CE205-

Engineering Hydrology
Lecture 1 Hydrological Processes

Dr. Panduka Neluwala

Department of Civil Engineering,
University of Peradeniya
Pandukaneluwala@eng.pdn.ac.lk

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CE205 Course plan
CE205 Course plan

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At the end of
this Lecture, You
will be able to

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Hydrology
and
Water
Cycle

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 “Hydrology is the science that
encompasses the occurrence, distribution,
What is movement and properties of the waters of
Hydrology? the earth and their relationship with the
environment within each phase of the
hydrologic cycle”. (USGS)
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Hydrologic (Water) Cycle
• Earth's water is always in movement
• A continuous process by which water is purified by evaporation and
transported from the earth's surface (including the oceans) to the
atmosphere and back to the land and oceans
• Water is always changing states between liquid, vapor, and ice

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Hydrologic (Water) Cycle

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Hydrologic (Water) Cycle

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Global Water Distribution
• Only 3% of the Earth’s water is fresh & Portable

https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/distribution-water-and-above-earth 10
Water 1.386 billion km³

Earth 1,083 billion km³

Read more

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2.Precipitation

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 What is
precipitation?

Precipitation is any liquid or

frozen water that forms in the
atmosphere and falls to the
Earth. It is one of the three
main steps of the global water
cycle.

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What is precipitation?
• Formation of precipitation requires the
lifting of an air mass in the atmosphere
• Precipitation forms in the clous
when water vapor condenses into
bigger and bigger droplets of water.
• If a cloud is colder, like it would be at
higher altitudes, the water droplets
may freeze to form ice.
• These ice crystals then fall to the Earth
as snow, hail, or rain, depending on the
temperature within the cloud and at
the Earth’s surface.

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Forms of Precipitation
• The following are the Precipitation forms,

• Rain
• Snow
• Drizzle
• Glaze
• Sleet
• Hail

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Types of rainfall based on lifting mechanism

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(1) Convective precipitation

• The most powerful lifting mechanism is

initiated by the heat of the Sun!
• When the Sun heats the Earth's surface,
successive warming of shallow layers in
contact with the ground takes place.

Precipitation occurs in the form of showers of high intensities and short duration
When we will get this type of precipitation in Sri Lanka
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(b) Orographic Precipitation
Lifting due to barriers; usually mountains

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(c) Frontal (Cyclonic) Precipitation
• When huge masses of air come
together from different
directions, uplift and cooling of
air with cloud formation and rain
can occur, if differences exist in
temperature and humidity
between the two air masses.
• They cannot mix together
immediately owing to their
different densities, any more than
two liquids like water and oil.
• Mixing takes time. In the
meantime, the lighter, warmer air
mass begins to rise above the
cooler, denser one.

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(c) Frontal (Cyclonic) Precipitation

➔ A warm front exists

when warm air is rising
over cold air.

➔ A cold front exists when cold air following warm air undercuts the
warm air, heaving it upwards with a more violent thrust compared to
the steady rise of air at a warm front.
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(c) Frontal (Cyclonic) Precipitation

➔ A warm front exists

when warm air is rising
over cold air.

➔ A cold front exists when cold air following warm air undercuts the
warm air, heaving it upwards with a more violent thrust compared to
the steady rise of air at a warm front.
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(c) Frontal (Cyclonic) Precipitation

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Convergence lifting
Convergence lifting occurs when two ais masses collided,
forcing some air upward. When air flows towards areas of
low pressure, it can occure

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Take a quiz
• 1. open joinmyquiz.com
• 2. And enter this code 1962 7809

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Precipitation distribution
• The magnitude of precipitation varies with time and space

First inter-monsoon
(March–April;FIM),
Southwest monsoon
(May–September; SWM),
Second inter-monsoon
(October–November; SIM),
Northeast monsoon
(December–February; NEM).

https://www.meteo.gov.lk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=94&Itemid=310
&lang=en 25
Annual and monthly rainfall at observation
stations, 2013 – 2018 /mm

http://www.statistics.gov.lk/abstract2019/CHAP1/1.6 26
• Total precipitation is distributed in many ways➔ Intercepted
by vegetation/ trees, evaporation, filling the depressions,
infiltration, surface detention, overland flow and stream flow.

• The rate and areal distribution of runoff from a drainage basin

are determined by a combination of climatic and physiographic
factors.

Climatic factors➔ Form of precipitation, type of

precipitation, characteristics of the regional vegetative cover,
evapotranspiration characteristics, and the status of soil moisture
reservoir.
Physiographic factors➔ Geometry of the basin, land use, soil
type, geologic structure and characteristics of drainage channels
(geometry, slope, roughness and storage capacity).

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Catchment Area

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Catchment Area
The area of land draining into a stream or a water
course at a given location is known as the catchment
area. It is also called drainage area or drainage basin.

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Quantifying
Rainfall:
Rainfall
Gauges

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Quantifying Rainfall: Rainfall Gauges
Rainfall is generally measured in the form of depth. Rainfall is
calculated in the form of how much water depth is falls on the earth’s
area.

There are two types of Raines

➢ Non-recording gauges
➢ Recording gauges

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Non-recording gauge: The standard Rain Gauge
(SRG)

• Measure the cumulative rainfall

• Difficult to get “rainfall intensity”
• Manually operated

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Recording gauges
• Automated
• Intensity of rainfall can be estimated easily

Tipping bucket rain gauge

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Recording gauges
• Automated
• Intensity of rainfall can be estimated easily

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Tipping bucket rain gauge

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Weighing rain gauge
• A weighing gauge collects the amount of falling rain into a vessel
that sits on a scale and measures the weight of accumulated
water
• The measurements are traced out on a chart

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Floating (Syphon) type Gauge

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Make your own rain gauge
• Measure rainfall on a day from 8.00 am to next day 8.00 am
• Put a photograph and the value of your rainfall in the below table with
latitude and longitude

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During this lecture
we learned

• Components of Hydrological
cycle
• Precipitation types and
distribution
• How rainfall measurements
taken and their limitations

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Next Section
• Estimate precipitation using multiple gauges

P1

D1
σ 𝑃𝑖 . 𝑊
P3 𝑃𝑋 =
D3 σ𝑊

D2
X

P2

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References

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References

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References

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References

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Thank you

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