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Chapter 3: Hydrological Processes in Riparian Areas
Surface Runoff
- If the amount of precipitation that falls exceeds the capacity of the ground’s ability to absorb it (infiltration), the excess water becomes runoff.
- Summer rainfall is generally the result of short duration, intense thunderstorms with most of becoming runoff.
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Runoff traveling across the surface of the landscape is termed sheetflow.
- Sheetflow may be absorbed into soils further downslope, or it may reach the channel network.
Figure 3.6. Sheetflow.
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