HYDROLOGICAL

CONCEPTS
–An introduction
N K Mathur
CONCEPT OF HYDROLOGY
and PROJECT HYDROLOGY -
AN EXPOSURE

Module -1 : Introduction
CONCEPT OF HYDROLOGY - AN
EXPOSURE
Module 1 : INTRODUCTION
Target Audience :
- Probationary Officers of CWC on Induction
Training:
Onbjective:
- Brush up their text book exposure in
Undergraduate level
- Expose them to Hydrological terminology and
practices in CWC
Hydrological Cycle
 The most common
mathematical representation
of Hydrological cycle in
mathematical terms
 Q= P - G - ET - S
 Where:
 P = Precipitation
 Q = Stream discharge
 G = Groundwater
Discharge
 ET = Evapo-transpiration
 S = Change in Storage
EVAPORATION AND EVAPO-
TRANSPIRATION (E and ET)
 the process in which a liquid changes into
gaseous state from free surface, below
boiling point
 surface such as ocean, rivers, lakes and land
surface
 the water which evaporates from vegetation
(mostly leaves of plants through pores)
 two put together known as evapo-
transpiration
FACTORS AFFECTING
EVAPORATION
 Temperature : increase
 Wind : increase
 Atmospheric pressure : decrease
 Soluble salts : decrease
 Heat storage in water bodies (deep lakes) :
decrease in summer but increase in winter
(No change on annual values)
FACTORS AFFECTING EVAPO-
TRANSPIRATION
 type of vegetation,
 moisture available to the plants
 potential evapo-transpiration: If sufficient
moisture is always available to meet the
needs vegetation fully covering the area,
 actual evapo-transpiration occurring in
different conditions can be expressed as
some percentage of this PET
FACTORS AFFECTING
INFILTRATION
 Characteristics of soil
 Characteristics of surface
 Fluid characteristics
FACTORS AFFECTING RUNOFF
 Precipitation characteristics
 Types of storm, duration, intensity, extent
 Snowfed v/s rainfed
 Shape and size of catchment
 Large size catchments-less likely to have uniform rainfall
over the catchment
 Smaller catchments -expected to experience greater
intensity of rainfall
 Elongated catchments are less likely to have coinciding
peaks of its branches in the main stream v/s fan shaped
catchments are likely to have matching leg times
 Topography Smooth surface and steeper slopes v/svegetation
increases the retention
 Storage characteristics Natural and artificial storages in the
basin moderates runoff
Base Documents
 Guidelines for preparation of Detailed Project Report of
Irrigation and Multipurpose Projects by Working Group of the
then Ministry of Irrigation (CWC)
 (read with Guidelines for Submission, Appraisal and
Clearance of Irrigation and Multipurpose Projects (CWC) )
 Guidelines for formulation of detailed project reports for hydro
electric schemes, their acceptance and examination for
concurrence (CEA-2007)
Related Technical Documents
 Guidelines for preparation of project estimates for major irrigation and multipurpose
project” issued by CWC
 Guidelines for “Investigation of major irrigation and hydro-electric projects” issued by
CWC
 Manual on estimation of Design flood (CWC)
 CBIP – Technical Report No.19 “Life of Reservoir (1977) CBIP 89
 IS 4890 : Method for measurement of suspended sediment in open rivers
 IS 4186 : Guide for preparation of project report for river valley projects.
 IS 4877 : Guide for preparation of Estimate for River Valley Projects
 IS 5477 : Methods for fixing the capacities of reservoirs.
(Part 1-4)
 IS 7323 : Method for determining evaporation from reservoirs.
 IS 7323 : Guidelines for operation of reservoirs.
 IS 13028 : Guidelines for overall planning of river basin.
HYDROLOGICAL INPUTS (for Type of
Projects)
 Storage
 Diversion without Pondage
 Diversion with Pondage
 Within Year storage
 Over the Year storage
 Purpose
 Irrigation
 Hydropower
 Water Supply and Industrial
 Flood Control
 Others (Navigation, Salinity Control, WQ Control, Draingae,
Recharge etc)
HYDROLOGICAL INPUTS
 For Simulation Studies
 Water Availability Studies (Inflow series)
 Lake evaporation
 PET and RF
 Sediment Inflows and NZE Revised AC
 Water Quality
 Low Flow, Ground water recharge etc
HYDROLOGICAL INPUTS
 Design Flood Studies and levels for
 Safety of Structure
 Flood Control works
 Drainage works
 Diversion works
 Locating structures and outlets in vicinity of
river bank/ reservoir
 Tail water rating curve
Hydrological Studies
 Water Resources Assessment
 Design flood for structural safety and
Diversion during construction
 Sediment load in the stream and life of
reservoir
 DATA REQUIREMENT

River Gauge 10 yrs Three daily (des- Daily

Hourly)
River Flow 10 yrs 20-30 during High flow Weekly
disch (des –daily)
Sediment flow 3 yrs Along with disch obs ditto
and grain size
composition
Water quality 3 yrs Once in a month with More
and salinity disch frequ
Rainfall ORG 10 yrs Daily and hourly with
and SRRG and disch
more
Pan 3 daily daily
evaporation years
DATA OBSERVATION
 As per IS / IMD Standard
 Discharge Observation by AV method/ calibrated (model
testing) Hydraulic structures
 Reservoir levels in catchment with A-C curves, withdrawal
and evaporations
 RF station min 1 per 600 sqkm (150 sq km in orographic
area) 25% SRRG IMD
 Hydrometric min 1 per 2750sq km in coastal, 1000 sq km in
mountains, 1875 sq km in between plains hills and undulating
lands, 300 sq km in small Islands WMO
Data Processing
 Quality of data
 Filling up of short gaps
 Adjustment of records
 Consistency – Internal and external
 Data extension and generation
Consistency Checks
 Rainfall data station one v/s other double
mass/correlation
 Rainfall data station one v/s catchment
average double mass/ correlation
 Catchment rainfall v/s runoff double mass/
correlation
 Runoff v/s runoff of some other site in the
same catchment (U/S or D/S)
 Runoff v/s runoff of some other site in
adjacent basin Hydrometeorologic
Water availability
 Runoff is the portion of precipitation which has neither
evaporated not deep percolated, which ultimately joins the
ocean.
 Surface runoff - flows over the land and is first to reach the
streams, and
 Sub-surface runoff - infiltrated into surface soil and reaches
to stream through sub-surface flow
 A project other than hydro-power needs to be analysed for
conjunctive use of surface and sub-surface runoff
 series is worked out for surface runoffs on monthly basis for
storage projects and 10 – daily basis for a diversion projects
 descriptive statistics besides dependability parameters( 75% for
Irrigation 90% for Hydropower)
 specific yield (flow per sq km expressed as depth) and runoff
factor (runoff/ rainfall as dimensionless parameters
DESIRED LENGTH OF WATER
AVAILABILTY SERIES
 10 yrs for Diversion project
 25 years for within the year storage
 40 years for over the year storage
 Depending upon the predominant component
in complex system
DESIGN FLOOD
A flood hydrograph or instantaneous peak discharge adopted for
a river control structure after accounting for hydrological and
economic factors is called Design flood
 corresponds to maximum tolerable risk
 Project can sustain without substantial damage to its
components as well as people and property
 CAN BE EXCEEDED
 Risk of damage is equivalent to probability of occurrence
of floods larger than Design Flood.
DESIGN FLOOD
 Purpose: Safety of project components and affected
people and property in the events of extreme Flood
 For safety of dam
 For energy dissipation system
 Extent of upstream submergence
 down stream damages
 Proper selection: Additional cost of structures v/s risk of
losses to structures and affected people and property
 Absolute protection: Unrealistic
 Increased risk: Unacceptable
 DESIGN FLOOD - CRITERIA

 Storage - IS: 11223-1985

Gross storage (S)

Classification. Head (H) m Design flood.
Mm3

Small 0.5 to 10 7.5 to 12 100 Yr. flood

Intermediate 10 to 60 12 to 30 SPF

Large >60 >30 PMF

DESIGN FLOOD - CRITERIA

 Diversion Projects - IS 6966: Patt I

 Free Board (Water way – capacity) 500 year
or SPS
 For other purposes - 50 years

 CD Works - IS 7784 Part I 1993

 Diversion during construction - IS 10084 Part
I 1982
DESIGN FLOOD - METHODS

 Formulae Approach.
 Empirical
 Envelop curves
 Statistical approach, commonly known as
Flood Frequency Approach.
 Hydrometeorological approach, commonly
known as the Unit Hydrograph Approach
DESIGN FLOOD - METHODS
Envelop curves - Principle
 maximum floods per unit area experienced in one basin is quite
likely to be experienced in nearby basin in the same region having
same climatological and physiographic characteristics
 PMFs estimated by Central Water Commission (and other
organisations) between 1980-91 utilised for developing envelope
curves for PMF peaks.
 equation:
 Upper envelopes Qu = 1585 A0.35
 Average line, Qav = 398 A0.425
 Lower envelope, QL = 100 A0.5
DESIGN FLOOD - METHODS
Statistical Methods:
combination of numerous factors producing floods are matter of
pure chance and therefore are subject to analysis according
to the theory of probability.
Applied on discharge data either directly observed at the site of
study or estimated by the suitable method
 Annual peak flood series –excludes all second and third and
so on rankings in the year
 Partial duration - all events above a certain threshold and
INDEPENDENT are included in the analysis
DESIGN FLOOD - METHODS
Statistical Methods:

 Fitting various probability distribution to the sample and

estimation of the parameters of the distribution;
 Suitable for extreme value
 Have descriptive statistics similar to data set
 Does not contradict physical process
 applying suitable test to identify the various distributions which
provides best fit; and
 estimating the floods of different return period
DESIGN FLOOD - METHODS

 Hydrometeorolgical approach
Conceptual analysis of causative factors –
rainfalls, evaporations, infiltrations, basin
storages (natural and artificial), surface
drainage properties, sub surface drainage
properties, vegetation , land use etc etc
HYDROMETEOROLOGICAL APPROACH
 Mathematically it has two
broad components:

- Excitations (Rainfall etc)

- Basin response (Unit

Hydrograph etc)
HYDROMETEOROLOGICAL APPROACH
 Other components:
 - Loss rate
 - Base flow
 - Snow melt components/
Glacial Outbursts
Sedimentation Studies
 Storage reservoirstraps most of the silt in the
reservoir area. Sediment analysis
 keeping the inlets above the deposited silts
keeping them functional : estimation of New
Zero elevation at the end of the useful life of
reservoir –sudden death
 ensuring the economic usefulness upto the
end of planned life of reservoir : estimation of
revised area capacity some where half way of
life of reservoir –slow death due to old age
Sedimentation Studies
 For diversion works for irrigation purpose, the sharing
of sediment in the river and canals become the key of
hydraulic designs, for the hydropower projects proper
silt excluders and flushing arrangements of silt to
keep the structures operational becomes more
important.
 Hydro-purpose – desilting chambers and flushing of
sluices
 CBIP – 19 and IS 5477 gives the details of these
computations based on empirical area reduction
method
Assessment in limited data situation
 Rainfall assessment with limited rainfall data -
Specific yields for water availability
 Runoff series to be made consistent with
such rainfall data
 Regional Approach

 PMP atlas : No specific PMP atlas so far only

generalised PMP atlas
 Sub zonal report
 Specific regional studies
Rainfall assessment with limited
rainfall data
 Very few RF stations
 Rapidly changing Topography
 No concurrency in the data period of different
rain gauges
 Solution:
 Try to assess catchment average rainfall
using elevation related weighted average
Rainfall assessment with limited
rainfall data : Example
 Data availability  Averages

MC 59-73 01-05 MC 2625 2625

MG 66, 68-69, 00-05 MG 1883 1883
79-83, 94-
98
T 97-98 05 T 3132 3132

R/K 76, 81-87,

R/k NC 4659
01-05
Avg 2546 3074
Rainfall assessment with limited
rainfall data : Example
 Not reliable : Limited data
 Whatever data available for whatever period
assumed to be representative for the entire
slice of catchment area between two
elevations
 Works only if some base Runoff data
available at some down stream point
 Assumed rainfall variance with elevations
 BUT THERE IS NO BETTER ALTERNATIVE
IN SIGHT
Synthetic Design flood
 Basin response – from Sub zonal report
 Based on catchment characteristics L Lc S
and A
 Loss rates base flows from same report
 Degree day method for snow melt
contribution
 PMP from some heavy rainfall spell some
where
Conclusions:
 hydrology - a discipline where a major role for
judgment based on insight and experience
 no two hydrologists ever agree
 very difficult to verify hydrologists
computations,
 large impact on the safety of the project, the
cost of the project, and benefits from the
project
Points to Ponder:
 hydrologic analysis is often weak
 collection of data is an important part of the
practice of hydrology.
 data is often given a low importance
 Perceptions: expenditure that gives no
immediate and visible returns
 real time observation, once lost, can never be
brought back again
 Thanks