THE DIFFERENCE

BETWEEN HYDROLOGY
AND HYDRAULICS
 Hydrology
is the study of rainfall and
water, especially its
movement, in relation to
land. It represents the
quantity of water (runoff)
generated from a specific
area or watershed. It deals
with the circulation of
water through the
hydrologic cycle and the
quantification of flows that
are produced by rainfall.
In land development,
hydrology typically refers
to the rate of precipitation,
quantity of water, rate of
Any development activity
will change the flow of
water on a site.  If you clear
cut a parcel of land, rainfall
is more likely to run off the
site rather than be
absorbed by grass and
trees. If left unmanaged,
this newly created runoff
can negatively affect
neighboring parcels.  To
combat this domino effect,
local development
authorities (city, county,
state, etc.) require site
designs to meet certain
water-related criteria –
namely that the site design
will not negatively affect
nearby sites through
increased runoff.
 Hydraulics
is concerned with the
conveyance of water
through pipes and channels
(stream, river, lake, ocean).
In land development,
hydraulic analysis is used
after the hydrology
reporting process in order to
design stormwater
conveyance networks,
calculate the depth of flow
in pipes, and determine
open channel flow in ditches
and swales. This is often
referred to as “stormwater
management design.”
hydraulics in land
development?
Once the difference between pre-
development stormwater flow and
post-development stormwater
flow is determined, civil engineers
use hydraulics to design
stormwater management systems
to account for the difference to
minimize a development’s effect
on neighboring sites. These
systems, both pipes and open
channels, are designed to
accommodate all intercepted
water flow from rainfall events. A
typical project includes the design
of many hydraulic components,
such as pipe sizes, pipe
alignments, flow line elevations,
end treatments, inlet and outlet
protection, channel geometry, and
channel slope, to name a few.