Question

Write an essay about surface runoff generation defining the process descriptively and quantitatively, discuss it’s behavior in cold regions and it’s importance to hydrology

Answer 1

SURFACE RUNOFF

Surface runoff is the process of draining of excessive amount of water from the land surface.

this water accumulation on the surface may be due to excessive amount of precipitation (rain) or may be due to the inundation of area because of flood.

description of runoff

the most important factor which affect the runoff over any area is slope of that area and the type of surface over which runoff occuring. if the surface is smooth and hard means there is hardly any infiltration then runoff will be more as compared to that area which is not smooth.

runoff is also depends upon the intensity of rainfall it the intensity of rainfall is high then runoff will be high because of sudden accumulation of water over the area.and it the intensity is low then surface would get enough time to infiltrate into the land and hence less amount of water will contribute to the runoff.

quantitative aspect

say of example the same amount of rainfall occur over the city as well as over the village where the land is not covered with hard pavements then runoff amount will the large in the city as compare to the village because due to low amount of infiltration in city most of the water will contribute to the surface runoff.

If we are concerning with the cold areas the as we know the temperature remains low in these area hence there will be low heating of surface and a enough amount of humidity in the atmosphere maintained and a sufficient amount of moisture will persist there in the land hence in cold areas the EVAPORATION LOSS will be less as compared to the hot and tropical areas.as if there is less loss then most of the quantity of water will contribute to the surface runoff.

hydrological importance

as we all know that hydrology deals with the movements of water over the land hence surface runoff becomes the important aspect of it and for the purpose of calculation and forecasting of flood we required the amount of water can be accumulate over the area with the surface runoff with the rain and through channels etc. hence runoff plays the important role in dealing with the hydrological aspects.