Hydrology Introduction

1. Introduction

1.1. Introduction
Knowledge of hydrology is essential for engineers dealing with:
- irrigation
- highway engineering
- water supply engineering
- water power engineering
- inland navigation and
- Flood control.
Water is the most complex natural resource correlating its availability from the
atmosphere lithosphere through hydrosphere. The availability of water is highly uneven
in space and time. Some of the basic things to be considered while planning and
designing the engineering structures are:
- Maximum flows which are expected to occur at place
- Maximum reservoir capacity to be fixed to meet all water demands from
multipurpose reservoir.
- Minimum flows which can occur during any dry period
- Possible regulation of flood at the downstream reaches once the hydraulic
structure is erected.
- Possible supply of water from a river to meet water supply demands for
agriculture, hydropower generation, industrial supplies, domestic supplies,
navigational requirements, recreational uses and aquaculture.
- Environmental impact of hydraulic structure.
- Study of groundwater potential.
Improper assessment of water resources potential is disastrous. Many a times,
underestimation of flood leads to overtopping of the dam and consequent failure of the
structure. For the projects where water potential is overestimated, the system may not be
in a position to full up to the full reservoir level.
Before designing any water resources related structures, evaluation of the hydrologic
potential at the project site is a prerequisite. For this, collection and analysis of long-term
hydrological and meteorological data are essential.

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Hydrology Introduction

1.2. Definition

The break-up of the word hydrology is: "hydro" and "logy". "Hydro" means water and
"logy" means science. Hydrology is therefore the science of water and is defined as

 the science that deals with the origin, distribution and properties of water on the earth
including that in the atmosphere in the form of water vapour, on the surface as water,
runoff, snow or ice, and beneath the surface as ground water.

The study of hydrology is thus the study of three important phases of what is known as
the  hydrological cycle, namely rainfall, runoff and evaporation.

Hydrology is therefore bounded above by meteorology, below by geology and at the

land's end by oceanography.

1.3. The hydrologic cycle

The interdependence and continuous movement of all forms of water provide the basis
for the concept of the hydrological cycle. To understand the complicated relationship
between precipitation and runoff, it is imperative to get a complete insight in to the
hydrological cycle.
The hydrologic cycle is a continuous process by which water is transported from the
oceans to the atmosphere to the land and back to the sea.
Essentially, the hydrological cycle envisages that all water is involved in a cyclical
movement that continues indefinitely. Some of the water vapour in the atmosphere
condenses and may give rise to precipitation. Referring specifically to the land areas, not
all of this precipitation will reach the ground surface because some will be evaporated
while falling and, more important, some will be caught or intercepted by the vegetation
cover or by the surface of buildings and other structures, and will from there be
evaporated back into the atmosphere.

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Hydrology Introduction

Water vapour in atmosphere

Precipitation

Interception

Surface detention

Evaporation Surface runoff Infiltration Evaporation

Channel storage Soil moisture

Interflow Percolation
Stream flow
Wa
Base flow GW. Storage

Fig.1.1: Schematic Representation of a Hydrologic Cycle

Water in large bodies (ocean, or large lakes)

The part of the precipitation, which reaches the ground surface, may then be follow one
of the three courses. It may,
- First, remain on the surface as surface storage in the form of pools, puddles, and
surface moisture which are eventually evaporated back into the atmosphere.

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- Secondly, it may flow over the surface as overland flow into depressions and
channels to be come surface runoff in the form of streams and lakes, from which it
will move either by evaporation back into the atmosphere, or by seepage towards the
groundwater, or by further surface flow into the ocean.
A hydrologic cycle undergoes the complicated process of
- precipitation, interception, evaporation, transpiration, infiltration, percolation,
runoff and various storages.
- The evaporated water in atmosphere forms clouds
- On condensation it falls as precipitation
- The leaves and steams of vegetation intercept some of the precipitated water.
- The rest infiltrates into the soil or flows down as surface runoff.
- The infiltrated water may join the stream later as subsurface flow or percolates
further down to charge the groundwater potential.
- The surface flow joins small streams and then through a network of channels
discharge water to the large water bodies like oceans or seas,
- part of the infiltrated water is available to the root of trees and returns to the
atmosphere through a process called transpiration
- From most of the processes and storage evaporation takes place continuously.
- It is this cycle of water, which maintains life on earth.
Parameters governing the system are many and a minor change in the system causes
drought and flood.
- Vertical percolation of rainwater results in groundwater accretion (growth) only if the
soil is highly permeable and if the groundwater is near the surface.
- Low soil permeability encourages overland flow.

Basin recharge and runoff

As rain falls towards the earth, the leaves and stems of vegetation intercept a portion of
it. The water so retained together with depression storage and soil moisture, constitutes
basin recharge, the portion of precipitation which does not contribute to the stream flow
or groundwater.

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- Depression storage includes the water which is retained as puddles in surface

depressions.
- Soil moisture is held as capillary water in the smaller pore space of the soil or as
hygroscopic water absorbed on the surface of soil particles.
- Rainwater, exclusive of the water withheld as a basin recharge, may flow three paths
to a stream.

The groundwater component will eventually be removed either by upward capillary

movement to the soil surface and vegetation cover, where it will be returned by
evaporation and transpiration to the atmosphere, or by groundwater seepage and flow into
surface streams and by runoff to the oceans.
Different processes and storages can be listed as:
Surface and above Sub-surface
Processes Precipitation, surface runoff, - Infiltration,
Stream flow, Evaporation - Percolation,
- Evapotranspiration,
- Interflow
- Base flow
Storage - Atmospheric moisture - Soil moisture (unsaturated zone)
- Interception (temporary) - Groundwater (saturated zone)
- Surface detention - Fixed water (deep percolation)
- Channel storage and
- Storage in large water bodies

The evaporated water in atmosphere forms cloud. On condensation it falls as

precipitation. The hydrological cycle continuously keeps a balance between the water of
the earth and the moisture in the atmosphere. Precipitation is the fall of moisture from the
atmosphere to the earth surface in any form. For land areas:

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Precipitation = Runoff + Losses

Inflow = Outflow   Storage
If this equation can be solved, a quantitative assessment of the movement of water over,
through, and across the land is possible because the equation must be applied to a specific
area for specific period of time.
Thus the importance of an in-depth study of the hydrologic cycle lies in making use of
long-term available precipitation data for planning engineering projects through this
relationship between precipitation and runoff of the hydrologic cycle which will later be
exploited to build rainfall-runoff models.

1.4. Water Budget/Balance Equation

Catchment Area

The area of land draining into a stream or a watercourse at a given location is

known as catchment area. It is also called as drainage area or drainage basin. In
USA, it is known as watershed.
A catchment area is separated from its neighboring areas by a ridge called divide
in USA and watershed in UK, (Fig. below). The areal extent of the catchment is
obtained by tracing the ridge on a topographic map to delineate the catchment
and measuring the area by a planimeter.
It is obvious that for a river while mentioning the catchment area the station to
which it pertains (Fig.) must also be mentioned. It is normal to assume the
ground water divide to coincide with the surface divide. Thus, the catchment
area affords a logical and convenient unit to study various aspects relating
to the hydrology and water resources of a region.

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Watershed (Divide)

River A

Tributary
M

Station M
River A
Fig.1.2: Schematic Sketch of Catchment of River A at Station M

Further, it is probably the single most important drainage characteristic used in

hydrological analysis and design.

Water budget (water balance) equation

For a given problem area, say a catchment, in an interval of time t, the
continuity equation for water in its various phases is written as.

Mass in flow – mass outflow = change in mass storage

Catchment
Inflow Change in mass storage Outflow

If the density of the inflow, outflow and storage volumes are the same

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i  0  S (Eq. 1)

where
i  Inflow volume of water into the problem area during the time period,
0  Outflow volume to water from the problem area during the time period,
and S = change in the storage of the water volume over and under the given
area during the given period.

In applying this continuity equation (Eq. 1) to the paths of the hydrologic cycle
involving change of state, the volumes considered are the equivalent volumes of
water at a reference temperature.
In hydrologic calculations, the volumes are often expressed as average
depths over the catchment area. Thus, for example, if the annual stream flow
from a 10km2 catchment is 107m3, it corresponds to a depth of

 107 
 6
 1 m  100 cm.
 10 x 10 

Rainfall, evaporation and often runoff volumes are expressed in units of depth
over the catchment.

While realizing that all the terms in a hydrological water budget may not be
P
known to the same degree of Region
accuracy,
P=Precipitation
an expression for the water budget of a
A
E=Evaporation
catchment for a time interval t is written as
Earth’s surface
T=Transpiration
R1 R=Surface Runoff
Rg Eg Tg
R2 G=Groundwater Flow
Es Ts
Rg=Subsurface Flow
I=Infiltration
S=Storage
I
G1
s=Land Surface
Sg G2
g=Groundwater

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Level of plastic rock

Hydrology Introduction

Water Budget in Land Surface

P
Region A

Earth’s surface
I - O = S
R1
R2
(P+R1+Rg)-(R2+Es+Ts+I) = Ss
Rg Eg Tg
Es Ts

Water Budget in Groundwater

G1
I
I - O = S
Sg G2

(I+G1)-(G2+Rg+Eg+Tg) = Sg

Level of plastic rock

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Water Budget in Land Surface

(P+R1+Rg)-(R2+Es+Ts+I)=Ss (1)
Water Budget in Groundwater
(I+G1)-(G2+Rg+Eg+Tg)=Sg (2)

P-(R2-R1)-(Es+Eg)-(Ts+Tg)-(G2-G1)= Ss+Sg *

R (Net Surface Flow)=R2-R1

E (Net Evaporation) =E2+E1
T (Net Transpiration)=Ts+Tg P-R-E-T-G=S … Eq. 2
G (Net Groundwater Flow)=G2-G1
S= Ss+Sg

Equation (2) is the water budget equation for the catchment. All terms in the
equation have the dimensions of volume. Note that all these terms can be
expressed as depth over the catchment area, (for Eq. in centimeters), and in fact
this is a very common unit. Further, the infiltration does not occur explicitly in the
water budget (Eq. 2) as the infiltration, which is a loss to the runoff process is a
gain to the ground water system.

Example 1: a lake had a water surface elevation of 103.200 m above datum at

the beginning of a certain month. In that month the lake received

 an average inflow of 6.0 m3/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 145 mm and
 The evaporation from the lake surface was estimated as 6.10cm.

Write the water budget equation for the lake and calculate the water surface
elevation of the lake at the end of the month.

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The average lake surface area can be taken as 5000 ha. Assume that there is no
contribution to or from the ground water storage.

Solution: In a time period  t the water budget for the lake can be written as

Input volume – Output volume = change in storage

( I t  P. A )  (Q T  EA )  S

where
I = average inflow rate,
Q = average outflow rate,
P = precipitation,
E = evaporation,
A = surface area of the lake and S = change in lake storage volume.

Here t = 1 month = 30 x 24 x 60 x 60 = 2.592x106s = 2.592 Ms In one month:

Inflow volume  I t  6.0 x 2.592  15.552M m3

Outflow vlume  Q t  6.5 x 2.592 16.848 M m 3

14.5 x 5000 x100 x100

Input due to precipitat ion  PA  M m3  7.25M m3
100 x106

6.10 5000 x100 x100

outflow due to evaporatio n  EA  x  3.05 M m3
100 106

Hence
S  15.552  7.25  16.848  3.05  2.904 M m 3

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S 2.904 x10 6
Change in elevation  z    0.058m
A 5000 x100 x100

New water surface elevation at the end of the month

= 103.200 + 0.058
= 103.258m above the datum.

Example 2: A small catchment of area 150 ha received a rainfall of 10.5 cm in

90 minutes due to a storm. At a the outlet of the catchment, the stream draining
the catchment was dry before the storm and experienced a runoff lasting for 10
hours with an average discharge value of 2.0 m 3/s. The stream was again dry
after the runoff event. (a) What is the amount of water, which was not available
to runoff due to combined effect of infiltration, evaporation and transpiration?
(b)What is the ratio of runoff to precipitation?

SOLUTION: The water budget equation for the catchment in a time  t is

P – R – G – E – T = S

In the present case take t = duration of the runoff = 10 hours

Note that the rainfall occurred in first 90 minutes and in the rest of 8.5 hours the
precipitation was zero.

S = change in the surface storage = 0

(G + E + T) = water not available to runoff due to infiltration (causing
addition to groundwater storage), evaporation and transpiration
= Losses = L

It is reasonable to assume in this case that there was no contribution by ground

water storage to the runoff in the steam.

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(a) Hence P-R =L

P = Input due to precipitation in 10 hours
10.5 3
 150 x100 x100 x m  157500 m 3
100
R = runoff volume = outflow volume in catchment in 10 hours
= 2.0 x 10 x 60 x 60 =72000 m3
Hence L = 157500 – 72000 = 85,500 m3
= Volume of water not available to runoff

(b) Runoff/ rainfall = 72000/ 157500 = 0.457

 This ratio is known as runoff coefficient.

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