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The Daily Insight

What do you mean of runoff?

Author

John Thompson

Published May 24, 2026

What do you mean of runoff?

Runoff, in hydrology, quantity of water discharged in surface streams. Runoff also includes groundwater that is discharged into a stream; streamflow that is composed entirely of groundwater is termed base flow, or fair-weather runoff, and it occurs where a stream channel intersects the water table.

What is another word for runoff?

In this page you can discover 18 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for runoff, like: flow, surface-water, groundwater, rainfall, surplus water, spring runoff, snowmelt, aquifer, ground-water, streamflow and run-off.

Which source gives surface water runoff?

Water evaporates from the ocean and land surfaces, is held temporarily as vapour in the atmosphere, and falls back to Earth’s surface as precipitation. Surface water is the residue of precipitation and melted snow, called runoff.

What is process of runoff?

Runoff occurs when there is more water than land can absorb. The excess liquid flows across the surface of the land and into nearby creeks, streams, or ponds. Runoff can come from both natural processes and human activity. Runoff also occurs naturally as soil is eroded and carried to various bodies of water.

What are the elements of runoff?

COMPONENTS OF RUNOFF:

  • Direct rainfall over the stream:-
  • Surface runoff or overland flow: –
  • Subsurface flow or interflow:–
  • Base flow, groundwater flow or Dry weather flow:-

Where does the majority of surface runoff go?

Only about a third of the precipitation that falls over land runs off into streams and rivers and is returned to the oceans. The other two-thirds is evaporated, transpired, or soaks ( infiltrates) into groundwater. Surface runoff can also be diverted by humans for their own uses.

How is runoff classified according to its source?

Runoff may be classified according to speed of appearance after rainfall or melting snow as direct runoff or base runoff, and according to source as surface runoff, storm interflow, or groundwater runoff. 2. The sum of total discharges described in (1), above, during a specified period of time.

Which is the best description of delayed runoff?

Base Flow: It is delayed flow, defined as that part of rainfall, which after falling on the ground surface, infiltrates into the soil and meets to the water-table; and flow to the streams, oceans etc. The movement of water in this type of runoff is very slow, that is why it is also referred as delayed runoff.

How does the size of a stream affect runoff?

Thus, the runoff intensity of larger stream, per unit catchment is lesser. In the case of fan shaped catchment all the tributaries are approximately of the same size. Such catchment gives greater runoff since the peak flood from the tributaries is likely to reach the main tributaries.