Drainage Basin System

Question 1

What are the outputs of the drainage basin?

Answer 1

-Evaporation: liquidity changed into gas by solar energy (heat)
-Evapotranspiration: water vapour escapes a living p,ant and enters the atmosphere
-River discharge: movement of water in channels such as rivers and streams, may reach the channel by direct precipitation or by surface runoff, groundwater flow or throughflow

Question 2

What are the stores of the drainage basin?

Answer 2

-Interception: water that is caught and stored by vegetation
-Soil water: subsurface water in soil and subsurface layers above the water table
-Surface water: some temporary, like puddles, and some permanent like lakes, wetlands, swamps and marshes
-Ground water: subsurface water that is absorbed under the surface in rocks (accounts for 96.5%of all freshwater on earth)
-Channel storage: water that is stored in rivers and streams

Question 3

What are the flows of a drainage basin?

Answer 3

-Throughflow: water that falls through gaps in vegetation or drops from leaves or twigs
-Stemflow: water that trickles along twigs and branches and finally down the main trunk
-Overland flow: water that flows over the lands surface and it cannot be infiltrated
Channel flow: movement of water in channels
-Infiltration: water soaks into or absorbed by soil
-Percolation: water slowly moves downwards from the soil into the bedrock
-Baseflow: part of a rivers discharge that is provided by groundwater seeping into the bed of a river