CE 394K.

2 Hydrology – Lecture 1
• Syllabus, term paper, sequence of topics
• Hydrologic cycle and world water balance
• Water quantities in Texas

Readings:
• For today – Applied Hydrology, Chapter 1
• For Tuesday – AH, Sections 2.1 and 2.2
Some slides in this presentation were prepared by Venkatesh Merwade
Hydrologic Cycle
 Global water balance (volumetric)
Precipitation Atmospheric moisture flow Precipitation Evaporation
100 39 385 424

Evaporation
61
Surface Outflow
38

Land (148.7 km2) Ocean (361.3 km2)

(29% of earth area) (71% of earth area)
Subsurface Outflow
1
Units are in volume per year relative to precipitation on
land (119,000 km3/yr) which is 100 units
Digital Atlas of the World Water Balance
(Precipitation)

http://www.crwr.utexas.edu/gis/gishyd98/atlas/Atlas.htm
 Global water balance (mm/yr)
Precipitation Atmospheric moisture flow Precipitation Evaporation
800 316 1270 1400

Evaporation
484
Outflow
316

Land (148.7 km2) Ocean (361.3 km2)

(29% of earth area) (71% of earth area)

What conclusions can we draw from these data?

Applied Hydrology, Table 1.1.2, p.5
Global Water Resources
105,000 km3 or
0.0076% of total
water
 Residence Time
Residence time:
Average travel time for water to pass through a subsystem of the
hydrologic cycle

Tr = S/Q
Storage/flow rate

Residence time of global atmospheric moisture (Ex. 1.1.1)

Volume (storage) of atmospheric water: 12,900 km3
Flow rate of moisture from the atmosphere as precipitation = 577,000 km3/yr
Tr = 12,900/577,000 = 0.022 yr = 8.2 days

One reason why weather cannot be forecast accurately more than a few days
ahead!
Population and Water Use
9000

8000 Withdrawal (km3/yr)

7000 Population (million)

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000
global freshwater use is ~4000 km3/year
1000 ~10% of the renewable supply (44,800km3/year)
0
1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020
Global Water Availability
500
1350
3850

10000
37500
325000
Watershed system
 Hydrologic System

Take a watershed and extrude it vertically into the atmosphere

and subsurface, Applied Hydrology, p.7- 8

A hydrologic system is “a structure or volume in space surrounded

by a boundary, that accepts water and other inputs, operates on
them internally, and produces them as outputs”
Texas Surface Water

Colorado River
Aquifers in Texas
 Homework 1– How much water is
there in Texas?
Category Area (km2) Volume, V Standard Error
(km3) Estimate of V
Atmospheric water
Biological water
Rivers
Reservoirs
Small lakes and farm
ponds
Marshes
Estuaries
Soil water
Groundwater - fresh
Groundwater - saline
 Standard Error of Estimate
n
x   xi Statistical average, estimates mean 

i 1

1 n
s 
n  1 i 1
( xi  x ) 2Standard deviation, estimates 


Standard error of estimate (SEE) of the mean  is
n
Provided all samples xi are statistically independent of each other (see
Applied Hydrology Section 11.1 for definition of independence)