ABSTRACT
In hydrology, the process of interception is connected to losses from evaporation, and thus the same meteorological factors are involved in both processes. However, the structure of a rainfall episode will play an important role in the interception process. Today, we are aware that even during a rain, a portion of the intercepted water can evaporate. In addition, the duration of the rainfall will directly affect the volume of water intercepted: if the rainstorm is intermittent, a greater portion of the water that is mechanically intercepted by foliage will evaporate than if the rainfall is constant. In other words, for the same volume of water and same rainfall duration, interception is less significant for a constant rainfall than for an intermittent storm (or a number of storms). Figure 5.11 illustrates the importance of the precipitation structure in relation to the depth of water stored by the foliage.
