Infiltration

The Water Budget

For management purposes, the hydrologic cycle is expressed as a water budget, where inputs (precipitation, irrigation) are allocated to either infiltration or runoff, and balanced with losses (percolation, evapotranspiration). Thus,

Precipitation + Irrigation = Infiltration + Runoff.

Infiltrated water is allocated among five compartments:

Infiltration = Soil Storage + Plant Transpiration + Evaporation + Interflow + Deep Percolation.