Based on the provided information, the water cycle would be affected by leading to an increase in extreme weather events, specifically droughts and heavy precipitation. These changes, expected as climate changes, directly impact the availability and quality of water resources.
As climate changes, the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, such as droughts and heavy precipitation, are expected to increase. These extreme events represent significant disruptions and alterations within the natural rhythm and distribution patterns of the water cycle.
Impacts on Water Resources
The resulting shifts in the water cycle have profound consequences for water resources and, subsequently, for civilization.
- Droughts: Periods of prolonged dryness reduce the amount of water available in rivers, lakes, and groundwater reserves, leading to a lack of adequate water supplies. This scarcity can impact agriculture, ecosystems, and human consumption.
- Heavy Precipitation: Intense rainfall events can overwhelm drainage systems, causing flooding. While seemingly the opposite of drought, this too disrupts water management and can lead to significant damage.
- Degraded Water Quality: Both droughts (concentrating pollutants) and heavy rainfall (increasing runoff of contaminants) can result in degraded water quality.
These impacts on water resources—a lack of adequate water supplies, flooding, or degraded water quality—significantly affect civilization, as they have done throughout history.
In essence, while the core processes of evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection continue, climate change is expected to increase their variability and intensity, resulting in more severe swings between dry and wet extremes within the water cycle's expression on the landscape.
