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Distribution of Water On The Earth

The Earth's surface water distribution is uneven, with only 3% being fresh water, primarily found in glaciers and underground. Fresh water is essential for various human activities, but its availability is decreasing due to rising demand and population growth. Water resources are categorized into surface water and groundwater, both part of the hydrologic cycle, with desalination and glacier runoff being alternative sources of fresh water.

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57 views1 page

Distribution of Water On The Earth

The Earth's surface water distribution is uneven, with only 3% being fresh water, primarily found in glaciers and underground. Fresh water is essential for various human activities, but its availability is decreasing due to rising demand and population growth. Water resources are categorized into surface water and groundwater, both part of the hydrologic cycle, with desalination and glacier runoff being alternative sources of fresh water.

Uploaded by

jenilen
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Distribution of Water on the Earth’s Surface

The distribution of water on the Earth’s surface is extremely uneven. Only 3% of water on the surface is
fresh; the remaining 97% resides in the ocean. Of freshwater, 69% resides in glaciers, 30% underground,
and less than 1% is located in lakes, rivers, and swamps. Looked at another way, only one percent of the
water on the Earth’s surface is usable by humans, and 99% of the usable quantity is situated
underground.

Types of Water Resources

Water Resources are sources of water that are useful to humans. Uses of water include agricultural,
industrial , household , recreational and environmental activities . Virtually all of these human uses
require fresh water.

Fresh water is renewable resources like soil and air. The world is supplied by clean and fresh water and it
is decreasing. Water is one of our most critical resources, but around the world it is under threat. Water
demand already exceeds supply in many parts of the world and as the world population continues to
rise, so too does the water demand.

Water resources are divisible into two distinct categories : the surface-water resources and the ground-
water resources. Each of these categories is a part of the earth's water circulatory system, called the
hydrologic cycle, and is derived from precipitation, which is rainfall plus snow.

Sources of Fresh Water

 Surface water - is water in a river, lake or fresh water wetland. Surface water is naturally
replenished by precipitation and naturally lost through discharge to the oceans, evaporation,
and sub-surface.
 Ground Water- Sub-surface water, or groundwater, is fresh water located in the pore space of
soil and rocks. It is also water that is flowing within aquifers below the water table.
 Desalination - is an artificial process by which saline water (generally sea water) is converted to
fresh water.
 Frozen Water- Several schemes have been proposed to make use of icebergs as a water source,
however to date this has only been done for novelty purposes. Glacier runoff is considered to be
surface water.

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