SPATIAL HYDROLOGY

GIS-838

By Dr. Muhammad Azmat

The Science of Water
• Terrestrial Water …..
 The most important compound on earth
 Essential for life
 Important role in all geologic processes
 Used in drinking, agriculture, mechanical work, power
generation, cleaning, construction, cultivation of fish/other
livestock/plants, and other uses
 Used in formation of ore minerals , transport for pollutants
 Transport of energy and mass
Global Water Resources
Global Water Resources
Global Water Resources
 Water Resources of Pakistan
• The balance between population and available water already makes Pakistan one of
the most water stressed countries of the world
• With rapid population growth it will soon enter a condition of absolute water
scarcity
• Pakistan lies in an arid and semi arid climate zone

Sources of Surface water

• Monsoon rainfall
• Snow melt

Mean Annual rainfall

• Lower Indus Plain < 100 mm
• Upper Indus Plain > 750 mm

Average seasonal rainfall

• Kharif = 212 mm
• Rabi = 53 mm
KEY INFORMATION: Transboundary Rivers
KEY INFORMATION
No. of major rivers 5

No. of major reservoirs 3

No. of barrages / HW / 23
Syphons
No. of main canal system 45

No. of interlink canals 12

Length of canals 60800 Km
Length of watercourses 1.6 Million Km
Average canal water 104.7 MAF
diversion
Groundwater abstraction 50 MAF

No. of tubewells >1000000

Irrigated area 36 Million Acres
Average escapage to the sea 39.4 MAF
Major Threats to Water Resources in Pakistan
Glaciers
Depletion

Climate Water
Change Pollution

Threats

Water Siltation
Sharing In
Issues Mega dams

Increasing
Water
Deficit
RESERVOIR CAPACITIES (MAF)
LOSS DUE TO
RESERVOIR ORIGINAL PRESENT
SEDIMENTATION
9.69 2.92
TARBELA 6.77
(1976) 30%

5.34 0.80
MANGLA 4.54
(1968) 15%

0.72 0.46
CHASHMA 0.26
(1971) 63%

4.18
TOTAL 15.75 11.57
27%
Hydrological Cycle
 Terminologies in Hydrology
 Transpiration (T): is the process by which moisture is carried through plants
from roots to small pores on the underside of leaves, where it changes to
vapor and is released to the atmosphere. Transpiration is essentially
evaporation of water from plant leaves. It depends on plant biological
process, species, time and location.
 Evaporation: Water from rainfall returns to the atmosphere largely through
evaporation. The amount of evaporation depends on temperature, solar
radiation, wind, atmospheric pressure, and other factors.
 Condensation: is the process by which water vapor in the air is changed into
liquid water. Condensation is crucial to the water cycle because it is
responsible for the formation of clouds.
 Advection is defined as the exchange of energy, moisture, or momentum as
a result of horizontal heterogeneity. Advection is mechanical transport of
solutes along with the bulk flux of the water.
• Sublimation: is the conversion between the solid and the gaseous phases of
matter, with no intermediate liquid stage. sublimation is most often used to
describe the process of snow and ice changing into water vapors in the air
without first melting into water.
Sublimation can be separated into three categories: (1) canopy sublimation, (2)
sublimation from ground snow cover, and (3) sublimation from blowing snow

• Precipitation (P): In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the

condensation of atmospheric water vapors that falls under gravity. The main
forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow and hail.

• Streamflow or channel runoff or Discharge (Q): is the flow of water in

streams, rivers, and other channels, and is a major element of the water cycle.
It is one component of the runoff of water from the land to waterbodies, the
other component being surface runoff. Its resultant of overland flow (Ro),
subsurface or interflow (Qs) and ground water flow (Qg).
• 
• Flood routing: is the technique of determining the flood hydrograph at a
section of a river by utilizing the data of flood flow at one or more upstream
sections.

• Soil permeability is the ability of the soil to transmit water and air. As the soil
layers or horizons vary in their characteristics, the permeability also differs
from one layer to another. Pore size, texture, structure and the presence of
impervious layers such as clay pan determines the permeability of a soil.
Clayey soils with platy structures have very low permeability. Its units is
cm/hr, cm/day, cm/sec.
• Degree of Saturation The degree of saturation, S, is defined as the ratio of
the volume of water to the volume of voids.

Moisture content The moisture content, m or w, is defined as the ratio of the

weight of water (Ww) to the weight of solid material (Ws).
 Permeability and Hydraulic Conductivity

Hydraulic Conductivity: is a measure of how easily water can pass

through soil or rock: high values indicate permeable material through which
water can pass easily; low values indicate that the material is less
permeable.
Permeability: is a measure of the ability of a material (such as rocks) to
transmit fluids.
Difference: The permeability is an intrinsic property of a porous material
(i.e. it only depends on properties such as pore size, tortuosity, and surface
area), hydraulic conductivity depends on the properties of the fluid
(saturation, viscosity, temperature, and density).
 on of sand, silt, clay and small
s gritty to the touch and the Porosity and Grain Size…
e naked eye. It is the largest
mooth and slippery to the
much smaller than those of
n with the aid of a
dle when wet. The individual
en with the aid of an electron

sizes. The space between

mines the amount of water
ers to how many pores, or
sed as a percentage of the
mportant measurement in
dwater reserves.

er that is held back by

Most of the groundwater is held in the voids or interstices
drained. Specific yield is between particles. Some groundwater is held as a film on
groundwater pumping, when the surfaces of grains by surface tension.
f the water table
Hydrologic Equation
• If we fix the time and take the volume units, then the hydrologic
equation can be written as:

• Total volume inflow – Total volume outflow = Total change in volume

of the system

• This is hydrologic or storage equation.

Hydrologic Equation
• I – O = ΔS (law of conservation of matter)
I = Inflow
O = Outflow
ΔS = Change in storage
• In its differential form it states that rate of volume inflow minus
the rate of volume outflow is equal to the rate of change of
storage. Mathematically
I – O = ΔS / Δt
where
I = Rate of volume inflow (volume/time) (m3/sec or ft3/sec)
O = Rate of volume outflow (volume/time)
ΔS / Δt = Rate of change of storage (volume/time)
inflow - outflow = D storage

inflow Storage outflow

outflow
Hydrologic Equation
Components of Inflow
There are two components of inflow:
Precipitation over the catchment and reservoir; and
Surface or groundwater flow from other catchment areas

Components of Outflow
Three components of outflow are:
Surface evaporation & transpiration;
Groundwater seepage; and
Direct runoff
inflow - outflow = D storage Source: Azmat et al. (2015)
inflow - outflow = D storage

Source: Azmat et al. (2015)

The hydrologic cycle … Pools and fluxes
Regional Water Balance
Regional Water Balance
• Total precipitation depth
• Cumulative infiltration depth
• Effective precipitation
• Water balance
 General
 Ignoring capillary fringe and exfiltration flow
 For daily calculations
 For large watershed over long durations
 For lakes, reservoirs, and streams
 For overland flow
Regional Water Balance
• General
• In aquifers, ignoring capillary fringe and exfiltration flow (if time is ~
year, ΔSw ≈0

• For daily calculations

• For large watershed over long durations, ΔSw≈0 & Gi≈Go

• For lakes, reservoirs, and streams

groundwater component is neglected
• For overland flow

In=interception, Id=depression storage