A water budget is a quantitative accounting framework that describes the balance between inputs, outputs, and storage changes of water within a defined system, such as a watershed, aquifer, soil profile, or climatic region. It is typically expressed as P + I + Gi = ET + R + Go + ΔS, where P is precipitation, I is artificial inputs (e.g., irrigation), Gi and Go are groundwater inflows and outflows, ET is evapotranspiration, R is surface runoff, and ΔS is change in water storage. Water budgets are fundamental in hydrology and climate studies for assessing resource availability, modeling fluxes, and evaluating impacts of land-use or climate change on hydrological regimes.
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