Topic summary
Infiltration capacity
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Infiltration (hydrology).
Precipitation
Precipitation can impact infiltration in many ways. The amount, type, and duration of precipitation all have an impact. Rainfall leads to faster infiltration rates than any other precipitation event, such as snow or sleet. In terms of amount, the more precipitation that occurs, the more infiltration will occur until the ground reaches saturation, at which point the infiltration capacity is reached. The duration of rainfall impacts the infiltration capacity as well. Initially when the precipitation event first starts the infiltration is occurring rapidly as the soil is unsaturated, but as time continues the infiltration rate slows as the soil becomes more saturated. This relationship between rainfall and infiltration capacity also determines how much runoff will occur. If rainfall occurs at a rate faster than the infiltration capacity runoff will occur.