A shift in a drainage basin's climate from humid to arid conditions reduces vegetation cover and interception, decreases infiltration capacity (due to sparser vegetation and often more compacted or crusted soils), and increases the proportion of rainfall converted directly to surface runoff rather than being absorbed or delayed by soil and plant processes; this results in a flashier hydrological response characterized by a shorter lag time between rainfall and the resulting runoff peak, along with a higher-magnitude flood peak compared to the more attenuated, delayed response typical of humid, well-vegetated basins.