The hydrologic cycle, illustrated in Figure 1, is the movement of water from the atmosphere to the earth’s surface. Water moves through one or more components of the cycle including evaporation, transpiration, runoff, precipitation, infiltration, percolation and its eventual return to the atmosphere.

In an undeveloped area, with natural ground cover such as forest or meadow, a significant portion of precipitation infiltrates into the soil. This water is filtered and cooled as it travels underground. Some infiltrated water is subsequently discharged into rivers and streams as baseflow. Baseflow provides a steady contribution of high quality water to lakes, streams and rivers. Other infiltrated water descends deeper underground to the water table and recharges aquifers. Groundwater recharge replenishes the supply of underground water that can be extracted for domestic use and irrigation. Another portion of precipitation is returned to the atmosphere through a combination of evaporation and plant transpiration called evapotranspiration. Where there is natural ground cover, all of these processes together serve to minimize the percentage of precipitation that becomes runoff, the water that flows over that land surface into streams and other surface water bodies.