Mulungushi University

School of Science, Engineering and Technology

Department of Engineering
Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering

CIE 472 : HYDROLOGY

OPEN BOOK TEST

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATE.

1. Write your student number, NRC number and Cell number on your answer script.

2. Duration: 22/05/20 From 08:00 Hrs- 23/05/20 to 07:00 Hrs

3. Kindly note that Moodle link will close any transaction with you within the stated duration.

4. Answer all questions in this paper in any order.

5. Present readable and tidy work.

6. Indicate question number of each question you have answered.

7. After writing, scan your scrips, convert to pdf and send back to examiner via Moodle.
 QUESTION ONE

a) Discuss the applications of hydrology in practice.

b) Estimate the amount of evapotranspiration (ET) for the year (mm) from a watershed with a 17,000 𝑘𝑚 2
surface area. Consider the drainage area receives 80 mm of rain over the year and the river draining the
area has an annual flowrate of 3200 𝑚 3 ⁄𝑠 and use the basic equation of hydrology.

c) After having considerable rains during the month of January, 2020, Lukanga water and Sewerage company
plans to estimate the possible average daily withdrawal rate of water from a 700-hectare reservoir located
in Chisamba District. The reservoir has an upstream inflow of 298000 𝑚 3 ⁄𝑑𝑎𝑦, It is required to maintain
average daily outflow of 78000𝑚 3 at all times. For the period, the total seepage loss is estimated at 32 mm,
precipitation totaled 15 cm and the daily evaporation rate was 30 mm. It was also noticed that the reservoir
level dropped 0.45 m during the period. As the Water Engineer for the organization, can you carry out this
task. Justify any assumptions you make.

QUESTION TWO

a) Briefly describe two (2) main differences between the Arithmetic Average and Isohyetal Method techniques
used to calculate the average watershed precipitation. As part of your description, provide a clearly labelled
schematic for each technique showing how each technique is different.

b) Figure 1 below shows a section of the upstream of Kafue

River Basin with four gauging station

Gauge Rainfall total (mm)

A 23
B 35
C 30
D 35

Each grid is 7km * 7km

Figure 1: Location of gauge stations Using the rainfall record of four rain gauge stations shown in fig
1:
i. Find the weighted rainfall total using the Thiessen polygon method.
ii. Find the average rainfall using simple average method.
iii. How much is the difference between the two methods in volume of water over the
watershed?
iv. Assuming that one of the stations had missing precipitation records, explain a procedure for
supplementing the missing rainfall data.
v. How would you determine statistically the optimum number of gauges required to be installed in
 this catchment?

c) Station B and D in Fig.1 used tipping bucket rain gauges to collect the following rainfall data.

Cumulative Precipitation Cumulative Precipitation

Time
(mm) Station A (mm) Station B
4:00 AM 0 0
6:00 AM 0 3
8:00 AM 1 5
10:00 AM 4 6
12:00 AM 7 11
2:00 PM 13 19
4:00 PM 18 23
6:00 PM 25 23
8:00 PM 30 23
10:00 PM 32 24
12:00 PM 32 25
2:00 AM 32 25
4:00 AM 32 25

i. Calculate the mean daily rainfall intensity for the two stations (mm/hr.).
ii. Calculate the maximum 2-hr rainfall intensity for each station (mm/hr.).
iii. Calculate the maximum 4-hr rainfall intensity for each station (mm/hr.).
iv. Using the arithmetic average method, calculate the total volume (cubic meter) of rainfall in the
basin if the basin area is 1100𝑚3.

Question 3

a) As a lead hydrologist in your organization, you are tasked to evaluate runoff for Upper Kafue River Basin
(UKRB) for a possible water resources project. how would you go about your task and what variables would
you consider?

b) A river gauge at Hooks bridge on Kafue River gives discharge of 2060 𝑚 3 /𝑠. The gauging took four hours
during which the gauge fell from 50.52 to 50.40 m. The slope of the river surface at the gauging site at the
time was 5 cm in 400 m, and the cross-section of the river at the site was 300 m wide by 4 m deep.
i. What adjusted value of discharge would you use?
ii. What is Manning's n for this river at this time?

c) In 2019, a 3000𝑘𝑚 2 catchment received 128cm of precipitation. The average flow rate measured in the
river draining the catchment was 29 𝑚 3 ⁄𝑠.
i. How much runoff reached the river for the year in cubic meters?
ii. Estimate the amount of water lost due to combined effects of evapotranspiration and infiltration to
the ground.
 iii. What percentage of precipitation was converted to runoff?

Question 4

a) Describe the characteristics of confined and unconfined groundwater and its relevance to groundwater
explorations.
b) A well of size 8.5× 3.56 m and depth 6.15 m in lateritic soil has its normal water level 5.08 m below ground
level. By pumping for 1.5 hours, the water level was depressed to 5.93 m and the pumping was stopped.
The recuperation rates of the well during 4 hours after the pumping stopped are given below. The total
volume of water pumped during 1.5 hours of pumping was 32.22 𝑚 3 .

Table 1: Recuperation
Time since
Water
pumping stopped
level (m)
(min)
0 5.93
15 5.89
30 5.875
45 5.855
60 5.84
90 5.82
120 5.78
180 5.715
240 5.68

i. Is this flow considered steady or unsteady? Briefly state the reason for your answer.
ii. Determine the rate of seepage into the well during pumping.
iii. Determine the specific yield of the soil and specific capacity of the well.
iv. Determine the yield of the well under a safe working depression head of 0.85 m.
v. Determine the diameter of the well to yield 3000 lph:
c) A 200mm borehole penetrates vertically through a confined aquifer 15.24m thick. When the well is pumped
at 3𝑙 ⁄𝑠 , the drawdown in a well 50m away is 3m and in another borehole 100m away is 1m. Take the initial
piezometric head as 30m above the datum.
i. What is the approximate head in the pumped well for steady state conditions and what is the
approximate drawdown in the well?
ii. Compute the transmissivity.
iii. Given a task to design a borehole pumping system, what factors would you consider.