Solutions to hydrology questions exam 19 October, 2007-10-19

Problem 1 (10 credits)

2
A lake has an area of 10 km . During a specific month the lake evaporation was 90 mm. During the
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same month the inflow to the lake from a river was on average 1.2 m /s and the outflow from the lake
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via another river was on average 1.1 m /s. Also, for the same month a water level increase of 100
mm for the lake was observed.
a) What was the precipitation in mm during that month? (6p).
b) What assumption is important for your answer in a)? (1p).
c) The concentration of phosphorus in inflow river water was 1.0 mg/L and outflow river water 0.8
mg/L during the month. What was the change of stored phosphorus (kg) in the lake during the
month? (3p).

Solution:
a) Water balance equation Σin – Σout = P + (Q – Q ) – E = ΔM which gives
in out
6 6
P + (1.2 – 1.1) · 30 · 24 · 3600/(10 · 10 ) - 0.09 = 10 · 10 · 0.1
P = 164 mm
b) That is no other inflows and outflows during the period, e.g., lake water exchange with
groundwater.
c) Q · Conc – Q · Conc = ΔPhosph =
in in out out kg
-6 -6
= (1.2 · 1.0 · 10 – 1.1 · 0.8 · 10 )/0.001 = 829.4 kg
Problem 4 (10 credits)
The below hydrograph 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
from a 4.8 ha catchment
was observed after a 15
mm rainfall that fell
during 10 min. Calculate
the runoff hydrograph
from an effective rainfall
equal to 10 mm with a
duration of 20 min. Time
(min)
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Q (m /s) 0.01 0.11 0.11 0.21 0.01 0.01 0.01