The two diagrams demonstrate the water cycle in both forested and urban areas.
The process is linear and involves four stages for each. In both instances, it begins with rain pouring. Ultimately, in the forested area, it ends with water running off to the sea causing an increase in baseflow whereas, in the city the baseflow is reduced due to increased polluted runoff.
To begin with, rain pours over the forest into the permeable topsoil and is infiltrated into the subsoil. Afterwards, the excess water evaporates into the atmosphere while the trees also transpire the additional absorbed water. Meanwhile, the water reaches the water table thus increasing the baseflow into the sea. Notably, there will be minimal water runoff since most of it either was infiltrated or released into the atmosphere.
On the other hand, when it rains in the urban areas there are no trees since they have been cut down to pave way for infrastructure. Therefore, the soil does not absorb the water readily leading to reduced evaporation. In addition, since the crops are scarce also transpiration decreases. This eventually causes reduced infiltration of water because it has gone downhill washing away pollutants and eroded the covering topsoil. Therefore, there is reduced baseflow in the water table and more silting due to the spike in soil erosion.