The total quantity of water in runoff for a drainage area for the year. Data reports may use any of the following units of measurement in presenting annual runoff data:
- acre-feet (AC-FT, acre-ft, af)– the quantity of water required to cover 1 acre to a depth of 1 foot and is equal to 43,560 cubic feet, 325,851 gallons, or 1,234 cubic meters;
- cubic feet per second per square mile (CFSM, (ft3/s)mi2) – the average number of cubic feet of water flowing per second from each square mile of area drained, assuming the runoff is distributed uniformly in time and area;
- inch (In., in.) – the depth to which a drainage area would be covered with water if all the runoff for a given time period was uniformly distributed on it.
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