Engineering Hydrology

Tutorial 1: Water balance

1: A river reach had a flood wave passing through it. At a given instant
the storage of the water was estimated as 15.5 ha.m. What would be
the storage in the reach after an interval of 3 hours if the average
inflow and outflow during the time period are 14.2m3/s and 10.6m3/s
respectively?
2. Estimate the constant rate of withdrawal from a 1375 ha reservoir in
a month of 30 days during which the reservoir level dropped by 0.75 m
in spite of an average inflow into the reservoir of 0.5 million m 3/day.
During the month the average seepage loss from the reservoir was 2.5
cm, total precipitation was 18.5 cm and evaporation was 9.5 cm.
3. A small catchment of area 150 ha received a rainfall of 10.5 cm in
90 minutes due to a storm. At the outlet of the catchment, the stream
draining the catchment was dry before the storm and experience a
runoff lasting for 10 hours with an average discharge value of 2m 3/s.
the stream was again dry after the runoff event: a) what is the amount
of water which was not available to runoff due to combined effect of
infiltration, evaporation and transpiration? b) what is the ratio of runoff
to the precipitation?
4. A catchment area of 140 km2 received 120 cm rainfall in a year. At
the outlet of the catchment, the flow in the stream draining the
catchment was found to have an average rate of 2m 3/s for 3 months;
3m3/s for 6 months and 5m3/s for 3 months. Calculate the runoff
coefficient of the catchment. If the afforestation of the catchment
reduced the runoff coefficient of the catchment to 0.5, what is the
increase in the abstraction from the precipitation due to infiltration,
evaporation and transpiration, for the same annual rainfall 130 cm?
5. Find out the water balance for Nepal.
See http://www.fao.org/nr/water/espim/country/nepal/index2.stm and
try to understand how it is calculated.

For datasheet only:

http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/water_res/index.stm

Precipitation:
1. A catchment has seven raingauge stations. In a year, the annual
rainfalls in cm recorded by the gauges are as follows: 130, 142.1,
118.2, 108.5, 165.2, 102.1 and 146.9. For 5% error in the
estimation of the mean rainfall, calculate the minimum number of
additional stations required to be established in the catchment.
2. The precipitation for a certain basin has been recorded for several
years at 5 gauges. The data at one of the gauges (site Y) is
suspected to be inconsistent relative to that at the other four
sites. The table below shows data for Y and the average data for
the other four sites (called X). (a) Analyze the consistency of the
data at Y by the double mass method. (b) Adjust the data of the
earlier years at Y (so that they are consistent with those of recent
years).

3. The annual precipitation at station Z and the average annual precipitation at 10

neighbouring station are as follows:
Year

Precipita
tion at
Z(mm)

1972
1973
1974
1975

35
37
39
35

10
stations
average(
mm)
28
29
31
27

Year

Precipita
tion at
Z(mm)

1980
1981
1982
1983

30
31
35
38

10
stations
average(
mm)
26
31
36
39

1976
30
25
1984
40
44
1977
25
21
1985
28
32
1978
20
17
1986
25
30
1979
24
21
1987
21
23
Use double mass curve analysis to correct any data incosistencies at station Z.
FAO AQUATIC CALCULATION SHEET
Selected equations
ASSESSING INTERNAL RENEWABLE WATER RESOURCES

ASSESSING EXTERNAL RENEWABLE WATER RESOURCES AND TOTAL RESOURCES

ASSESSING TOTAL RENEWABLE WATER RESOURCES AND THE DEPENDENCY RATIO