In this chapter our goal is to highlight some of the many ways that urbanization affects the water budget and water cycle. A water budget describes the stores or volumes of water in the surface, subsurface and atmospheric compartments of the environment over a chosen increment of time. The water cycle has to do with characterizing the flow paths and flow rates of water from one store to another. Understanding how urbanization affects the water budget and water cycle first requires an appreciation of how conditions work in a natural system.
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Welty, C. (2009). The Urban Water Budget. In: Baker, L. (eds) The Water Environment of Cities. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-84891-4_2
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