Surface runoff is a term used to describe the flow of
water, from
rain,
snowmelt, or other sources, over the land and is a major component of the
water cycle.
[1][2] Runoff that occurs on surfaces before reaching a
channel is also called a
nonpoint source. If a nonpoint source contains man-made contaminants, the runoff is called
nonpoint source pollution. A land area which produces runoff draining to common point is called a
watershed. When runoff flows along the ground, it can pick up
soil contaminants such as
petroleum,
pesticides (in particular
herbicides and
insecticides), or
fertilizers that become
discharge or nonpoint source pollution.
[3]Surface runoff can be generated either by rainfall or by the melting of snow or glaciers.
Snow and glacier melt occur only in areas cold enough for these to form permanently. Typically snowmelt will peak in the spring and glacier melt in the summer, leading to pronounced flow maxima in rivers affected by them. The determining factor of the rate of melting of snow or glaciers is both air temperature and the duration of sunlight. In high mountain regions, streams frequently rise on sunny days and fall on cloudy ones for this reason.
In areas where there is no snow, runoff will come from rainfall. However, not all rainfall will produce runoff because storage from soils can absorb light showers. On the extremely ancient soils of Australia and Southern Africa,[4] proteoid roots with their extremely dense networks of root hairs can absorb so much rainwater as to prevent runoff even when substantial amounts of rain fall. In these regions, even on relatively less infertile cracking clay soils, high amounts of rainfall and low potential evaporation are needed to generate any surface runoff, leading to specialised adaptations to extremely variable (usually ephemeral) streams.
