The Water (Hydrological) Cycle

What is the Water Cycle

The Earth is truly unique in its abundance of water. Water is necessary for sustaining life on Earth and helps combine
the atmosphere, the lithosphere, the hydrosphere and the biosphere into an integrated system. Precipitation,
evaporation, freezing and melting, condensation and transpiration are all part of the hydrological cycle – a never-
ending global process of water circulation from clouds to land, to the oceans, and back to the clouds. This cycling of
water is intimately linked with energy exchanges among the atmosphere, oceans and land that determine the Earth’s
climate. The impacts of climate change and variability on the quality of human life occur primarily through changes in
the water cycle.

Water on the planet Earth is special because it exists in its three different states:

a. Ice – solid
b. Water – liquid
c. Water vapour – gas

Each state has unique properties.

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Phases of the Water Cycle

1. Evaporation
This is when energy from the sun causes water from oceans, lakes, streams, ice and soils to rise into the air and
turn into water vapour (gas). Water vapour droplets join together to make clouds.
2. Condensation
As the water vapour rises, it cools down and returns to liquid form.
3. Precipitation
The water, in the form of rain, hail, sleet or snow now falls down from the clouds.
4. Collection
This is when water that falls from the clouds as rain, snow, hail or sleet, collects in the oceans, rivers, lakes,
streams. Most will infiltrate (soak into) the ground and will collect as underground water.

These four, principal phases are powered by the energy of the sun and by gravity.

Additional Processes in the Water Cycle

1. Transpiration
Plants take in water from the soil, through their roots. Much of this water is evaporated away from the leaves and
rises up to join the clouds. In heavily forested areas such as Amazonia, transpiration is one of the most important
contributors to local micro-climates, causing cloud formation and constant rainfall.
 2. Sublimation
Sometimes water in its solid form –
ice or snow – can change directly
into its gas form – water vapour.
This happens on mountains
exposed to sunlight, and
contributes to the formation of
clouds.
3. Transportation (of
clouds)
Clouds form as water evaporates
and are then moved by wind
currents. These winds usually blow
clouds inland from over the sea.
The reason for this is that as the
land heats up during the day, the
hot air rises and draws the cooler
air from over the oceans, inland.
4. Deposition
This is the reverse of sublimation and happens when water vapour in the clouds changes directly to its solid state –
snow and hail, usually as the result of the clouds being pushed up high over mountains, so the water vapour in the
clouds cools very quickly.
5. Surface flow
The water which precipitates now runs downhill, due to gravity, over the surface of the land, in streams and rivers,
heading back to the sea.
6. Infiltration
Most precipitated water, including snow-melt, soaks through the surface soil and then infiltrates into holes and
gaps in the underlying rocks.
7. Percolation
The water which seeps through the soil and the rocks, slowly reaches a point where it cannot go further and
accumulates as aquifers or collects as ground water. If close to the sea or a lake, this water will percolate out.

Human Impact on the Global Water Cycle

Humans are profoundly impacting the global water cycle:

1. Storage of water in reservoirs and artificial lakes

2. Mining of groundwater reserves – aquifers, groundwater and wells
3. Irrigation
4. Urbanisation
5. Combustion
6. Deforestation
7. Loss of wetlands
8. Hydroelectricity projects
9. Discharges and water pollution

The global water cycle is also responding in a catastrophic way to global warming and climate change.

As the human population grows, water will become a source of conflicts.