The Mini Book Of

By

Prince Kumar.
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The Book Contains Of:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

The Meaning of Water Cycle.

Water..
The Resources of Water...
The Uses of Water
Evaporation
Transpiration..
Condensation..
Precipitation...
Infiltration.....
Run Off...

All the Best

1. The Meaning of Water Cycle.

The water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle or the H2O cycle,
describes the continuous movement of water on, above and below the surface
of the Earth. The mass water on Earth remains fairly constant over
time but the partitioning of the water into the major reservoirs of ice, fresh
water, saline water and atmospheric water is variable depending on a
wide range of climatic variables. The water moves from one reservoir to
another, such as from river to ocean, or from the ocean to the atmosphere,
by the physical processes of evaporation, condensation, precipitation,
infiltration, runoff, and subsurface flow. In so doing, the water goes
through different phases: liquid, solid (ice), and gas (vapor).
The water cycle involves the exchange of energy, which leads to
temperature changes. For instance, when water evaporates, it takes up
energy from its surroundings and cools the environment. When it
condenses, it releases energy and warms the environment. These heat
exchanges influence climate. The evaporative phase of the cycle purifies
water which then replenishes the land with freshwater. The flow of liquid
water and ice transports minerals across the globe. It is also involved in
reshaping the geological features of the Earth, through processes including
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erosion and sedimentation. The water cycle is also essential for the
maintenance of most life and ecosystems on the planet.

2. Water.
Water is a chemical compound with the chemical formula H2O.
A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms
connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at standard ambient
temperature and pressure, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid
state, ice, and gaseous state, steam (water vapor). Water also exists in a
liquid crystal state near hydrophilic surfaces.
Water covers 71% of the Earth's surface, and is vital for all known
forms of life. On Earth, 96.5% of the planet's water is found in seas
and oceans, 1.7% in groundwater, 1.7% in glaciers and the ice caps of
Antarctica and Greenland, a small fraction in other large water
bodies, and 0.001% in the air as vapor, clouds (formed of solid and
liquid water particles suspended in air), and precipitation. Only 2.5%
of the Earth's water is fresh water, and 98.8% of that water is in ice
and groundwater. Less than 0.3% of all freshwater is in rivers, lakes,
and the atmosphere, and an even smaller amount of the Earth's
freshwater (0.003%) is contained within biological bodies and
manufactured products.
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Water on Earth moves continually through the water cycle of

evaporation and transpiration, condensation, precipitation, and runoff,
usually reaching the sea. Evaporation and transpiration contribute to the
precipitation over land.
Safe drinking water is essential to humans and other life forms even
though it provides no calories or organic nutrients. Access to safe
drinking water has improved over the last decades in almost every part of
the world, but approximately one billion people still lack access to safe water
and over 2.5 billion lack accesses to adequate sanitation. There is a clear
correlation between access to safe water and GDP per capita.
However, some observers have estimated that by 2025 more than half of
the world population will be facing water-based vulnerability. A report,
issued in November 2009, suggests that by 2030, in some developing
regions of the world, water demand will exceed supply by 50%. Water
plays an important role in the world economy, as it functions as a solvent
for a wide variety of chemical substances and facilitates industrial cooling
and transportation. Approximately 70% of the fresh water used by
humans goes to agriculture.

Water

3. The Resources of Water.

Water resources are sources of water that are useful or potentially useful.
Uses of water include agricultural, industrial, household, recreational
and environmental activities. The majority of human uses require fresh
water.
97 percent of the water on the Earth is salt water and only three percent
is fresh water; slightly over two thirds of this is frozen in glaciers and polar
ice caps. The remaining unfrozen fresh water is found mainly as
groundwater, with only a small fraction present above ground or in the
air.
Fresh water is a renewable resource, yet the world's supply of
groundwater is steadily decreasing, with depletion occurring most
prominently in Asia and North America, although it is still unclear
how much natural renewal balances this usage, and whether ecosystems
are threatened. The framework for allocating water resources to water
users (where such a framework exists) is known as water rights.

Glaciers

Ponds

The
Resources of
Water

Dams

Rivers

Oceans
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4. The Uses of Water.

Water use can mean the amount of water used by a household or a
country, or the amount used for a given task or for the production of a
given quantity of some product or crop. The term "water footprint" is
often used to refer to the amount of water used by an individual,
community, business, or nation.
World water use has been growing rapidly in the last hundred years.
From 1900 to 2000, water use for agriculture went from about 500
to 2,500 cubic kilometers per year, while total use rose from around
600 to more than 3,000 cubic kilometers per year. Agriculture uses
70% of water resources.
In the U.S, the typical single family home uses about 69.3 gallons
(262 liters) of water per day (2008 estimate). This includes (in
decreasing order) toilet use, washing machine use, showers, baths, faucet
use, and leaks.

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Irrigation

Industries

Other Uses

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5. Evaporation.
Evaporation is a type of vaporization of a liquid that occurs from the
surface of a liquid into a gaseous phase that is not saturated with the
evaporating substance. The other type of vaporization is boiling, which is
characterized by bubbles of saturated vapor forming in the liquid phase.
Steam produced in a boiler is another example of evaporation occurring
in a saturated vapor phase. Evaporation that occurs directly from the
solid phase below the melting point, as commonly observed with ice at or
below freezing or moth crystals (naphthalene or paradichlorobenzine), is
called sublimation.
On average, a fraction of the molecules in a glass of water have enough
heat energy to escape from the liquid. Water molecules from the air enter
the water in the glass, but as long as the relative humidity of the air in
contact is less than 100% (saturation), the net transfer of water
molecules will be to the air. The water in the glass will be cooled by the
evaporation until equilibrium is reached where the air supplies the amount
of heat removed by the evaporating water. In an enclosed environment
the water would evaporate until the air is saturated.
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With sufficient temperature, the liquid would turn into vapor quickly (see
boiling point). When the molecules collide, they transfer energy to each
other in varying degrees, based on how they collide. Sometimes the
transfer is so one-sided for a molecule near the surface that it ends up with
enough energy to 'escape'.
Evaporation is an essential part of the water cycle. The sun (solar
energy) drives evaporation of water from oceans, lakes, moisture in the
soil, and other sources of water. In hydrology, evaporation and
transpiration (which involves evaporation within plant stomata) are
collectively termed evapotranspiration. Evaporation of water occurs when
the surface of the liquid is exposed, allowing molecules to escape and form
water vapor; this vapor can then rise up and form clouds.

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6. Transpiration.
The Vaporization of water from Trees, plants .Water vapor is a gas
that cannot be seen. In this process water is even evaporated from lands.

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7. Condensation.
Condensation is the change of the physical state of matter from gas phase
into liquid phase, and is the reverse of vaporization. It can also be defined
as the change in the state of water vapor to water/any liquid when in
contact with any surface. When the transition happens from the gaseous
phase into the solid phase directly, the change is called deposition.
Condensation is initiated by the formation of atomic/molecular clusters
of that species within its gaseous volumelike rain drop or snow-flake
formation within cloudsor at the contact between such gaseous phase and
a liquid or solid surface. Condensation commonly occurs when a vapor is
cooled and/or compressed to its saturation limit when the molecular
density in the gas phase reaches its maximal threshold. Vapor cooling
and compressing equipment that collects condensed liquids is called a
"condenser. Condensation is a crucial component of distillation, an
important laboratory and industrial chemistry application.
Because condensation is a naturally occurring phenomenon, it can often
be used to generate water in large quantities for human use. Many
structures are made solely for the purpose of collecting water from
condensation, such as air wells and fog fences. Such systems can often be
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used to retain soil moisture in areas where active desertification is

occurringso much so that some organizations educate people living in
affected areas about water condensers to help them deal effectively with the
situation.
It is also a crucial process in forming particle tracks in a cloud chamber.
In this case, ions produced by an incident particle act as nucleation
centers for the condensation of the vapor producing the visible "cloud"
trails.

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8. Precipitation.
In meteorology, precipitation (also known as one of the classes of
hydrometeors, which are atmospheric water phenomena) is any product of
the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The
main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, grapple and
hail. Precipitation occurs when a local portion of the atmosphere becomes
saturated with water vapor, so that the water condenses and
"precipitates". Thus, fog and mist are not precipitation but suspensions,
because the water vapor does not condense sufficiently to precipitate. Two
processes, possibly acting together, can lead to air becoming saturated:
cooling the air or adding water vapor to the air. Generally, precipitation
will fall to the surface; an exception is virago which evaporates before
reaching the surface. Precipitation forms as smaller droplets coalesce via
collision with other rain drops or ice crystals within a cloud. Rain drops
range in size from oblate, pancake-like shapes for larger drops, to small
spheres for smaller drops. Unlike raindrops, snowflakes grow in a variety
of different shapes and patterns, determined by the temperature and
humidity characteristics of the air the snowflake moves through on its way to
the ground. While snow and ice pellets require temperatures close to the
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ground to be near or below freezing, hail can occur during much warmer
temperature regimes due to the process of its formation.
Moisture overriding associated with weather fronts is an overall major
method of precipitation production. If enough moisture and upward
motion is present, precipitation falls from convective clouds such as
cumulonimbus and can organize into narrow rain bands. Where
relatively warm water bodies are present, for example due to water
evaporation from lakes, lake-effect snowfall becomes a concern downwind
of the warm lakes within the cold cyclonic flow around the backside of extra
tropical cyclones. Lake-effect snowfall can be locally heavy. Thunder
snow is possible within a cyclone's comma head and within lake effect
precipitation bands. In mountainous areas, heavy precipitation is possible
where upslope flow is maximized within windward sides of the terrain at
elevation. On the leeward side of mountains, desert climates can exist due
to the dry air caused by compression heating. The movement of the
monsoon trough, or intertropical convergence zone, brings rainy seasons
to savannah climes.
Precipitation is a major component of the water cycle, and is responsible
for depositing the fresh water on the planet. Approximately 505,000
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cubic kilometers (121,000 cu mi) of waterfalls as precipitation each

year; 398,000 cubic kilometers (95,000 cu mi) of it over the oceans
and 107,000 cubic kilometers (26,000 cu mi) over land. Given
the Earth's surface area, that means the globally averaged annual
precipitation is 990 millimeters (39 in), but over land it is only 715
millimeters (28.1 in). Climate classification systems such as the
Koppel climate classification system use average annual rainfall to help
differentiate between differing climate regimes.
The urban heat island effect may lead to increased rainfall, both in
amounts and intensity, downwind of cities. Global warming is also
causing changes in the precipitation pattern globally.
Precipitation may occur on other celestial bodies, e.g. when it gets cold,
Mars has precipitation which most likely takes the form of ice needles,
rather than rain or snow.

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9. Infiltration.
The flow of water from the ground surface into the ground is known as
Infiltration. Once infiltrated, the water becomes soil moisture or
groundwater.

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10. Run off.

There is variety of ways by which water moves across the land. This
includes both surface runoff and channel runoff.
As it flows, the water may seep into the ground, evaporate into the air,
become stored in lakes or reservoirs, or be extracted for agricultural or
other human uses.

This is keeping the process always interchanging. Again the same process
will be held. In this process all of water that is why this Cycle is known as
The Water Cycle.
By,

Prince Kumar.
The Mini Book of Water Cycle.

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