Everyone has heard about balancing a financial budget – but what about balancing the water budget?  Spatially distributed current rainfall information combined with spatially distributed soils and hill slope information, is the best way to know whether the rainfall in your watershed can be expected to infiltrate and recharge the aquifer, or runoff into the stream.  Especially in the case of land use changes that accompany urban development and population growth, it is increasingly more important to manage storm water flow.  If water flows out of a watershed more quickly over compacted or impervious surfaces, we can expect higher flooding  and contaminated surface runoff.  If the water flow takes a longer path through the soil, aquifers are recharged and base flows are higher during hot summer months.  The water budget we calculate is uniquely suited to understand how the removal of trees and vegetation may impact surface water runoff and groundwater recharge.

Water Budgets