Hydrology is the study of water

Research Hydrologist Martin Briggs (USGS) collects ground-penetrating radar (GPR) data. He is wearing special ice cleats on his shoes to have
better traction walking on the ice. (April 2017)

Water is one of our most important natural resources. Without it, there would be no life on earth. The supply of water available for our use is
limited by nature. Although there is plenty of water on earth, it is not always in the right place, at the right time and of the right quality. Adding
to the problem is the increasing evidence that chemical wastes improperly discarded yesterday are showing up in our water supplies today.
Hydrology has evolved as a science in response to the need to understand the complex water systems of the Earth and help solve water
problems. Hydrologists play a vital role in finding solutions to water problems, and interesting and challenging careers are available to those
who choose to study hydrology.

Water and People

Estimates of water use in the United States indicate that about 355 billion gallons per day (one thousand million gallons per day, abbreviated
Bgal/d) were withdrawn for all uses during 2010. This total has declined about 17 percent since 1980. Fresh groundwater withdrawals (76.0
Bgal/d) during 2010 were 8 percent less than during 1980. Fresh surface-water withdrawals for 2010 were 230 Bgal/d, 18 percent less than in
1980.

Much of our water use is hidden. Think about what you had for lunch. A hamburger, for example, requires water to raise wheat for the bun, to
grow hay and corn to feed the cattle and to process the bread and beef. Together with french fries and a soft drink, this all-American meal uses
about 1,500 gallons of water — enough to fill a small swimming pool. How about your clothes? To grow cotton for a pair of jeans takes about
400 gallons. A shirt requires about 400 gallons. How do you get to school or to the store? To produce the amount of finished steel in a car has in
the past required about 32,000 gallons of water. Similarly, the steel in a 30-pound bicycle required 480 gallons. This shows that industry must
continue to strive to reduce water use through manufacturing processes that use less water, and through recycling of water.

What is Hydrology?

Hydrology is the science that encompasses the occurrence, distribution, movement and properties of the waters of the earth and their
relationship with the environment within each phase of the hydrologic cycle. The water cycle, or hydrologic cycle, is a continuous process by
which water is purified by evaporation and transported from the earth's surface (including the oceans) to the atmosphere and back to the land
and oceans. All of the physical, chemical and biological processes involving water as it travels its various paths in the atmosphere, over and
beneath the earth's surface and through growing plants, are of interest to those who study the hydrologic cycle.

There are many pathways the water may take in its continuous cycle of falling as rainfall or snowfall and returning to the atmosphere. It may be
captured for millions of years in polar ice caps. It may flow to rivers and finally to the sea. It may soak into the soil to be evaporated directly
from the soil surface as it dries or be transpired by growing plants. It may percolate through the soil to ground water reservoirs (aquifers) to be
stored or it may flow to wells or springs or back to streams by seepage. The cycle for water may be short, or it may take millions of years.

People tap the water cycle for their own uses. Water is diverted temporarily from one part of the cycle by pumping it from the ground or
drawing it from a river or lake. It is used for a variety of activities such as households, businesses and industries; for irrigation of farms and
parklands; and for production of electric power. After use, water is returned to another part of the cycle: perhaps discharged downstream or
allowed to soak into the ground. Used water normally is lower in quality, even after treatment, which often poses a problem for downstream
users.

The hydrologist studies the fundamental transport processes to be able to describe the quantity and quality of water as it moves through the
cycle (evaporation, precipitation, streamflow, infiltration, ground water flow, and other components). The engineering hydrologist, or water
resources engineer, is involved in the planning, analysis, design, construction and operation of projects for the control, utilization, and
management of water resources. Water resources problems are also the concern of meteorologists, oceanographers, geologists, chemists,
physicists, biologists, economists, political scientists, specialists in applied mathematics and computer science, and engineers in several fields.

What Hydrologists Do?

Hydrologists apply scientific knowledge and mathematical principles to solve water-related problems in society: problems of quantity, quality
and availability. They may be concerned with finding water supplies for cities or irrigated farms, or controlling river flooding or soil erosion. Or,
they may work in environmental protection: preventing or cleaning up pollution or locating sites for safe disposal of hazardous wastes.

Persons trained in hydrology may have a wide variety of job titles. Scientists and engineers in hydrology may be involved in both field
investigations and office work. In the field, they may collect basic data, oversee testing of water quality, direct field crews and work with
equipment. Many jobs require travel, some abroad. A hydrologist may spend considerable time doing field work in remote and rugged terrain.
In the office, hydrologists do many things such as interpreting hydrologic data and performing analyses for determining possible water supplies.
Much of their work relies on computers for organizing, summarizing and analyzing masses of data, and for modeling studies such as the
prediction of flooding and the consequences of reservoir releases or the effect of leaking underground oil storage tanks.

The work of hydrologists is as varied as the uses of water and may range from planning multimillion dollar interstate water projects to advising
homeowners about backyard drainage problems.

Surface Water

Most cities meet their needs for water by withdrawing it from the nearest river, lake or reservoir. Hydrologists help cities by collecting and
analyzing the data needed to predict how much water is available from local supplies and whether it will be sufficient to meet the city's
projected future needs. To do this, hydrologists study records of rainfall, snowpack depths and river flows that are collected and compiled by
hydrologists in various government agencies. They inventory the extent river flow already is being used by others.

Managing reservoirs can be quite complex, because they generally serve many purposes. Reservoirs increase the reliability of local water
supplies. Hydrologists use topographic maps and aerial photographs to determine where the reservoir shorelines will be and to calculate
reservoir depths and storage capacity. This work ensures that, even at maximum capacity, no highways, railroads or homes would be flooded.

Deciding how much water to release and how much to store depends upon the time of year, flow predictions for the next several months, and
the needs of irrigators and cities as well as downstream water-users that rely on the reservoir. If the reservoir also is used for recreation or for
generation of hydroelectric power, those requirements must be considered. Decisions must be coordinated with other reservoir managers
along the river. Hydrologists collect the necessary information, enter it into a computer, and run computer models to predict the results under
various operating strategies. On the basis of these studies, reservoir managers can make the best decision for those involved.

The availability of surface water for swimming, drinking, industrial or other uses sometimes is restricted because of pollution. Pollution can be
merely an unsightly and inconvenient nuisance, or it can be an invisible, but deadly, threat to the health of people, plants and animals.

Hydrologists assist public health officials in monitoring public water supplies to ensure that health standards are met. When pollution is
discovered, environmental engineers work with hydrologists in devising the necessary sampling program. Water quality in estuaries, streams,
rivers and lakes must be monitored, and the health of fish, plants and wildlife along their stretches surveyed. Related work concerns acid rain
and its effects on aquatic life, and the behavior of toxic metals and organic chemicals in aquatic environments. Hydrologic and water quality
mathematical models are developed and used by hydrologists for planning and management and predicting water quality effects of changed
conditions. Simple analyses such as pH, turbidity, and oxygen content may be done by hydrologists in the field. Other chemical analyses require
more sophisticated laboratory equipment. In the past, municipal and industrial sewage was a major source of pollution for streams and lakes.
Such wastes often received only minimal treatment, or raw wastes were dumped into rivers. Today, we are more aware of the consequences of
such actions, and billions of dollars must be invested in pollution-control equipment to protect the waters of the earth. Other sources of
pollution are more difficult to identify and control. These include road deicing salts, storm runoff from urban areas and farmland, and erosion
from construction sites.

Groundwater

Groundwater, pumped from beneath the earth's surface, is often cheaper, more convenient and less vulnerable to pollution than surface
water. Therefore, it is commonly used for public water supplies. Groundwater provides the largest source of usable water storage in the United
States. Underground reservoirs contain far more water than the capacity of all surface reservoirs and lakes, including the Great Lakes. In some
areas, ground water may be the only option. Some municipalities survive solely on groundwater.

Hydrologists estimate the volume of water stored underground by measuring water levels in local wells and by examining geologic records from
well-drilling to determine the extent, depth and thickness of water-bearing sediments and rocks. Before an investment is made in full-sized
wells, hydrologists may supervise the drilling of test wells. They note the depths at which water is encountered and collect samples of soils, rock
and water for laboratory analyses. They may run a variety of geophysical tests on the completed hole, keeping and accurate log of their
observations and test results. Hydrologists determine the most efficient pumping rate by monitoring the extent that water levels drop in the
pumped well and in its nearest neighbors. Pumping the well too fast could cause it to go dry or could interfere with neighboring wells. Along
the coast, overpumping can cause saltwater intrusion. By plotting and analyzing these data, hydrologists can estimate the maximum and
optimum yields of the well.

Polluted ground water is less visible, but more insidious and difficult to clean up, than pollution in rivers and lakes. Ground water pollution most
often results from improper disposal of wastes on land. Major sources include industrial and household chemicals and garbage landfills,
industrial waste lagoons, tailings and process wastewater from mines, oil field brine pits, leaking underground oil storage tanks and pipelines,
sewage sludge and septic systems. Hydrologists provide guidance in the location of monitoring wells around waste disposal sites and sample
them at regular intervals to determine if undesirable leachate — contaminated water containing toxic or hazardous chemicals — is reaching the
ground water.

In polluted areas, hydrologists may collect soil and water samples to identify the type and extent of contamination. The chemical data then are
plotted on a map to show the size and direction of waste movement. In complex situations, computer modeling of water flow and waste
migration provides guidance for a clean-up program. In extreme cases, remedial actions may require excavation of the polluted soil. Today,
most people and industries realize that the amount of money invested in prevention is far less than that of cleanup. Hydrologists often are
consulted for selection of proper sites for new waste disposal facilities. The danger of pollution is minimized by locating wells in areas of deep
ground water and impermeable soils. Other practices include lining the bottom of a landfill with watertight materials, collecting any leachate
with drains, and keeping the landfill surface covered as much as possible. Careful monitoring is always necessary.

Careers in Hydrology

Students who plan to become hydrologists need a strong emphasis in mathematics, statistics, geology, physics, computer science, chemistry
and biology. In addition, sufficient background in other subjects — economics, public finance, environmental law, government policy — is
needed to communicate with experts in these fields and to understand the implications of their work on hydrology. Communicating clearly in
writing and speech is a basic requirement essential for any professional person. Hydrologists should be able to work well with people, not only
as part of a team with other scientists and engineers, but also in public relations, whether it be advising governmental leaders or informing the
general public on water issues. Hydrology offers a variety of interesting and challenging career choices for today and tomorrow. It's a field
worth considering.