Units, dimensions, and conversions

Hydrological quantities
 basic measurements (e.g. velocity of water in a stream, mass of water in a
raingage)
 derived quantities (discharge in a stream)

Units and dimensions

 precipitation has the dimension length [L] and the unit cm or mm or inch
 many quantities have a dimension that is some combination of these
fundamental dimensions
 in equations, the dimensions on both sides have to match
 the most common system of units employed today is the SI (System
International d'Unites)

SI
Quantity Dimension Unit Formula
Symbol
Base units:
length [L] meter m
mass [M] kilogram kg
temperature [] kelvin K
time [T] second s
Derived units:
area [L2] square meter m2
volume [L3] cubic meter m3
velocity [L T1] meter per second m s1
acceleration [L T2] meter per second squared m s2
density [M L3] kilogram per cubic meter kg m3
force [M L T2] newton N kg m s2
pressure [M L1 T2] pascal Pa N m2
stress [M L1 T2] pascal Pa N m2
energy [M L2 T2] joule J N·m
quantity of heat [M L2 T2] joule J N·m
work [M L2 T2] joule J N·m
power [M L2 T3] watt W J s1
viscosity,
[M L1 T1] pascal-second Pa·s
dynamic
viscosity, [L2 T1] square meter per second m2 s1
 kinematic
specific heat [L2 1 T2] joule per kilogram-kelvin J kg1 K1
Table A1.1 Base and derived units relevant to hydrology in SI measurement

 no more digits than justified by the precision of a measurement should be

presented
 derived quantities should reflect the number of significant digits of the least
relatively precise number involved in the calculation

Unit Conversions
 how to perform unit concersions
 for a list of the most common unit conversions, see this Table

Resources

 Hornberger G.M. et al. (1998) Elements of Physical Hydrology,  Appendix 1.