Hydrologic Processes

 Interception
 Evapotranspiration
 Infiltration-Percolation
 Depression Storage
 Plant Transpiration
Most water absorption occurs in upper half of root zone
Evaporation :-
• The change of a liquid into vapour at any temperature below its boiling
point is called evaporation.
• Evaporation is a surface phenomenon. Particles from the surface gain
enough energy to overcome the forces of attraction and changes to vapour
state.
b) Factors affecting evaporation :-
The rate of evaporation depends upon solar energy, sunshine hours, surface
area, temperature, water quality, turbidity, humidity and wind speed.
• Increase in the surface area increases the rate of evaporation.
• Increase in temperature increases the rate of evaporation.
• Increase in humidity decreases the rate of evaporation.
• Increase in wind speed increases the rate of evaporation.
Other Factors affecting Evaporation from an open water surface:

a) Water quality
- saline water has a reduced vapor pressure, and therefore
evaporation decreases about 1% for every 1% increase in salinity.
Normally a small consideration
- turbidity of the water can affect the heat budget, but generally not
considered
b) Depth of water body: residence time and annual turnover
c) Size of the water surface
 Transpiration
• Transpiration is the loss of water from a plant by evaporation

• Water can only evaporate from the plant if the water potential is lower in
the air surrounding the plant

• Most transpiration occurs via the leaves

• Most of this transpiration is via the stomata.

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 /TRANSPIRATION (T)

• Transpiration is the evaporation occurring

through plant leaves (stomatal openings).

• Transpiration is affected by plant physiology and

environmental factors, such as:
- Type of vegetation
- Stage and growth of plants
- Soil conditions (type and moisture)
- Climate and weather
 Factors Affecting Transpiration
1. Relative humidity:- air inside leaf is saturated (RH=100%). The lower the relative
humidity outside the leaf the faster the rate of transpiration as the  gradient is
steeper
2. Air Movement:- increase air movement increases the rate of transpiration as it
moves the saturated air from around the leaf so the  gradient is steeper.

3. Temperature:- increase in temperature increases the rate of transpiration as

higher temperature
– Provides the latent heat of vaporisation
– Increases the kinetic energy so faster diffusion
– Warms the air so lowers the  of the air, so  gradient is steeper

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4. Atmospheric pressure:- decrease in atmospheric pressure increases the rate
of transpiration.

5. Water supply:- transpiration rate is lower if there is little water available as

transpiration depends on the mesophyll cell walls being wet (dry cell walls
have a lower ). When cells are flaccid the stomata close.

6. Light intensity :- greater light intensity increases the rate of transpiration

because it causes the stomata to open, so increasing evaporation through
the stomata.

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 EVAPOTRANSPIRATION (ET)
• Combined “loss” of water vapor from within the leaves of
plants (“transpiration”) and evaporation of liquid water from
water surfaces, bare soil and vegetative surfaces.

• Globally, about 62% of the precipitation that falls on the

continent is evapotranspired (~72,000 km3/yr); 92% of which
from land surfaces evapotranspiration and 3% from open
water evaporation (source: Dingman, “Physical Hydrology”).

• Approximately 70% of the mean annual rainfall in the U.S. is

returned to the atmosphere as evaporation or transpiration.
 EVAPOTRANSPIRATION (ET)

• In practice, the terms E and ET are often used to

mean the same thing - the evaporation from the land
surface.

• Therefore, you must use the context to determine

what the term evaporation means in a specific case
(i.e., is it just from an open water surface or the
entire land surface?).
 POTENTIAL EVAPORATION (PE)
• is the climate controlled evaporation from an
open water surface with unlimited supply (and
no thermal capacity).
POTENTIAL EVAPOTRANSPIRATION (PET)

• is the ET that would occur from a well

vegetated surface when moisture supply is not
limiting (often calculated as the PE).

• Actual evapotranspiration (AET; ET) drops

below its potential level as the soil dries.
 DESIGN
• Evaporation must be considered in the design of
large water storage reservoirs, large-scale water
resources planning and water supply studies.

• For flood flow studies, urban drainage design

applications it may be neglected.

• Example: during typical storm periods with

intensities of 0.5 in/hr, evaporation is on the order of
0.01 in/hr.
METHODS FOR ESTIMATING EVAPORATION

• Water budget methods

• Energy budget methods
• Mass transfer techniques (e.g., Meyer,
Thornthwaile-Holzman)
• Combination of energy budget and mass
transfer methods (e.g.,Penman)
 Energy budget method
Total solar
radiation - Rt

Net energy advected Reflected solar

(net energy content Net long-wave radiation
radiation - Rr
of incoming and Sensible heat loss exchange between the
outcoming water - from the water atmospere and the water
Energy used for
Ee evaporation
body to the body- R1
atmosphere - Hn
(latent heat)- Ee

Energy stored - Es

R1 includes long-wave (LW) radiation from the atmosphere, reflected LW radiation, LW radiation emitted by water
 Energy budget method
 g  cal 
Es  2    Ea  Rt    Rr  Ee  H n  R1 
 cm - day 

Rr R1
Ee Rt Ee Hn

Es

R1 includes long-wave (LW) radiation from the atmosphere, reflected LW radiation, LW radiation emitted by water
 Energy budget method

• Amount of evaporation - E

 mm  Ee
E   10
 day  Hv

 g  cal 
Hv  3 
 596  0.52T - latent heat of vaporizat ion
 cm 

T  C  - temperatu re of the water surface

 Energy budget method

Characteristics:

• most accurate method (evaporation is a function of the

energy state of the water system)
• difficult to evaluate all terms
• energy balance equation has to be simplified
• empirical formulas are used (although radiation
measurements are preferable)
 Water budget method

S
  P  Q  Qr  Qs    Q0  Qd  E   E 
t
Precipitation - P

Evaporation- E Inflow- Q

Surface runoff - Qr

Subsurface
runoff - Qs

Subsurface seepage losses- Qd

Outflow- Q0
 Water budget method
 Volume m 3 or (ac - ft) mm 
• Units: E or 
 month * Area day 

• Depth of evaporation:
 in  12 E
*
E   
 day  nAp
 mm  12(25.4) E
*
E   
 day  nAp

n – number of days
Ap – area of the pond [ac]
 Water budget method

Characteristics:
- Simple
- Difficult to estimate Qd and Qs
- Unreliable, accuracy will increase as Δt
increases
How do we measure/estimate evaporation?

1. Direct measurement
– Pans
– Lake water balance
– Lysimeters
 Pan evaporation
• Class A pan – 4 feet diameter, 10 inches deep-
galvanized steel – measure daily water loss
by adding water to same level
• Evap = change in water level - precipitation
• Pan evap > lake evap why?
• Use a pan coefficient (usually 0.6-0.8 say 0.7)
• Evap from water = 0.7 Evap from Pan
U.S. Weather Bureau Class A Pan

4 ft

Wooden
10 in
support
6 in

Galvanized
steel
 Evaporation pan

S
  P  Q  Qr  Qs    Q0  Qd  E 
t
S S
P  Ep   Ep  P 
t t

Surface runoff - Qr Evaporation - E Precipitation - P

Inflow- Q

Subsurface
runoff - Qs

Outflow- Q
Subsurface seepage losses- Qd
http://fr.cfans.umn.edu/courses/FR3114/FieldMeas%20-%20Transpir_10_03_06.pdf
 Evapotranspiration - ET
• Hard to separate evaporative loss from
transpiration loss in wildland situations
• Look at ET (evapotranspiration)
• AET – Actual ET
• PET – Potential ET
 PET – Potential Evapotranspiration
• Rate at which ET would occur in a situation of
unlimited water supply, uniform vegetation
cover, no wind or heat storage effects
• First used for climate classification criteria
• Usually assume short grass as the uniform
vegetation
• Compute as function of climate factors
 Actual Evapotranspiration
• Amount actually lost from the surface given
the prevailing atmospheric and ground
conditions
• Provides information of soil moisture
conditions and the local water balance
• Measured by a lysimeter (difficult to maintain,
not many in existence) that weighs the grass,
soil, and water above
 PET equations
• Penman- Monteith (based on radiation balance)
• Jensen-Haise (developed for dry, intermountain
west)
• Priestly-Taylor (based on radiation balance)
• Thornthwaite (based on temperature)
• Hamon, Malstrom (based on T and saturated vapor
pressure)
• See table 4.3 p 95 in text
 Physically-based theoretical methods- e.g.
Penman Monteith
• Energy budget
– Mass balance on energy inputs and outputs
– Incoming solar radiation – reflected solar radiation
(albedo) – net longwave radiation + net energy
advected to vegetation = ET energy (latent heat) +
sensible heat transfer from veg to air + changes in
energy storage in heating soil and veg
– Can measure all but latent heat which equals ET
 Physically-based methods
• Turbulent mass transfer
– Function of wind speed and vapor pressure deficit
– Evap = k uz ( ew – ez)
– K is a constant, U is wind velocity, e is vapor pressure, z is
some reference height, w is level at water surface
• Can only measure precisely over short distances
– Useful only for experimental situations
 AET equations
• Blainey-Criddle
– Good for crops and ag situations
– f = tp/100
• f is consumptive factor, t is mean monthly air temperature in
Fahrenheit (tmax + tmin/2)
• p is mean monthly percentage of annual daytime hours
• Compute f for each month of interest
– U = K S fi
• Where U is total consumptive use in inches per season
– K is crop coefficient, sum over the number of months of growth
 Variables used in common
ET models

Model T RH or e Lat Elev Rad. Wind

Penman x x x x x
Priestly-Taylor x x
Jensen-Haise x x x
Blainey-Criddle x x
Thornthwaite x
 Comparison of PET (mm/yr)

1600

1200

800

400

0
Measured AET Thornthwaite Hamon Priestly-Taylor Hargreaves-
Samani

JAWRA 2005
 Definitions
• Infiltration: process by which water enters the soil
surface
• Infiltration capacity: maximum rate at which water can
enter the soil
• Soil Hydraulic Conductivity: movement of water
through soil (saturated and unsaturated flow)
• Soil Water: water held in soil pores
– Plant available water
 Infiltration Terminologies
• Infiltration Capacity (Potential Infiltration Rate) (fp) - The maximum rate at which
soil can absorb water through its surface.
• Infiltration Rate, f(t) - Rate of water entering the soil surface. If there is no limit
on the water supply for infiltration, f(t) = f p. Otherwise, 0  f(t) < fp.
• f(t)
• fo = initial infiltration rate
fo
fc = ultimate infiltration rate
f(t) - fc = excess infiltration rate   fc
t
• Cumulative Infiltration, F(t) - Depth of infiltration from the beginning of rainfall
to any time, t.

F(t) = Area under the infiltration curve t

  f (  ) d
0
• Wetting Front - Change of soil moisture content with depth is so great so as to
give the appearance of a sharp discontinuity between the wet soil above and the
dry soil below.
 Thinking About Infiltration Rates
• When does infiltration
occur?
• When does infiltration
rate = infiltration
capacity?
• When does ponding or
runoff occur?
 Factors which affect infiltration:
• Soil type
– Texture
– Depth
• Initial soil moisture content
• Rainfall
– Intensity
– Amount/duration/distribution
• Quality of water
 Factors which affect infiltration:
• Biological factors-
• Vegetation
– Type (forb, grass, shrub, trees, etc.)
– Distribution
– Shrublands
– Grasslands
type of grass
 Infiltration Characteristics
• Infiltration is influence by:
– Rain intensity, - Soil type -Disturbance. - Crust
– Soil cover - etc.
 Horton’s Equation
– Solve the equation for the rate of moisture
diffusion at soil surface f(t) = fc + (f0 – fc) e–kt
– k = Decay constant ~ T-1
– Infiltration rate in mm/hr is
 kt
f p (t )  f c  ( f o  f c )e
– Cumulative infiltration (mm)
fo  fc
F (t )  f c t  (1  e  kt )
k
 Classic Equations for Infiltration
(go for additional reading if interested)
• Green-Ampt
K ( H o  S w  L)  
f  f (t )  K   1
L  F (t ) 

• Philip’s
I (t )  S p t 1/ 2
 kt
• Horton’s
 kt fo  fc
f p (t )  f c  ( f o  f c )e F (t )  f c t 
k
(1  e  kt )
Groundwater & the Vadose Zone
 Depression Storage
• Definition: Rainwater retained in puddles, ditches, and other
depressions on the ground surface. As soon as rainfall intensity
exceeds the local infiltration capacity, the rainfall excess begins to
fill depression. 

• Water held in depression at the end of rain either evaporates or

contributes to soil moisture and/or subsurface flow by following
the infiltration. 

• Depression storage may play an important role in hydrologic

analysis. Stock ponds, terraces, and contour farming all tend to
moderate flood by increasing depression storage. 

• Retention - storage held for a long period of time and depleted by

evaporation.
• Detention - short-term storage depleted by flow away from the
storage location.