HYDROLOGY

By: SHEILA C. COGAY

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 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.
What is Hydrology?
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
It deals with the depletion and replenishment of water
resource of earth.
 Hydrology Objective
To estimate yield (water) from drainage basin /
watershed / catchment.

Precipitation Catchment Runoff

(Input) (System) (Output)

Catchment losses
(Evap, infiltro, etc)
 Hydrology History
The Romans constructed
numerous aqueducts to bring
water from distant sources into Perault
their cities and towns. Waste Linked rainfall to flow of
water was removed by the river Seine
complex sewage systems and Marriotte
released into nearby bodies of Combined velocity and Poiseuille
water. Some aqueducts also river cross section to Stokes
provided water for mining, obtain discharge of the Manning
processing, manufacturing, and river Seine Reynolds
agriculture. Mead
Meyer

4000 BC 200 AD 1500 1800 1850 1900

Along the Indus River, Leonardo da Vinci and Pitot Hazen
Pakistan, the Tigris and Bernard Palissy Bernoulli Gumbel
Euphrates in independently reached Euler Hurst
Mesopotamia, Hwang Ho an accurate Chezy Meinzer
in China, and the Nile in representation of the Dalton Hubbert
Egypt that the first hydrologic cycle Made progress in Prandtl
hydraulic engineers applications of Chow
created canals, levees, mathematics, fluid Thornthwaite
dams, subsurface water mechanics, Penman
conduits, and wells and hydraulics Horton
Darcy
Worked on
groundwater hydrology
Hydrology Branches

Chemical Eco Surface Drainage Basin

Hydrogeology Hydrometeorology
Hydrology Hydrology Hydrology Management
Study of Study of Study of the Study of the Study of Covers
chemical interaction distribution transfer of hydrologic water-
characteristi s of living and water and processes storage, in
cs of water organisms movement of energy that operate the form of
and the groundwater between land at or reservoirs,
Water Quality hydrologic in the soils and water body near Earth' and flood-
Chemistry of cycle and rocks of surfaces and s surface protection
water in the Earths the lower
rivers and crust atmosphere
lakes, both
of pollutants
and natural
solutes
 Hydrology Applications
Flood forecasting and mngt
Irrigation

Design of hydraulic
structures Drought Mngt
Hydropower
generation

Municipal & Industrial

Navigation Pollution control water supply
Worlds Water Resource

Therefore:
Total water available for human use and
consumption
.
= , , , = , ,

Hydrologic Cycle
Water exists on the earth in all its three states, viz. liquid,
solid, gaseous and in various degrees of motion.
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.
Hydrologic Cycle
Evaporation - is the process
by which water is converted
from its liquid state to the
gaseous state, also known as
water vapor.
Condensation - is the process
by which water vapor is
changed back into liquid
water.
Precipitation is water that
falls from the atmosphere in
the form of rain, sleet, snow,
hail, or freezing rain.
Hydrologic Cycle
Percolation - is the movement
of water through the voids of
pervious material
Surface Runoff - it is the
water flowing over the land
making its way towards
rivers, lakes, oceans etc. as
surface or subsurface flow.
Transpiration - it is the
evaporation taking place from
any plant or greenery.
Hydrologic Cycle
Evapotranspiration - it is the
combination of evaporation
and transpiration.
Infiltration - it is the process of
filtration of water to the inner
layers of soil based on its
structure and nature.
Interception - Part of
precipitation required to wet
the surface of soil, buildings
and all pervious surfaces.
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.
Hydrologic Cycle main components
Transportation components
Precipitation
Evaporation
Transpiration
Infiltration
Runoff
Storage components
Storage on the land surface (depression storage, ponds, lakes,
reservoirs, etc)
Soil moisture storage
Groundwater storage
Transportation Components of hydrologic cycle
Evapo transpiration
Precipitation

Stream flow

(Runoff)

Inter flow
Infiltration

Base flow

Groundwater flow
Water Budget Equation
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 neighboring areas by a ridge
called divide / watershed.
A watershed is a geographical unit in which the hydrological cycle and
its components can be analyzed. 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/
catchment
Watershed/
catchment
Water Budget Equation
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:

i o S
Vi - Inflow volume in to the catchment, Vo - Outflow volume
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
over the catchment area.
Water Budget Equation
Example:
A lake had a water surface elevation of 103.2m above datum at the
beginning of a certain month. In that month the lake received an
average inflow of 6.0m3/s from surface runoff sources. In the same
period the outflow from the lake had an average value of 6.5m3/s.
Further, in that month, the lake received a rainfall of 145mm and the
evaporation from the lake surface was estimated as 6.1cm. Write the
water budget equation for the lake and calculate the water surface
elevation of the lake at the end of the month. The average lake
surface are can be taken as 5000ha. Assume that there is no
contribution to or from the ground water storage.
Water Balance of Continents
Area (M km^2)

50
45
40
30.3
30
20.7
20 17.8
8.7 9.8
10

0
Africa Asia Australia Europe N.Am erica S.Am erica

Precipitation (mm/yr)

2000
1648
1500

1000 736 734

686 726 670
500

0
Africa Asia Australia Europe N.Am erica S.Am erica
 Precipitation (mm/yr)

2000
1648
1500

1000 736 734

686 726 670
500

0
Africa Asia Australia Europe N.Am erica S.Am erica

Evaporation (mm/yr)

1200
1065
1000
800
547 510
600
433 415 383
400
200
0
Africa Asia Australia Europe N.Am erica S.Am erica

Total Runoff (mm/yr)

700
600 583
500
400 319
293 287
300 226
200 139
100
0
Africa Asia Australia Europe N.Am erica S.Am erica
Global annual water balance
SN Item Ocean Land
1 Area (km2) 361.3 148.8
2 Precipitation (km3/year) 458,000 119,000
(mm/year) 1270 800
3 Evaporation (km3/year) 505,000 72,000
(mm/year) 1400 484
4 Runoff to ocean
Rivers (km3/year) 44,700
Groundwater (km3/year) 2,200
Total Runoff (km3/year) 47,000
(mm/year) 316
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