Gollis University

Course : Hydrogeology
Lecturer: Eng. M.M.Qawdhan
Water Engineer/Hydrologist

Chapter One
Elements of Hydrologic Cycle and
hydrologic processes

INTRODUCTION
HYDROLOGY and HYDROGEOLOGY
Hydrologic Cycle
groundwater component in hydrologic cycle,
Hydrologic Equation
HYDROLOGY and HYDROGEOLOGY

HYDROLOGY:
the study of water. Hydrology addresses the occurrence, distribution,
movement, and chemistry of ALL waters of the earth.

HYDROGEOLOGY: includes the study of the interrelationship of

geologic materials and processes with water,
origin
Movement
development and management

Hydrologic Cycle
Saline water in oceans accounts for 97.2% of total water on earth.
Land areas hold 2.8% of which ice caps and glaciers hold 76.4% (2.14%

of total water)
Groundwater to a depth 4000 m: 0.61%
Soil moisture .005%
Fresh-water lakes .009%
Rivers 0.0001%.
>98% of available fresh water is groundwater.

Hydrologic CYCLE has no beginning and no end

Water evaporates from surface of the ocean, land, plants..
Amount of evaporated water varies, greatest near the equator.
Evaporated water is pure (salts are left behind).

When atmospheric conditions are suitable, water vapor condenses and

forms droplets.

These droplets may fall to the sea, or unto land (precipitation) or may
evaporate while still aloft

Precipitation falling on land surface enters into a number of

different pathways of the hydrologic cycle:

some temporarily stored on land surface as ice and snow or

water puddles (depression storage)

some will drain across land to a stream channel (overland
flow).
If surface soil is porous, some water will seep into the ground by
a process called infiltration (ultimate source of recharge to
groundwater).

 Below land surface soil pores contain both air and water: region

is called vadose zone or zone of aeration

Water stored in vadose zone is called soil moisture

Soil moisture is drawn into rootlets of growing plants
Water is transpired from plants as vapor to the atmosphere
Under certain conditions, water can flow laterally in the vadose

zone (interflow)

Water vapor in vadose zone can also migrate to land surface,

then evaporates

Excess soil moisture is pulled downward by gravity (gravity

drainage)

At some depth, pores of rock are saturated with water marking

the top of the saturated zone.

 Top of saturated zone is called the water table.

Water stored in the saturated zone is known as ground water

(groundwater)

Groundwater moves through rock and soil layers until it discharges

as springs, or seeps into ponds, lakes, stream, rivers, ocean

Groundwater contribution to a stream is called baseflow

Total flow in a stream is runoff
Water stored on the surface of the earth in ponds, lakes, rivers is

called surface water

Precipitation intercepted by plant leaves can evaporate to

atmosphere

Groundwater component
in the hydrologic cycle
Vadose zone = unsaturated zone
Phreatic zone = saturated zone
Intermediate zone separates phreatic zone

from soil water

Water table marks bottom of capillary water

and beginning of saturated zone

Distribution of Water
in the Subsurface

Units are relative to annual P on land surface

100 = 119,000 km3/yr)

Hydrologic Equation
Hydrologic cycle is a network of inflows and outflows,

expressed as
Input - Output = Change in Storage
(1)
Eq. (1) is a conservation statement: ALL water is
accounted for, i.e., we can neither gain nor lose water.
On a global scale
atmosphere gains moisture from oceans and land areas E
releases it back in the form of precipitation P.
P is disposed of by evaporation to the atmosphere E,
overland flow to the channel network of streams Qo,

Infiltration through the soil F.

Water in the soil is subject to transpiration T, outflow to the

channel network Qo, and recharge to the groundwater RN.

Example
groundwater changes in
response to pumping
Inflows

ft3/ Outflows
s

ft3/s

1. Precipitation

2475 2. E of P

1175

3. gw discharge to sea 725

4. Streamflow to sea

525

5. ET of gw

25

6. Spring flow

25

Example, contd.

Write an equation to describe water balance.

SOLUTION:
Water balance equation:
Water input from precipitation evapotranspiration of
precipitation evapotranspiration of groundwater
stream flow discharging to the sea groundwater
discharging to the sea spring flow = change in storage
P ETp ETgw Qswo Qgwo Qso = S

Example, contd
Is the system in steady state?

Substitute appropriate values in above

equation:

2475 1175 -25 -525 -25 = S =0

1. Basic Hydrology Concept

1.1. Introduction
Water is vital for all living organisms on Earth.
For centuries, people have been investigating where
water comes from and where it goes, why some of it is

salty and some is fresh, why sometimes there is not

enough and sometimes too much. All questions and
answers related to water have been grouped together
into a discipline.
The name of the discipline is hydrology and is formed
by two Greek words: "hydro" and "logos" meaning
"water" and "science".

 What is Hydrology?
It is a science of water.
It is the science that deals with the occurrence,
circulation and distribution of water of the earth and
earths atmosphere.
A good understanding of the hydrologic processes is

important for the assessment of the water resources,

their management and conservation on global and
regional scales.

 In general sense hydrology deals with

Estimation of water resources

The study of processes such as

precipitation, evapotranspiration, runoff

and their interaction
The study of problems such as floods and
droughts and strategies to combat them

1.2 Hydrologic Cycle

Water exists on the earth in all its three states, viz.

liquid, solid, gaseous and in various degrees of

motion.

Hydrologic cycle.

Water, irrespective of different states, involves

dynamic aspect in nature.

The dynamic nature of water, the existence of
water in various state with different hydrological
process result in a very important natural
phenomenon called

cycle.

Hydrologic

Hydrologic cycle.

Evaporation of water from water bodies, such as oceans

and lakes, formation and movement of clouds, rain and
snowfall, stream flow and ground water movement are
some examples of the dynamic aspects of water.

Hydrologic cycle.
Evaporation from
water bodies
Water vapour

moves upwards
Cloud formation
Condensation
Precipitate
Interception
Transpiration
Infiltration
Runoffstreamflow
Deep percolation
Ground water flow

Hydrologic cycle.
The hydrologic cycle has importance influence in a variety

of fields agriculture, forestry, geography, economics,

sociology, and political scene.
Engineering application of the knowledge are found in
the design and operation of the projects dealing with
water supply, hydropower, irrigation & drainage, flood
control, navigation, coastal work, various hydraulic
structure works, salinity control and recreational use of
water.

1.3 Water Budget Equation

Catchment area
The area of land draining in to a stream or a water

course at a given location is called catchment area /

drainage area / drainage basin / watershed.
A catchment area is separated from its
neighbouring areas by a ridge called divide /
watershed.

1.3 Water Budget Equation

Catchment area.
A watershed is a geographical unit in which the
hydrological cycle and its components can be
analysed. The equation is applied in the form of
water-balance equation to a geographical
region, in order to establish the basic
hydrologic characteristics of the region. Usually
a watershed is defined as the area that appears,
on the basis of topography, to contribute all the
water that passes through a given cross section
of a stream.

Watershed and watershed divide

Watershed/
catchment

Watershed/
catchment

Catchment area.
If a permeable soil covers an impermeable substrate,
the topographical division of watershed will not always
correspond to the line that is effectively delimiting the
groundwater.

Watershed characteristics

Water Budget Equation

For a given catchment, in an interval of time t, the

continuity equation for water in its various phases can

be given as:
Mass inflow Mass outflow = change in mass storage

If the density of the inflow, outflow and storage

volumes are the same:

V V

Vi - Inflow volume
in to the catchment, Vo - Outflow volume
i
o
from the catchment and S - change in the water volume

Water Budget Equation

Therefore, the water budget of a catchment for a time

interval t is written as:

P R G E T = S
P = Precipitation, R = Surface runoff, G = net ground water flow out of the
catchment, E = Evaporation, T = Transpiration, and S = change in storage

The above equation is called the water budget equation for

a catchment

NOTE: All the terms in the equation have the dimension of

volume and these terms can be expressed as depth
the catchment area.

over

Components of hydrologic cycle

Evapo transpiration

Precipitation
Stream flow
(Runoff)

Inter flow

Infiltration
Base flow
Groundwater flow

1.3 World Water Budget

Total quantity of water in the world is

estimated as 1386 M km3

1337.5 M km3 of water is contained in

oceans as saline water

The rest 48.5 M km3 is land water

13.8 M km3 is again saline

34.7 M km3 is fresh water

10.6 M km3 is both liquid and fresh

24.1 M km3 is a frozen ice and glaciers in the polar
regions and mountain tops

Estimated World Water Quantitites

96%

2%
1%

1%

Ocean-saline
Land - saline
Fresh - Liquid
Fresh - Frozen

Global annual water balance

SN

1
2
3
4

Item
Area (km2)
Precipitation (km3/year)
(mm/year)
Evaporation (km3/year)
(mm/year)
Runoff to ocean

Ocean
361.3
458,000
1270
505,000
1400

Land
148.8
119,000
800
72,000
484

Rivers (km3/year)
Groundwater (km3/year)

44,700
2,200

Total Runoff (km3/year)

(mm/year)

47,000
316

Water Balance of Continents

Area (M km^2)
50

45

40

30.3

30

20.7

20
10

8.7

9.8

Australia

Europe

17.8

0
Africa

Asia

N.Am erica

S.Am erica

Precipitation (mm/yr)
2000
1648
1500
1000

686

726

736

734

670

Africa

Asia

Australia

Europe

N.Am erica

500
0
S.Am erica

Water Balance .
Precipitation (mm/yr)
2000
1648
1500
1000

686

726

736

734

670

Africa

Asia

Australia

Europe

N.Am erica

500
0
S.Am erica

Evaporation (mm/yr)
1200

1065

1000
800
600

547
433

400

510

415

383

Europe

N.Am erica

Drop of water ..
Matter..

200
0
Africa

Asia

Australia

S.Am erica

Total Runoff (mm/yr)

700
583

600
500
400

293

300
200

319
226

287

139

100
0
Africa

Asia

Australia

Europe

N.Am erica

S.Am erica

Water Balance of Oceans

1600

Area M km^2

1380

1400

1210

1200

1040

1000

Precp (mm/yr)

1140

Evap. (mm/yr)

1010

780

800
600
400

240
120

107

200

167

75

12

0
Atlantic

Arctic

Indian

Pacific

Water flow in Ocean

350

400
230

200
200

130

70

60

0
-200
-400

Atlantic
-60

Arctic

Continental Inflow (mm/yr)

water exch. with ocean(mm/yr)

Indian

-300

Pacific

1.4 Application in Engineering

Hydrology finds its greatest application in the

design and operation of water resources engineering

projects
The capacity of storage structures such as reservoir
The magnitude of flood flows to enable safe disposal

of the excess flow

The minimum flow and quantity of flow available at
various seasons
The interaction of the flood wave and hydraulic
structures, such as levees, reservoirs, barrages and
bridges

Chapter Headings
The hydrologic cycle
Precipitation
Runoff
Surface and
groundwater storage
Evaporation
Condensation

Climate and weather

Climate
Monitoring climate
change
Weather
Weather modification
Floods
Drought

Groundwater Storage

Fetter, Applied Hydrology

Groundwater Storage
Groundwater recharge
Water added to groundwater usually through
percolation down through the soil to the water table
Groundwater discharge
Water lost from groundwater usually through springs,
streams, and rivers

Groundwater Storage

Fetter, Applied Hydrology

Introduction
Precipitation is any form of solid or liquid water that

falls from the atmosphere to the earths surface.

Rain, drizzle, hail and snow are examples of
precipitation.
Evapotranspiration is the process which returns
water to the atmosphere and thus completes the
hydrologic cycle. Evapotranspiration consists of two
parts, Evaporation and Transpiration.
Evaporation is the loss of water molecules from soil
masses and water bodies. Transpiration is the loss
of water from plants in the form of vapour.

Precipitation types

The can be categorized as.

Frontal precipitation
This is the precipitation that is caused by the expansion of air on
ascent along or near a frontal surface.
Convective precipitation
Precipitation caused by the upward movement of air which is
warmer than its surroundings. This precipitation is generally
showery nature with rapid changes of intensities.
Orographic precipitation
Precipitation caused by the air masses which strike the mountain
barriers and rise up, causing condensation and precipitation. The
greatest amount of precipitation will fall on the windward side of the
barrier and little amount of precipitation will fall on leave ward side.

Measurement of rainfall
One can measure the rain falling at a place by placing a measuring

cylinder graduated in a length scale, commonly in mm. In this way,

we are not measuring the volume of water that is stored in the
cylinder, but the depth of rainfall.
The cylinder can be of any diameter, and we would expect the same
depth even for large diameter cylinders provided the rain that is
falling is uniformly distributed in space.
In practice, rain is mostly measured with the standard nonrecording rain gauge the details of which are given in Bureau of
Indian Standards code IS 4989: 2002. The rainfall variation at a point
with time is measured with a recording rain-gauge, the details of
which may be found in IS 8389: 2003. Modern technology has
helped to develop Radars, which measures rainfall over an entire
region

Variation of rainfall
Rainfall measurement is commonly used to estimate the amount of

water falling over the land surface, part of which infiltrates into the
soil and part of which flows down to a stream or river. For a scientific
study of the hydrologic cycle, a correlation is sought, between the
amount of water falling within a catchment, the portion of which that
adds to the ground water and the part that appears as streamflow.
Some of the water that has fallen would evaporate or be extracted
from the ground by plants.

Variation of rainfall
In Figure 1, a catchment of a river is shown with four rain gauges, for

which an assumed recorded value of rainfall depth have been shown

in the table. It is on the basis of these discrete measurements of
rainfall that an estimation of the average amount of rainfall that has
probably fallen over a catchment has to be made. Three methods are
commonly used, which are discussed in the following section.

Average rainfall depth

Average rainfall depth
The time of rainfall record can vary and may typically range from 1 minute to
1 day for non recording gauges, Recording gauges, on the other hand,
continuously record the rainfall and may do so from 1 day 1 week,
depending on the make of instrument. For any time duration, the average

depth of rainfall falling over a catchment can be found by the following three
methods.
The Arithmetic Mean Method
The Thiessen Polygon Method
The Isohyetal Method
Arithmetic Mean Method
The simplest of all is the Arithmetic Mean Method, which taken an average
of all the rainfall depths as shown in Figure 2.

Average rainfall depth

Average rainfall as the arithmetic mean of all the records of the four rain
gauges, as show in below:
The Theissen polygon method

This method, first proposed by Thiessen

in 1911, considers the representative area

for each rain gauge. These could also be
thought of as the areas of influence of each
rain gauge, as shown in Figure 3.

Average rainfall depth

Average rainfall depth

These areas are found out using a method consisting of the following

three steps:
1. Joining the rain gauge station locations by straight lines to form
triangles
2. Bisecting the edges of the triangles to form the so-called
Thiessen polygons
3. Calculate the area enclosed around each rain gauge station
bounded by the polygon edges (and the catchment boundary,
wherever appropriate) to find the area of influence corresponding to
the rain gauge.
For the given example, the weighted average rainfall over the
catchment is determined as

Average rainfall depth

The Isohyetal method
This is considered as one of the most accurate methods, but it is

dependent on the skill and experience of the analyst. The method

requires the plotting of isohyets as shown in the figure and
calculating the areas enclosed either between the isohyets or
between an isohyet and the catchment boundary.
The areas may be measured with a planimeter if the catchment map

is drawn to a scale.

Average rainfall depth

Average rainfall depth

For the problem shown in Figure 4, the following may be assumed to be the
areas enclosed between two consecutive isohyets and are calculated as
under:
Area I = 40 km2
Area II = 80 km2
Area III = 70 km2
Area IV = 50 km2
Total catchment area = 240 km2
The areas II and III fall between two isohyets each. Hence, these areas may
be thought of as corresponding to the following rainfall depths:
Area II : Corresponds to (10 + 15)/2 = 12.5 mm rainfall depth
Area III : Corresponds to (5 + 10)/2 = 7.5 mm rainfall depth
For Area I, we would expect rainfall to be more than 15mm but since there is
no record, a rainfall depth of 15mm is accepted. Similarly, for Area IV, a
rainfall depth of 5mm has to be taken. Hence, the average precipitation by the
isohyetal method is calculated to be

Average rainfall depth

Please note the following terms used in this section:
Isohyets: Lines drawn on a map passing through places having

equal amount of rainfall recorded during the same period at these

places (these lines are drawn after giving consideration to the
topography of the region).
Planimeter: This is a drafting instrument used to measure the area

of a graphically represented planar region.

Conti..InshALLAh