2016). Other water becomes surface runoff flowing toward thedrainage basins. The Evaporation, condensation, precipitation,infiltration and transpiration processes complete a hydrologicalcycle. In this cycle, there is a balance because if water is not inliquid state, then it is either in ice or gaseous form.
Incase the climate warm to up, more water would be held in a gaseousform in the clouds while water bodies dry up. Also, lands wouldexperience drought. If the climate cools down, more water would betrapped as ice thereby unusable to plants and animals. Suchoccurrences would break the global water balance (Painoli &Losarwar, 2011). In such situation, tragedies such as flood andtsunami are likely to occur.
Inbrief, water cycle presents the total global water. Apart from thebalance, this process purifies water. There is, therefore, need touse water sustainable in agriculture, industrial and domesticsettings. The methods of water management include recycling,treatment of gray and black water, conservation of watersheds andefficient use of water.
References
Descriptionof Hydrologic Cycle.(2016). Nwrfc.noaa.gov.Retrieved 21 November 2016, fromhttp://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/info/water_cycle/hydrology.cgi
Painoli,G. K., & Losarwar, S. G. (2011). Integrated Water ResourcesManagement. AsiaPacific Journal of Research in Business Management,2(12), 128-140.