Read water-cycle diagrams in ManYue: distinguish storage pools from transfer processes

Oceans, clouds, groundwater and arrows in a water-cycle diagram do not form one compulsory clockwise itinerary for every droplet. Read an original schematic in ManYue, separating storage pools and transfers before tracing different routes and units. This does not predict local flooding or groundwater safety. The app supports viewing, zoom and return, not automatic real hydrological budgets.

Label pools and transfer arrows

Draw separate boxes for ocean, surface water, soil water, groundwater and atmosphere, with arrows for evaporation, precipitation, infiltration and surface runoff. Boxes describe storage and arrows transfers; evaporation is not another water-filled pool. Record file, location, legend and simplifications. A cloud drawn larger than the ocean does not imply greater storage. Omitted pools, such as glaciers, remain omitted from the diagram rather than absent from the real cycle.

Distinguish evaporation and condensation

Follow ocean-to-atmosphere evaporation: liquid becomes water vapour. Condensed droplets can form an important cloud component, so visible white cloud is not the transparent vapour itself. If ice crystals appear, note their conditions rather than call every cloud liquid raindrops. Keep process labels distinct from pools and cloud formation from later precipitation. Arrow length supplies no duration without a time scale, and a Sun symbol is not a temperature measurement.

Separate surface and subsurface branches

Land precipitation can become surface runoff or infiltrate soil; further groundwater recharge requires the diagram’s relevant path and conditions. Trace endpoints instead of equating infiltration with immediate arrival in a deep underground river. Record plant uptake and transpiration separately if supplied. Possible branches do not mean every droplet divides equally. Without proportions, do not invent half-and-half allocation or treat unshown surface evaporation as zero.

Trace two hypothetical water routes

Trace hypothetical drop A through ocean evaporation, atmosphere and precipitation back over the ocean. Trace B through land precipitation, soil, groundwater and a depicted discharge route to surface water or ocean. These are example paths, not tracked real molecules. Residence times can differ and page order is not a globally synchronised cycle. If the return arrow is absent, record that omission instead of inventing an observed closure. Cycles can contain multiple routes, not one compulsory clockwise loop.

Separate volume from volume per year

Use an original quantity card: a pool stores one hundred cubic metres and a process transfers ten cubic metres per year. Volume and volume per year cannot be directly added. Specify time and net flows first. A net gain of ten over one year gives one hundred ten under the simplified conditions; inflow ten and outflow ten can leave one hundred. These are paper values, not global estimates, and unscaled arrow thickness is not an exact flux.

Check endpoints and labels at readable zoom

In ManYue inspect the whole diagram, then enlarge each arrow’s start, end and label, distinguishing infiltration, groundwater movement and surface runoff. Crossed lines do not imply a confluence without legend support. For unreadable labels, consult a clear source and retain uncertainty. Return to the whole diagram after local inspection: a cropped ocean corner does not identify an unseen arrow’s origin. Paper or external records suffice without a specialised water-cycle annotation feature.

Check compulsory-loop and unit errors

Use A’s ocean-precipitation route to reject a compulsory ocean-cloud-river itinerary, and consult scale notes before inferring volume from cloud size. Dividing storage by annual flow to assert real residence time requires additional model assumptions such as steady state and mixing; this small card cannot estimate a real system. Blue artwork supplies no pollution, salinity or potability result. Share original diagrams, arrows and units without invented regional observations or emergency decisions based on comic schematics.

Reopen with two routes and one unit record

Reopen and verify pools, labels and both routes, then recalculate the one-year net-flow example. Retain separate volumes and fluxes, alternative paths, omitted pools and missing proportions. Explain that the cycle does not prescribe identical timing or order for every droplet. A bookmark locates the source without establishing current local conditions. Re-trace endpoints after a changed diagram adds human use or ice storage rather than treat this simplified map as a permanent answer to every water-cycle diagram.

Related guides and sources

ManYue pictured flowcharts: distinguish branches, merges and loops from page order; Read meander diagrams in ManYue: follow flow before distinguishing outer and inner banks.

Checked on November 14, 2026: Apple public information lists ManYue 2.0.5, requiring iOS / iPadOS 15.0 or later. See the official App Store for published capabilities; verify specific controls in the installed version.

Method reference: USGS: water pools, fluxes and units. Samples, passages and controls are original exercises. Sources establish definitions and checking methods rather than new automatic analysis in the app. Manual records may be kept externally, and unknown fields should remain explicit. This article does not claim step-by-step testing on a physical device, private server or every output environment.