The diagram illustrates the water cycle in both rural areas and cities.
Overall, there are six stages that are occuring during the water cycle which are namely precipitation, infiltration, baseflow, runoff, transpiration and evaporation. There is a variety of differences in the process which takes place both in urban and forested regions with the one side having several complications which lead to pollution while in the other there is a natural correct flow that occurs, respectively.
Once the rainfall occurs the water navigates downwards until it reaches the water table. Afterwards, it flows underground and a part of it ends up in rivers or lakes while the rest becomes steam and returns to the atmosphere.
Specifically, in built up areas there is a significant increase in the pollution of the water due to the fact that there is reduced infiltration and baseflow which cause increased erosion. In contrast, forested areas absorb water way more effectively, achieving an efficient transpiration and evaporation as well as a decent runoff due to the fact that there is permeable topsoil and less subsoil on rocks.