UNIVERSITY OF GUYANA
TURKEYEN CAMPUS
Faculty of Engineering and Technology
Department of Civil Engineering
CIV 3113- Engineering Hydrology
Exercise 1
Due date: 13th November, 2020
Lecturer: Ms. S. Eastman
Contents
1) Why is it necessary to carry out hydrological investigations?...............................................1
2)Discuss the influence of man on the hydrological cycle.........................................................2
3) A) Discuss the process of precipitation..................................................................................3
B) Discuss the mechanics to cool air masses.............................................................................4
 Convection...................................................................................................................4
 Orthographic Lifting.....................................................................................................4
 Frontal Lifting...............................................................................................................4
 Hurricane.....................................................................................................................5
 Convergence................................................................................................................5
4) Discuss the measurement of rainfall by radar and satellites................................................6
Measurement of rainfall by radar:.........................................................................................6
Measurement of rainfall by satellite:.....................................................................................6
5) What are the parameters for defining rainfall?.....................................................................8
6) Discuss the following methods for averaging rainfall........................................................9
a) Average depth method...................................................................................................9
b) Thiessen Method.........................................................................................................9
c) Kriging..............................................................................................................................9
d) Isohyetal method.........................................................................................................9
7) What is evaporation and the factors affecting it?............................................................10
Reference.................................................................................................................................11

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 1) Why is it necessary to carry out hydrological investigations?

A Hydrological Investigation is important because of the important purpose it serves. That is,
to locate potential sites for development of an adequate quantity of reasonably good quality
groundwater for a particular use like domestic, irrigation or industrial. The hydrological
investigation is done for the selection of suitable sites for waste disposal, tapping of
geotechnical power and in several other geotechnical problems. (SinghalR., Gupta, n.d.)

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 2)Discuss the influence of man on the hydrological cycle.

When deforestation occurs, it interrupts the hydrological cycle. Less plants means less
evapotranspiration thus, rainfall can be lost from the area, permanent drying can occur and
flood regimes of rivers are altered.The regular flow of clean water from forests and
protecting communities from flood and drought can be affected. Interception rates are
affected – Tropical forests in particular are multi layered and catch huge volumes of rainfall
falling from the sky. Rainforests soak up rainfall brought by tropical storms Both by
intercepting rainfall and allowing slow infiltration into the soil. Without forest cover
infiltration rates are affected and more overland flow occurs. (Human Influences on the
Water Cycle, n.d.)
This means more destructive flood and drought cycles can occur when forests are cleared.
Deforestation has a role in small floods and topsoil erosion by eliminating the buffering and
soil-anchoring effects of forests.  In terms of climate change, the water that a single tree
transpires daily has a cooling effect equivalent to two domestic air conditioners for a day.
(Human Influences on the Water Cycle, n.d.)
Due to changes in the hydrological cycle caused by deforestation, the carbon cycle is
impacted. Loss of forest cover puts huge volumes of carbon into the atmosphere. Increased
drought risk increases fire risk for the scrublands and grasslands that replace the forest
cover. Deforestation adds 10 percent or so to global warming by reducing the quantity of
CO2 that the world's forests pull from the Earth's atmosphere. In addition, forests release a
range of volatile organic compounds that "have an overall cooling effect on our climate,"
mostly by blocking incoming solar energy. Removing forests eliminates this cooling effect
and adds to warming. (Human Influences on the Water Cycle, n.d.)
In many parts of the world, agriculture has replaced natural vegetation with crop cover and
pasture. We need agriculture to feed the world's population but this has altered the water
balance. Groundwater stores are affected as wells are drilled into the ground and water
pumped to the surface for use in irrigation. Agriculture often reduces vegetation cover and
soil compaction from machinery can occur. Both can reduce the amount of water that
infiltrates into the soil and therefore increase run off. The evapotranspiration regime of
areas is affected, rather than natural annual plants cover of native ecosystems. This can also
cause surface water features such as springs, rivers and marshland to dry up. The water is
stored in biomass that is the plants and animals being farmed. (Human Influences on the
Water Cycle, n.d.)
Groundwater abstraction, the process of taking water from a ground source, can also affect
the hydrological cyce. It is often pumped through boreholes and wells from underground
aquifers as a source of fresh water. A lot of this water is used for irrigation for crops or to
produce drinking water. Taking too much water, or over-abstraction can lead to surface
rivers drying up, the drying up of wells, deterioration of water quality and land subsidance.
(Human Influences on the Water Cycle, n.d.)

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3
 3) A) Discuss the process of precipitation

Precipitation is any liquid or frozen water that forms in the atmosphere and falls back to the
Earth. It comes in many forms, like rain, sleet, and snow. Along
with evaporation and condensation, precipitation is one of the three major parts of the
global water cycle. (Precipitation, n.d.)

Precipitation forms in the clouds when water vapor condenses into bigger and bigger
droplets of water. When the drops are heavy enough, they fall to the Earth. If a cloud is
colder, like it would be at higher altitudes, the water droplets may freeze to form ice. These
ice crystals then fall to the Earth as snow, hail, or rain, depending on the temperature within
the cloud and at the Earth’s surface. Most rain actually begins as snow high in the clouds. As
the snowflakes fall through warmer air, they become raindrops. (Precipitation, n.d.)

Particles of dust or smoke in the atmosphere are essential for precipitation. These particles,
called “condensation nuclei,” provide a surface for water vapor to condense upon. This
helps water droplets gather together and become large enough to fall to the Earth.
(Precipitation, n.d.)

A common misconception is that when raindrops fall, they have a teardrop shape. In fact,
smaller raindrops (ones that are approximately 1 millimeter (0.039 inches) across) are
almost perfectly spherical. Larger raindrops (2–3 millimeters (.078-.118 inches) across) are
also round, but with a small indent on their bottom side. They look more like kidney beans
when falling to the Earth. Very large rain drops (larger than 4.5 millimeters (.177 inches))
have a huge indent and look more like a parachute. These extra-large drops usually end up
splitting into two smaller droplets. The indents on raindrops are caused by air
resistance. (Precipitation, n.d.)

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B) Discuss the mechanics to cool air masses

 Convection

Convection is the process of heat transfer in fluids by the actual motion of matter. It
happens in liquids and gases and may be natural or forced. It involves a bulk transfer of
portions of the fluid. When a fluid is heated from below, thermal expansion takes place. Due
to buoyancy, the less dense, hotter part rises up. And the colder, denser fluid replaces it.
This process is repeated when this part also gets heated and rises up to be replaced by the
colder upper layer. There are two types of convection, and they are: Natural convection and
forced convection. Examples for both being oceanic winds and using a fan on a hot summer
day respectively. (Heat Transfer By Convection, n.d.)

 Orographic Lifting

Orographic lift is what happens when air rises over a land barrier, such as mountains or hills.
Air is less dense than land, so the air is forced to rise over the land. Orographic lift is an
adiabatic process, which means that all of the changes that happen within an air parcel
occurs only in the parcel through changes in temperature and how much moisture can be
condensed within the parcel. A parcel of air resembles a beach ball or a hot air balloon, but
this is a theoretical construct where gases and particles within that parcel cannot escape it.
As the parcel rises, the parcel cools down and condenses.
The air will condense and start to form clouds when the temperature of the air equals that
of the dew point. The land on the windward side of a mountain can be lush and green as a
result of precipitation. On the leeward side of the mountain, the air rapidly descends and
becomes warmer once more. The parcel now lacks some of the moisture that it contained
because some of it precipitated out. This creates an area called a 'rain-shadow' desert. As a
result, the land is dry due to the lack of precipitation and the higher temperatures on that
side of the mountain. The climates of the windward and leeward sides of the mountain can
vary due to precipitation. The windward side has more vegetation because of the amount of
precipitation that it receives.

 Frontal Lifting

Frontal lifting is the term used for the process represented on a front when the inclined
surface represents the boundary of different densities between two air
masses.The steeper the front, the more adverse and intense its effects, other factors being
equal. (Frontal Lifting, n.d.)

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  Hurricane

A hurricane is a storm system rotating around an area of low pressure which produces
strong winds and heavy rain. A hurricane is on average 500 miles wide and 10 miles high and
moves forward like an enormous spinning top with a wind speed exceeding 63 knots.
In general, the following five factors are needed for the creation of a hurricane:
1) Sea surface temperatures of at least 26.5°C are required down to a depth of at least
50m, making the overlying atmosphere unstable enough to sustain convection and
thunderstorms;
2) Rapid cooling at a height that allows the heat to be released from the condensation
that powers the hurricane;
3) High humidity, especially in the lower-to-mid troposphere, which provides the
moisture that feeds the storm;
4) Low amounts of wind shear as high shear are disruptive to the circulation of the
storm.
5) Hurricanes form more than 5 degrees of latitude away from the equator, allowing
the Coriolis effect to deflect winds blowing towards the low-pressure center and
creating a circulation.

At the center of the hurricane, there is a sinking air area called the eye of the storm or the
inner core. Normally, the weather in the eye is calm and cloudless. The eye is circular and
can be 2 to 230 miles in diameter.

 Convergence

Convergence zones are zones where the surface waters of the ocean come together. They
develop owing to unevenness in the wind field above the ocean and in the distribution of
water density. They usually form at the junction of warm and cold waters and are
characterized by sharp horizontal gradients of temperature, salinity, density, and chemical
and biological indicators. The higher the latitude in which the convergence zones are
located, the lower the temperature and the greater the density of the submerging waters
and the deeper the layers they occupy in the ocean. Converging zones are very important
for living organisms because they warm the deep layers and enrich them with oxygen.
(Convergence Zones, n.d.)

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 4) Discuss the measurement of rainfall by radar and satellites.

Measurement of rainfall by radar:

Radar systems have antennae that send out pulses of electromagnetic energy that is
reflected off a target. The energy return is used to calculate reflectivity. The reflectivity (Z)
depends on the number of rain drops and their diameter. An increase in drop diameter
increases reflectivity to the sixth power. So if raindrop diameter doubles, reflectivity
increases by 2^6 = 64. (Measuring Precipitation: Radar and Satellite Based Measurements,
n.d.)
This is important for calculating rate (R), because rate depends on drop diameter, the
number of drops, and the drop fall speed. And bigger drops generate faster rainfall rates. An
increase drop diameter increases rate to the 3rd power So if diameter doubles, the rate
increases by 2^3 or factor of 8. (Measuring Precipitation: Radar and Satellite Based
Measurements, n.d.)
The relationship between Z and R varies depending on atmospheric conditions, so there isn’t
just one equation to apply. Z-R relationships are better understood for rain than snow. Both
hail and wet snow have high reflectivity relative to the Z-R relationship for rain. Z-R
relationships are checked against and corrected using point rain gauge measurements. This
increases their accuracy relative to a radar-only approach. (Measuring Precipitation: Radar
and Satellite Based Measurements, n.d.)
Once you’ve got an appropriate Z-R relationship, then rainfall amount is simply the rain rate
times the duration. Since radar scans occur every few minutes, radar rainfall measurements
can not only give total precipitation from a storm but also provide data on how intensity
varies within it. (Measuring Precipitation: Radar and Satellite Based Measurements, n.d.)

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Measurement of rainfall by satellite:

NASA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the GPM Core
Observatory satellite. The Core Satellite has 2 instruments:

1) GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) (amount, size, intensity and type of precipitation).
(Measuring Precipitation: Radar and Satellite Based Measurements, n.d.)

2) Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) (3D profiles and intensities of liquid and
solid precipitation). (Measuring Precipitation: Radar and Satellite Based
Measurements, n.d.)

The satellite orbits 407 km (253 miles) above the Earth, with an orbital duration of 93
minutes. That means that it makes about 16 orbits per day. Thus, the data isn’t as a
frequent as with ground-based radar, and its generally released. NASA offers the data at
multiple levels of processing, but the highest quality rainfall data product is released at 0.1
degree (lat/long) spatial resolution. (Measuring Precipitation: Radar and Satellite Based
Measurements, n.d.)

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 5) What are the parameters for defining rainfall?

The intensity of rainfall is graded according to the precipitation rate, which is dependent on
the time considered. To classify rainfall rate, the following categories are used:
Light rain — when the precipitation rate is < 2.5 mm (0.098 in) per hour
Moderate rain — when the precipitation rate is between 2.5 mm (0.098 in) - 7.6 mm (0.30
in) or 10 mm (0.39 in) per hour
Heavy rain — when the precipitation rate is > 7.6 mm (0.30 in) per hour or between 10 mm
(0.39 in) and 50 mm (2.0 in) per hour.
Violent rain — when the precipitation rate is > 50 mm (2.0 in) per hour.

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 6) Discuss the following methods for averaging rainfall.

a) Average depth method

This is the simplest method in which average depth of rainfall is obtained by obtaining the
sum of the depths of rainfall measured at stations and dividing the sum by total number of
stations. This method is suitable if the rain gauge stations are uniformly distributed over the
entire area and the rainfall variation in the area is not large. (Avantika, n.d.)

b) Thiessen Method

The Thiessen polygon is a commonly used methodology for computing the mean areal
precipitation for a catchment from rain gauge observations. The method is based on the
assumption that measured amounts at any station can be applied halfway to the next
station in any direction.
The weights of the rain gauges are computed by their relative areas, which are estimated
with the Thiessen polygon network. The polygons are formed by the perpendicular bisectors
of the lines joining nearby stations. The area of each polygon is used to weight the rainfall
amount of the station in the center of the polygon. If the amount for any station is missing,
the polygon must be changed. The Thiessen method is unable to consider orographic
differences in rainfall distributions. (Schumann, n.d.)

c) Kriging

d) Isohyetal method

The isohyetal technique is used by drawing lines of equal precipitation to estimate the mean
precipitation across a region. To yield accurate estimates, the method utilizes topographic
and other data. Isohyets are contours of equal precipitation on a topographic map
analogous to contour lines. Precipitation values are plotted on a suitable base map at their
respective stations in the isohyetal system, and isohyets are drawn to generate an isohyetal
map. Isohyetal lines are based on rain gauge station interpolations. It is presumed that
rainfall between two stations varies linearly while constructing isohyets, unless otherwise
stated by abrupt changes in topography. (Jain, Singh, 2005)

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 7) What is evaporation and the factors affecting it?

The method in which a liquid state of matter is converted into a gaseous state of matter is
termed evaporation. This process requires energy from heat.

The factors affecting evaporation are:

Temperature: The rate of evaporation increases as the temperature rises. Temperature and
rate of evaporation are proportional to each other.
Surface area: The rate of evaporation increases as the surface area increases. The area of
the surface and the evaporation rate are proportional to one another.
Humidity: With an increase in humidity, the rate of evaporation decreases. Humidity is
inversely proportional to the rate of evaporation.
Wind speed: Increased wind speed leads to more evaporation. Wind velocity and
evaporation rates are proportional to each other. (What Are The Factors Affecting
Evaporation?, n.d.)

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Reference

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94-015-9208-6_3

 Human Influences on the Water Cycle. (n.d.). Cool Geography. Retrieved November

12, 2020, from

http://www.coolgeography.co.uk/advanced/Human_Influences_Water_Cycle.php

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%20forms%20in%20the%20clouds,may%20freeze%20to%20form%20ice.

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orographic-lift

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http://meteorologytraining.tpub.com/14010/css/14010_56.htm

 RMetS. (2019, September 3). What is a hurricane?

https://www.rmets.org/resource/what-is-a-hurricane

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https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Convergence+Zones

 Measuring precipitation: radar and satellite based measurements. (n.d.). Dr. Anne

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https://all-geo.org/jefferson/measuring-precipitation-radar-and-satellite-based-

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%20relationship%20for%20rain.&text=Since%20radar%20scans%20occur

%20every,how%20intensity%20varies%20within%20it.

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%20closest%20gauge.

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