Question

How are various elements of the hydrological cycle interrelated?

Answer 1

Water is a cyclic resource. It can be used and re-used. Water also undergoes a cycle from the atmosphere, land surface and subsurface, and the organisms. About 71 percent of the planetary water is found in the oceans. The remaining is held as freshwater in glaciers and ice caps, groundwater sources, lakes, soil moisture, atmosphere, streams, and within life. Nearly 59 percent of the water that falls on land returns to the atmosphere through evaporation from over the oceans as well as from other places. The remainder runs off on the surface infiltrates into the ground or a part of it becomes a glacier. The renewable water on the earth is constant while the demand is increasing tremendously. This leads to the water crisis in different parts of the world - spatially and temporally. The pollution of river waters has further aggravated the crisis.