Water budget

"Water budgets are tools that water users and managers use to quantify the hydrologic cycle. A water budget is an accounting of the rates of water movement and the change in water storage in all or parts of the atmosphere, land surface, and subsurface. Although simple in concept, water budgets may be difficult to accurately determine. It is important for the public and decisionmakers to have an appreciation of the uncertainties that exist in water budgets and the relative importance of those uncertainties in evaluating how much water may be available for human and environmental needs" (Healy et al., 2007).

Sources

Healy, R.W., Winter, T.C., LaBaugh, J.W., and Franke, O.L., 2007, Water budgets: Foundations for effective water-resources and environmental management: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1308.

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