Hydrology

 The hydrosciences deal with the waters of the earth: their

distribution and circulation, their physical and chemical
properties, and their interaction with the environment,
including interaction with living things and, in particular,
human beings.
 Hydrosphere is the 15 km atmosphere above the surface of
the earth where maximum water vapours are existing
 Lithosphere is 1 km below the surface of the earth where up
to which ground water is studied
 Hydrologists are concerned with both hydrosphere and
lithosphere.
Application of Hydrology
 Hydrologic knowledge is applied to the use and control of
water resources on the land areas of the earth.
 Ocean waters are the domain of ocean engineering and the
marine sciences.
 Design and Operation of water resources engineering
projects like
 Irrigation
 Flood control 
 Water supply schemes 
 Hydropower projects and 
 Navigation 
Engineering Hydrology
 Engineering hydrology is the branch of
Science which deals with estimation of water
resource.
 It also investigates hydrologic problems such
as floods and droughts, and
develops strategies to mitigate
them.
Extremes in Hydrological Events
Flood 2010 in Pakistan
Image Flood 2010 in Pakistan
Extremes in Hydrological Events
 What is the other extreme in hydrology?????
Extremes of Droughts
Hydrologic Data
 The main job of a hydrologist is collection and analysis of 
data, and hence making predictions out of this analysis.
 Collection of Data
 The hydrologic data comprises (few are mentioned below as 
for example):
 a. Rainfall Data
 b. Snowfall Data (and snow melt data) 
 c. Runoff Data (Catchment Runoff and Stream Flows), and
 d. Groundwater Data
 e. Evaporation Data etc

Continued….
 Data Sources in Pakistan
Sr.  Data Type
No
1 Meteorological data
2 River flow data
3 Sediment data
4 Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data
5 Landuse data/ Soil Data
Data Source
PMD (Pakistan Meteorological Department)
SWHP (Surface Water Hydrology Project)
PSIHP (Pakistan Snow and Ice Hydrology 
Project)
Main source is SWHP (Surface Water 
Hydrology Project). Some other sources are 
also available e.g. Irrigation Department etc.
SWHP (Surface Water Hydrology Project)
(SRTM) Shuttle Radar Topography Mission
USGS (U.S. Geological Survey)
Continued….
The Hydrologic Cycle
 The hydrologic cycle is the central focus of hydrology. The
cycle has no beginning or end, and its many processes
occur continuously.
 Water evaporates from the oceans and the land surface to
become part of the atmosphere; water vapor is transported
and lifted in the atmosphere until it condenses and
precipitates on the land or the oceans; precipitated water
may be intercepted by vegetation, become overland flow
over the ground surface, infiltrate into the ground, flow
through the soil as subsurface flow, and discharge into
streams as surface runoff.
The Hydrologic Cycle
 Much of the intercepted water and surface runoff
returns to the atmosphere through evaporation. The
infiltrated water may percolate deeper to recharge
groundwater, later emerging in springs or seeping into
streams to form surface runoff, and finally flowing out
to the sea or evaporating into the atmosphere as the
hydrologic cycle continues.
 The Hydrological Cycle
 COMPONENTS OF HYDROLOGIC CYCLE
 Precipitation
 Infiltration
 Percolation
 Interception
 Direct Runoff
 Evaporation
 Transpiration
 Evapotranspiration
 Depression Storage
 Detention Storage
Water Budget Equation
 The water budget equation is given as
 I‐O = ΔS
 I is the inflow volume in a reservoir during time Δt
 O is the outflow volume from the reservoir during 
time Δt
 ΔS is the change in the storage
Water Budget Equation
 For the case of a catchment 
 P‐R‐G‐E‐T = ΔS

 For Lake

 P+I‐Q‐E‐G = ΔS
Residence Time
 Water spend different durations at different phases of
the hydrological cycle.
 Average time taken by a particle of water to pass
through a phase of hydrological cycle is known as
Residence Time of that phase.

 Tr = volume of water/ Net rate of flow in that phase

Estimated World Water Quantities
Global Annual Water Balance
Applied Hydrology (V. T. Chow)
System Concept
 A system is a set of connected parts that form a whole.
The hydrologic cycle may be treated as a system whose
components are precipitation, evaporation, runoff,
and other phases of the hydrologic cycle.
 These components can be grouped into subsystems of
the overall cycle; to analyze the total system, the
simpler subsystems can be treated separately and the
results combined according to the interactions
between the subsystems.
System Concept
 In Fig. 1.2.1, the global hydrological cycle is represented
as a system. The dashed lines divide it into three sub
systems:
 The atmospheric water system containing the
processes of precipitation, evaporation, interception,
and transpiration
 The surface water system containing the processes of
overland flow, subsurface and groundwater outflow,
and runoff to streams and the ocean; and
 The subsurface water system containing the processes
of infiltration, groundwater recharge, subsurface flow
and groundwater flow.
System 
Concept
System Concept
 A watershed is the area of land draining into a stream at a given 
location.
 The watershed divide is a line dividing land whose drainage flows toward 
the given stream from land whose drainage flows away from that stream. 
Hydrological System Model
 Let the input and output be expressed as functions of
time, I(t) and Q(t) respectively, for t belonging to the
time range T under consideration. The system performs
a transformation of the input into the output
represented by

 Called the transformation equation

 Where Ω is the transfer function between the input and
the output.
System concept and transfer 
function in a Hydrologic system
 System in which the inputs and outputs are
hydrological variables e.g.
 Rainfall
 Runoff is a hydrologic system 

P(t) Catchment Q(t)

(Unit Hydrograph
is an operator to
transform rainfall
in discharge
Transfer Functions
 Constant Transfer functions
 Differential Transfer Function
Time and Space related 
Distributions
 Temporal distribution or Temporal data 
 Spatial Distribution or Spatial data
Classification of Hydrological Models
 Hydrologic Models are broadly classified as
 Physical models
 Abstract models
 Physical models are those in which we physically perform or
simulate the behavior of a system. They are experimental in
nature e.g.
 Scale Models where dimensions are reduced and experiments are
performed like dam break modeling in laboratory, hydraulic
model of a dam spillway.
 Analogue Models are not very popular now a days. Analog models,
which use another physical system having properties similar to
those of the prototype. For example, the Hele‐Shaw model is an
analog model that uses the movement of a viscous fluid between
two closely spaced parallel plates to model seepage in an aquifer
or embankment. Like one system or prototype behave similar for
another system.
Classification of Hydrological Models
 Abstract Models
 Abstract models represent the system in mathematical
form. The system operation is described by a set of
equations linking the input and the output variables.
 These variables may be functions of space and time,
and they may also be probabilistic or random variables
which do not have a fixed value at a particular point in
space and time. Hence, are described by probability
distributions.
Classification of Hydrological Models
 Abstract Models
 For example, tomorrow's rainfall at a particular
location cannot be forecast exactly but the probability
that there will be some rain can be estimated.
Classification of Hydrological Models
 Random field
 is a region of space and time within which the value of
a variable at each point is defined by a probability
distribution.
 For example, the precipitation intensity in a
thunderstorm varies rapidly in time, and from one
location to another, and cannot be predicted
accurately, so it is reasonable to represent it by a
random field.
Classification of Hydrologic Models
Classification of Hydrological Models
 Deterministic models are those in which
randomness is ignored and laws of physics are used
e.g.
 y = mx+c where x is input and y is output. Hence the
output of the model will always be same for a certain
input value.
Classification of Hydrological Models
 Stochastic models are those in which randomness or
uncertainty is considered
Y = mx+c+ξ (randomness)

 One might say that deterministic models make

forecasts while stochastic models make predictions.
Classification of Hydrological Models
 Although all hydrologic phenomena involve some
randomness, the resulting variability in the output
may be quite small when compared to the variability
resulting from known factors.
 In such cases, a deterministic model is appropriate.
Classification of Hydrological Models
 If the random variation is large, a stochastic model is
more suitable, because the actual output could be
quite different from the single value a deterministic
model would produce.
Classification of Hydrological Models
 For example, reasonably good deterministic models of
daily evaporation at a given location can be developed
using energy supply and vapor transport data, but such
data e.g. in case of rainfall cannot be used to make
reliable models of daily precipitation at that location
because precipitation is largely random.
Classification of Hydrological Models
 Deterministic Models are classified into
 Lumped models
 Distributed models
Classification of Hydrological Models
 In Deterministic Lumped models we ignore all such
things like spatial variations and the system is
spatially averaged, or regarded as a single point in
space without dimensions. etc. As an example rainfall
has spatial variation but in case of Lumped Models
average of the rainfall will be considered to occur over
the whole catchment or system which is under
consideration. Hence the response of the catchment is
judged.
Classification of Hydrological Models
 A Deterministic Distributed Model considers the
hydrologic processes taking place at various points in
space and defines the model variables as functions of
the space dimensions.
 Hence, in Deterministic Distributed Models we
scatter the rain gauges and find rainfall in different
locations and then account the values on sub‐basins of
the catchment and route to find overall response of the
catchment.
Classification of Hydrological Models
 In case of lumped steady (the flow rate not changing
with time) models we ignore the variation of
hydrological variables w.r.t. time and
 For lumped unsteady (the flow rate changing with
time) models we try to account variations with respect
to time.
 Similar approach is considered for the case of steady
distributed and unsteady distributed models.
Classification of Hydrological Models
 Stochastic Models are further classified as
 Space Independent Models
 If the hydrological variables are independent of space
then it is space independent model
 Space Correlated Models
 If variables are correlated with space then they are
termed as space correlated models
Classification of Hydrological Models
 Stochastic models always have outputs that are
variable in time.
 They may be classified as
 Time‐independent
 A Time independent model represents a sequence of
hydrologic events that do not influence each other, or
 Time‐correlated;
 A Time‐correlated model represents a sequence in
which the next event is partially influenced by the
current one and possibly by others in the sequence.