Introduction to Hydrology

Introduction to Hydrology
Lecturer: Awang Nasrizal Bin Awang Ali

Room: G321
http://nasreyzal.weebly.com
Ext: 7436
Learning Outcomes
 By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:
 Describe and explain the hydrological cycle
 Identify the hydrological cycle components
 State and apply the water budget equation
 Identify and able to apply the unit measurement used in
hydrological study
2 ANAA/UiTMKS/EC/ECW311
Hydrology
 The science of water.
 Deals with the occurrence, circulation and distribution of
water on the earth and earth’s atmosphere.
 Concerned with the water in streams and lakes, rainfall and
snowfall, snow and ice on the land and water occurring
below the earth’s surface in the pores of the soil and rocks.
Engineering hydrology
 Estimation of water resources.
 The study of processes such as precipitation, runoff,
evapotranspiration and their interactions.
 The study of problems such as floods and droughts, and
strategies to combat them.
What is Hydrological cycle
 It describes the continuous process of water movement in
various forms, phases and places between atmosphere, the
land and the oceans
 A complex process without beginning or ending.
 No water gained or lost but quantity available to user may
fluctuate due to variations of source and problems
encountered during delivery.
Hydrological cycle schematic diagram
http://polaris.umuc.edu/cvu/envm/hydro/hydrologic-flash.html
Hydrological cycle schematic diagram
Hydrological cycle
 Water in the oceans evaporate due to the heat energy.
 The water vapour moves upwards and forms cloud.
 Much of the clouds condense and fall back to the oceans
again as rain, a part of the clouds is driven to the land by the
winds.
Hydrological cycle
 On the land, the clouds condense and precipitate onto the
land as rain, snow, hail, sleet etc.
 Some of the precipitation may evaporate back to the
atmosphere even while falling.
 Another may be intercepted by vegetation, structures and
other such surface modifications where it may either
evaporate back to the atmosphere or infiltrate to the
ground surface.
Hydrological cycle
 Through transpiration the vegetation sends parts of the water
from under ground back to the atmosphere.
 Precipitation that hits the ground and moves through a
network of gullies, streams and rivers to reach the oceans is
known as runoff.
 Once it enters a stream channel, it becomes stream flow.
Main components in hydrological cycle.
 Precipitation
 Evaporation
 Evapotranspiration
 Infiltration
 Groundwater flow
 Runoff (surface runoff, streamflow runoff, baseflow etc)
Catchment area
 A portion of the earth’s surface that collects runoff
and concentrates it at the furthest downstream,
known as the catchment outlet.
 Also known as drainage area, drainage basin,
watershed or basin.
 Separated from another catchment by a ridge called
divide.
 The areal extend of the catchment is obtained by
tracing the ridge on a topographic map to delineate
the catchment and measuring the area by
planimeter.
Catchment area
Catchment area
Catchment area
Catchment area
Water budget equation
 Quantities of water going through various, individual paths
of the hydrological cycle can be described by the
continuity equation known as water budget equation or
hydrological equation.
 Also called water balance is the accounting of water for a
particular catchment.
 For a given area, applying the continuity equation, water
budget can be written as below for a given time interval.
Mass inflow - Mass outflow  Change in the mass storage
 Inflow, I: precipitation – rainfall, snow, sleet etc

 Outflow, O: runoff, evaporation, infiltration etc
Re-writing the water budget,
ΔS
I-O 
Δt
I1  I 2   O1  O2   S 2  S1 
2 2 Δt
Where subscripts 1 and 2 refer to values of the quantities at
start and end of time interval.
Water budget can also be written in terms of surface &
groundwater,
S  P  E  T  G  R
∆S = change in storage
P = precipitation
E = evaporation
T = transpiration
G = groundwater
R = surface runoff
 If there is no change in storage in a given time span, then
the rainfall-runoff relationship will be,
R  PL
 Where L = losses = water loss from runoff due to
infiltration, evaporation, transpiration and surface storage.
 Runoff coefficient,
R
C
P
Units of measurement
 hydrological calculations, the volumes are often expressed
as average depths over the catchment area.
 E.g. if the annual stream flow from a 10 km2 catchment is
107 m3,
107
 1m  100cm
10 106
 Rainfall, evaporation and often runoff volumes are

expressed in unit depths over the catchment.
Commonly used hydrological data and their
units
Data Characteristics Units of measurement
Precipitation Depth cm or mm
Intensity cm/h or mm/h
Duration Hours
Evaporation Rate cm/ day, cm/ month, cm/ year
Infiltration Rate cm/ hour

Depth cm or mm
Runoff Discharge m3/2 or cumecs
Volume hectare-cm or m3
Equivalent depth Equivalent cm over catchment
area
Example 1.1
 The storage in a river at a particular time is 20x103 m3.
At that time, the recorded inflow and outflow of the
reach are 10.0m3/s and 15.0m3/s. An hour later the
inflow is 15.0m3/s and the outflow is 16.0m3/s.
Calculate the change of storage and the new storage of
the reach at the end of one hour.
Example 1.2
 A lake had a water surface elevation of 100.0 m above the
datum at a beginning of a certain month. In that month, the
lake received an average inflow of 5.0 m3/s from a surface
runoff sources. In the same period, the outflow from the lake
had an average value of 5.5 m3/s. Further that month, the lake
received a rainfall of 135 mm and the evaporation from the
lake surface was estimated to be 60 mm. The average surface
area of the lake was 45 km2. Write the water budget equation
for the lake and calculate the new water surface elevation of
the lake at the end of the month. Assume there is no
contribution to or from the groundwater storage.
Example 1.3
 In a given year, a catchment with an area of 2000 km2
received 1500 mm of rainfall. The average rate of flow in
the river draining the area was 30 m3/s. Estimate the
amount of water lost due to the combined effects of
evaporation, transpiration and infiltration to groundwater
flow. Calculate the runoff coefficient of the area.
Example 1.4
 Rainfall intensity 100 mm/h fell on a catchment with area
2.5 km2 for 6 hours. Measured runoff during this period
was recorded to be 720 000 m3. Determine the amount of
water lost from this total 6 hours rainfall.
Example 1.5
 The total global water supply is estimated to be 1.36 x 109
km3. Convert these quantities of water into km2-m, m3,
liters and cubic feet.
Example 1.6
 A catchment of area 250 km2 received an average rainfall
of 75 mm during the month of June. Calculate average rate
of water input in cubic meter per day for the catchment.
Global Water Budget
 Estimated total quantity of water in the world – 1386 M
km3.
 96.5% of this water is contained in the oceans as saline
water.
 Available fresh water – 35.0 Mkm3
 Liquid and fresh – 10.6M km3
 Frozen – 24.4M km3
Estimated world water quantities
(source: UNESCO, 1975)
Item Area Volume Percent total water Percent fresh water
(M km2) (M km3)
Oceans 361.3 1338.0 96.5 -
Groundwater
- Fresh 134.8 10.530 0.76 30.1
- Saline 134.8 12.870 0.93 -
Soil moisture 82.0 0.0165 0.0012 0.05
Polar ice 16.0 24.0235 1.7 68.6
Other ice & snow 0.3 0.3406 0.025 1.0
Lakes
- Fresh 1.2 0.0910 0.007 0.26
- Saline 0.8 0.0854 0.006 -
Marshes 2.7 0.01147 0.0008 0.03
Rivers 148.8 0.00212 0.0002 0.006
Biological water 510.0 0.00112 0.0001 0.003
Atmospheric water 510.0 0.01290 0.001 0.004
Total
- All kinds of water 510.0 1386.0 100.0
- Fresh water 148.8 35.0 2.5 100.0
Global annual water balance
(source: UNESCO, 1975)
Item Ocean Land
Area (M km2) 361.30 148.8
Precipitation (km3/ year) 458,000 119,000
(mm/ year) 1270 800
Evaporation (km3/ year) 505,000 72,000

(mm/ year) 1400 484
Runoff to ocean
-Rivers (km3/ year) 44,700
-Groundwater (km3/ year) 2,200
Total runoff (km3/ year) 47,000
(mm/ year) 316
Applications in engineering
 Greatest application in the design and operation of water
resources engineering projects, e.g.
 Irrigation
 Water supply
 Flood control
 Water power
 Navigation
 Necessary for the following factors:
 The capacity of storage structures such as reservoirs.
 The magnitude of flood flows to enable safe disposal of
the excess flow.
 The minimum flow and quantity of flow available at
various seasons.
 The interaction of the flood wave and hydraulic
structures, such as levees, reservoirs, barrages and
bridges.
 Improper assessment can cause hydrological failures such

as;
 Overtopping and consequent failure of an earthen dam
due to an inadequate spillway capacity
 Failure of bridges and culverts due to excess flood flow
 Inability of a large reservoir to fill up with water due to
overestimation of the stream flow
Overtopping
Overtopping and consequent failure of an earthen dam due to an
inadequate spillway capacity
Bridge failures
Due to flood
Culvert failure
Due to flood
Sources of data
 Data normally required in hydrological studies;
 Weather record – temperature, humidity and wind velocity
 Precipitation data
 Stream flow records
 Evaporation and evapotranspiration data
 Infiltration characteristics of the study area
 Soils of the area
 Land use and land cover
 Groundwater characteristics
 Water quality data
 Physical and geological characteristics of the area
End
ANAA/UiTMKS/EC/ECW311

Introduction to Hydrology

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Introduction to Hydrology

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Introduction to Hydrology

Lecturer: Awang Nasrizal Bin Awang Ali

 Inflow, I: precipitation – rainfall, snow, sleet etc

 Rainfall, evaporation and often runoff volumes are

Infiltration Rate cm/ hour

Evaporation (km3/ year) 505,000 72,000

 Improper assessment can cause hydrological failures such

You might also like