What can surface water be used for?

What can surface water be used for?

The main uses of surface water include drinking-water and other public uses, irrigation uses, and for use by the thermoelectric-power industry to cool electricity-generating equipment.

What is an example of moving surface water?

Movement of Water. Surface movement includes rivers, streams, creeks, lakes, ponds, and human-made “flood” control. All surface water is trying to reach sea level due to gravity. As water flows in channels, the streambed and banks of the channel will resist the flow of water.

What is movement of the surface of water?

Surface water participates in the hydrologic cycle, or water cycle, which involves the movement of water to and from the Earth’s surface. Evaporation and seepage of water into the ground, on the other hand, cause water bodies to lose water. Water that seeps deep into the ground is called groundwater.

What are surface waters and how are they useful?

Surface waters and their associated ecosystems provide habitat to many plant and animal species. Because surface waters are on the land surface, they are easily developed for use and provide about 78 percent of the United States’s total off-stream water use.

What is the movement of water called?

the hydrologic cycle
The water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle, describes the continuous movement of water as it makes a circuit from the oceans to the atmosphere to the Earth and on again.

How can human activity affect surface water?

Some human activities, such as pumping water into the ground for oil and gas extraction, can cause an aquifer to hold too much ground water. Too much ground water discharge to streams can lead to erosion and alter the balance of aquatic plant and animal species.

How are groundwater bodies formed?

At a certain depth below the land surface, the spaces between the soil and rock particles can be totally filled with water, resulting in an aquifer from which groundwater can be pumped and used by people. Some of the precipitation that falls onto the land infiltrates into the ground to become groundwater.

How does water move between the surface and the groundwater?

Water moves between the groundwater and surface bodies of water. Gaining streams gain water from the groundwater. Losing streams lose their water to the groundwater. The level of the water table determines which way water will move between the groundwater and surface.

What are the different types of surface water?

While surface water can seep underground to become groundwater, groundwater can resurface on land to replenish surface water. Springs are formed in these locations. There are three types of surface water: perennial, ephemeral, and man-made.

How does surface water contribute to the hydrologic cycle?

Surface water participates in the hydrologic cycle, or water cycle, which involves the movement of water to and from the Earth’s surface. Precipitation and water runoff feed bodies of surface water.

Why is it important to keep track of surface water?

Keeping track of vegetation around bodies of surface water is also important. The removal of vegetation, either through natural means such as fires, or through deforestation, can have a negative impact on surface water. Loss of vegetation can lead to increased surface runoff and erosion, which in turn can increase the risk of flooding.