Depression storage capacity

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Depression storage capacity, in soil science, is the ability of a particular area of land to retain water in its pits and depressions, thus preventing it from flowing away. Depression storage capacity, along with infiltration capacity, is one of the main factors involved in Horton overland flow, whereby water volume surpasses both infiltration and depression storage capacity and begins to flow horizontally across land, possibly leading to flooding and soil erosion. The study of land's depression storage capacity is important in the fields of geology, ecology, and especially hydrology.