| Abstract: | Quantification of water balance components, under arid conditions, is essential to the development of water management policies. This study demonstrates the application of the mass water balance approach for the assessment of water resources in a typical watershed located in the southwestern region of Saudi Arabia. The water balance approach was used, on an event basis, to express the amount of precipitation for 13 storms over a three year period, as a percentage of other hydrological components such as runoff, evaporation, and recharge. The study indicated that 63 per cent of precipitation is lost through evaporation from the water surface during flooding, and from the upper layers of the soil surface immediately after storms. Another 32 per cent is stored in the form of soil moisture in the unsaturated layers below the effective evaporation depth. Only 3 per cent of the precipitation was transformed into surface runoff; however, 75 per cent of this contributes towards groundwater recharge. This study has illustrated that the mass water balance approach can be used, with reasonable accuracy, to quantify the components of the hydrological processes under arid conditions, where a reliable data base is available. This, in turn, will help in the development of appropriate water management policies for arid regions. |
