Engineering Hydrology

(CEE 4420)
TTU Civil Engineering
(Prepared by Abebe Gebregiorgis
1. Basic Hydrology Concept
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".
1.1. Introduction
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 engineering
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 Hydrologic cycle.
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.
Evaporation from
water bodies
Water vapour
moves upwards
Cloud formation
Condensation
Precipitate
Interception
Transpiration
Infiltration
Runoffstreamflow
Deep percolation
Ground water flow


Hydrologic cycle.
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.
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.
1.3 Water Budget Equation
Catchment area.
Watershed and watershed divide

Watershed/
catchment
Watershed/
catchment
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.
Catchment area.
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
i
- Inflow volume in to the catchment, V
o
- Outflow volume
from the catchment and S - change in the water
volume
S
o i

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
over the catchment area.
Water Budget Equation
Components of hydrologic cycle
Precipitation
Infiltration
Evapo transpiration
Inter flow
Groundwater flow
Base flow
Stream flow
(Runoff)
Total quantity of water in the world is
estimated as 1386 M km
3

1337.5 M km
3
of water is contained in
oceans as saline water
The rest 48.5 M km
3
is land water
13.8 M km
3
is again saline
34.7 M km
3
is fresh water
10.6 M km
3
is both liquid and fresh
24.1 M km
3
is a frozen ice and glaciers in the
polar regions and mountain tops

1.3 World Water Budget
Estimated World Water Quantitites
96%
1%
1%
2%
Ocean-saline
Land - saline
Fresh - Liquid
Fresh - Frozen
Global annual water balance
SN
Item Ocean Land
1 Area (km
2
) 361.3 148.8
2 Precipitation (km
3
/year)
(mm/year)
458,000
1270
119,000
800
3 Evaporation (km
3
/year)
(mm/year)
505,000
1400
72,000
484
4 Runoff to ocean
Rivers (km
3
/year)
Groundwater (km
3
/year)

44,700
2,200
Total Runoff (km
3
/year)
(mm/year)
47,000
316
Water Balance of Continents
Area (M km^2)
30.3
8.7
9.8
20.7
17.8
45
0
10
20
30
40
50
Africa Asia Australia Europe N.America S.America
Precipitation (mm/yr)
686
736 734
670 726
1648
0
500
1000
1500
2000
Africa Asia Australia Europe N.America S.America
Water Balance .
Precipitation (mm/yr)
686
736 734
670 726
1648
0
500
1000
1500
2000
Africa Asia Australia Europe N.America S.America
Evaporation (mm/yr)
547
510
415
383
1065
433
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
Africa Asia Australia Europe N.America S.America
Total Runoff (mm/yr)
139
226
319
287
293
583
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
Africa Asia Australia Europe N.America S.America
Drop of water ..
Matter..
Water Balance of Oceans
107
12
75
167
780
240
1010
1210
1040
120
1380
1140
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
Atlantic Arctic Indian Pacific
Area M km^2
Precp (mm/yr)
Evap. (mm/yr)
Water flow in Ocean
200
230
70
60
350
-300
130
-60
-400
-200
0
200
400
Atlantic Arctic Indian Pacific
Continental Inflow (mm/yr)
water exch. with ocean(mm/yr)
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

THE END