Water Cycle

 Water Cycle CP

HYDROLOGICAL CYCLE

 

Water is a cyclic resource. It can be used and reused. Water also undergoes a cycle from the ocean to land and land to ocean. The hydrological cycle describes the movement of water on, in, and above the earth. 

The water cycle has been working for billions of years and all the life on earth depends on it. Next to air, water is the most important element required for the existence of life on earth. The distribution of water on earth is quite uneven. 

Many locations have plenty of water while others have very limited quantity. The hydrological cycle, is the circulation of water within the earth’s hydrosphere in different forms i.e. the liquid, solid and the gaseous phases.

 It also refers to the continuous exchange of water between the oceans, atmosphere, land surface and subsurface and the organisms. About 71 per cent of the planetary water is found in the oceans. The remaining is held as freshwater in glaciers and icecaps, groundwater sources, lakes, soil moisture, atmosphere, streams and within life. Nearly 59 per cent 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 glacier. It is to be noted that the renewable water on the earth is constant while the demand is increasing tremendously. This leads to water crisis in different parts of the world — spatially and temporally. The pollution of river waters has further aggravated the crisis. How can you intervene in improving the water quality and augmenting the available quantity of water?

In simple words Water cycle is nothing but a process through which water which is present in the atmosphere, biosphere goes through a cycle and remain present in the atmosphere and biosphere. Through the process of hydrological cycle, water completes journey from land to river to ocean and again to land through in the form of rainfall and snowfall.