HYDROLOGY

Prepared By:
Md. Raquibul Hasan Rajib
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Civil Engineering
PUST

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 HYDROLOGY
The study of water, including rain, snow and water
on the earth’s surface, covering its properties,
distribution, utilisation, etc.
(Chambers Science and Technology Dictionary)

The study of water in all its forms, and from its

origins to all its destinations on the earth.
(Bras, 1990)

The science dealing with the waters of the earth,

their occurrence, distribution and circulation, their
chemical and physical properties, and their
interaction with the environment.
hydro.logy (Ward & Robinson, 1999)
The term hydrology is from Greek: hydōr, "water";
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and, logos, "study".
 Main Branches
HYDROLOGY

Surface Water Ground Water

Hydrology Hydrology
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 Scope of Hydrology
• Water is one the most valuable natural resources essential
for human and animal life, industry and agriculture.

• It is also used for power generation, navigation and

fisheries.

• Tremendous importance is given to the hydrology all over

the world in the development and management of water
resources for irrigation, water supply, flood control,
water-logging and salinity control, Hydro power and
navigation.

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 Engineering Hydrology

• It uses hydrologic principles in the solution of

engineering problems arising from human exploitation of
water resources of the earth.

• 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.

• Hydrologic calculations are estimates because mostly the

empirical and approximate nature of methods are used to
describe various hydrological processes.

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 Uses of Engineering Hydrology
Engineering Hydrology seeks to answer questions of the following types:

• What is the maximum probable flood at a proposed dam site?

• How does a catchment’s water yield vary from season to season and from year to
year?

• What is the relationship between a catchment’s surface water and groundwater

resources?

• What flood flows can be expected over a spillway, at a highway culvert, or in an

urban storm drainage system?

• What reservoir capacity is required to assure adequate water for irrigation or

municipal water supply in droughts condition?

• What hydrologic hardware (e.g. rain gauges, stream gauges etc) and software
(computer models) are needed for real-time flood forecasting?
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HYDROLOGY | applications
Assessing impacts
of natural and
Determining the
human induced water balance
environmental
change on water for a region
Designing resources
irrigation
schemes
Designin
g
drainage Designin
systems g
Urban
drinking Determining
water agricultural
Assessing water balance
export of and
sediment & sewer
Predicting
nutrients systems
floods
from fields
to water
systems

Designing buffers
 Major Aspects of Hydrology
The main jobs of a hydrologist are collection and analysis of
data, and making prediction out of this data.
1. Collection of Data: The hydrologic data comprises:
Rainfall data, snowfall and snowmelt data, runoff data,
topographic maps, groundwater data.
2. Analysis of Data
Analysis of hydrologic data includes checking it for
consistency and homogeneity as well as finding its various
statistical parameters.
3. Prediction
Means to find design values and maximum possible events
(rainfall, floods, droughts). Various approaches used are:
Statistical, Physical, Deterministic 8
ARID
SEMI-ARID
NATIVE PRAIRIE
RAINFORESTS
 HYDROLOGIC CYCLE
• The hydrologic cycle describes the continues re-circulating
transport of the waters of the earth, linking atmosphere, land and
oceans.

• To explain it briefly, water evaporates from the ocean surface,

driven by energy from the Sun, and joins the atmosphere,
moving inland as clouds. Once inland, atmospheric conditions
act to condense and precipitate water onto the land surface,
where, driven by gravitational forces, it returns to the ocean
through river and streams.

• The process is quite complex, containing many sub-cycles.

• Engineering Hydrology takes a quantitative view of the

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hydrologic cycle.
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 Hydrological Processes
• Precipitation
• Interception
• Evaporation
• Transpiration
• Infiltration
• Overland flow
• Surface Runoff
• Groundwater outflow

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HYDROLOGY | the hydrologic cycle

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Transpiration
Evaporation
Infiltration
Condensation
2
Runoff
Precipitation
4
Subsurface flow

5 1
6
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 Hydrologic Equation

• The quantification of the hydrologic cycle which is an

open system, can be represented by a mass balance
equation, where inputs minus outputs are equal to the
change in storage.
I - O = DS
• The water holding elements of the hydrological cycle are:
1. Atmosphere 2. Vegetation
3. Snow packs 4. Land surface
5. Soil 6. Streams, lakes and rivers
7. Aquifers 8 Oceans

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 Water Balance Components
Inflow:
1. Precipitation
2. Import defined as water channeled into a given area.
3. Groundwater inflow from adjoining areas.

Outflow:
1. Surface runoff outflow
2. Export defined as water channeled out of the same area.
3. Evaporation
4. Transpiration
5. Interception

Change in Storage: This occurs as change in:

1. Groundwater
2. Soil moisture
3. Surface reservoir water and depression storage

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 Global Hydrologic Cycle

• The global hydrologic cycle can be represented as a system

containing three subsystems:
the atmospheric water system,
the surface water system, and
the subsurface water system.

• Block-diagram (flow chart) representation of GHC is shown

in Figure#1.

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 Precipitation Evaporation
Atmospheric Water

Interception 

Transpiration

Runoff to streams
Surface
Water

Overland flow Surface runoff and ocean


Subsurface Water

Infiltration Subsurface flow

Groundwater Groundwater
recharge flow

Block-diagram representation of the global hydrologic system (Chow et al. 1988).

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 Moi sture over land39

Precipitation
Precipitation on ocean
on l and 385
100
Evapotranspi ration
from l and
61

Infiltration Evaporation
Sur face from ocean
flow
424
Surface outfl ow 38
Groundw ater flow
Groundw ater
outfl ow
1

Global Water Balance of

The hydrological cycle
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 Global Water Balance
In the atmosphere:
Precipitation (P) = Evapotranspiration (ET)
100+385 = 61+424

On land:
P = Evapotranspiration (ET) + Surface runoff (R) +
Groundwater outflow
100 = 61 + 38 + 1

Over oceans and seas:

Ocean precipitation + Surface runoff + Groundwater
outflow = Evaporation (E)
385 + 38 + 1 = 424

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 Table 1. Estimated Distribution of World's Water.

Component Volume 1000 km3 % of Total Water

Atmospheric water 13 0.001

Surface Water
Salt Water in Oceans 1320000 97.2
Salt water in lakes & inland seas 104 0.008
Fresh water in lakes 125 0.009
Fresh water in stream channels 1.25 0.0001
Fresh water in glaciers and icecaps 29000 2.15
Water in the biomass 50 0.004

Subsurface water
Vadose water 67 0.005
G/W within depth of 0.8 km 4200 0.31
G/W between 0.8 and 4 km depth 4200 0.31

Total (rounded) 1360000 100

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 Catchment and Basin
A catchment is a portion of the earth’s surface that collects
runoff and concentrates it at its furthest downstream point,
referred to as the catchment outlet.

The runoff concentrated by a catchment flows either into a

larger catchment or into the ocean.

The place where a stream enters a larger stream or body of

water is referred to as the mouth.

The terms watershed and basin are commonly used to refer

to catchments. Generally, watershed is used to describe a
small catchment (stream watershed), whereas basin is
reserved for large catchments (river basins).
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HYDROLOGY | watershed | definition

“A watershed is an extent or an
area of land here surface
water from rain and melting
snow or ice converges to a single
point, usually the exit of the basin,
where the waters join another water
body, such as river, lake, reservoir,
wetland, sea, or ocean”

Also known as:

• Catchment
• Catchment area
• Catchment basin
• Drainage area
• River basin
• Water basin
HYDROLOGY | watershed | characteristic factors
Topography
Topography determines the speed with which the runoff will reach a
river. Clearly rain that falls in steep mountainous areas will reach the
river faster than flat or gently sloping areas.

Shape
Shape will contribute to the speed with which the runoff reaches a river.
A long thin catchment will take longer to drain than a circular
catchment.

Size
Size will help determine the amount of water reaching the river, as the
larger the catchment the greater the potential for flooding.

Soil type
Soil type will help determine how much water reaches the river.
Sandy soils are very free draining and rainfall on sandy soil is likely
to be absorbed by the ground.
Clayey soils can be almost impermeable and therefore rainfall on clay
soils will runoff and contribute to flood volumes.

Land use
Land use can contribute to the volume of water reaching the river, in a
similar way to clay soils. For example, rainfall on
roofs, pavements and roads will be collected by rivers with almost no
absorption into the groundwater.
 Regional Water Balance (Water Budget)
Precipitation (P) Evapotranspiration (ET)

Surface
runoff (R)

Infiltration (F)

A mass balance over time from t = 0 to T, i.e.

Inputs - Outputs = Change in Storage
P - (R+ET+F) = ΔS

All terms in the hydrologic equation should be in the same units.

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Schematic representation of the mass balance equation

Precipitation (P) Evapotranspiration (ET)

Time t = T
Time t = 0
Change in storage (DS) Surface runoff (R)

Storage (S)

Infiltration (F)

DS = P - (R + F + ET)
DS = +ve if P > (R + F + ET)
DS = -ve if P < (R + F + ET)
DS = 0 if P = (R + F + ET)
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Problem #1

In a given year, a catchment with an area of 2500 km2 received

1.3 m of precipitation. The average rate of flow measured in a
river draining the catchment was 30 m3s-1.

(i). How much total river runoff occurred in the year (in m3)?

(ii). What is the runoff coefficient?

(iii).How much water is lost due to the combined effects of

evaporation, transpiration, and infiltration. (Express in m).

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 Problem #1

Solution

(i). Total runoff volume

= number of seconds in a year  average flow rate
= 31 536 000  30
= 9.4608108 m3

(ii). Runoff coefficient

= runoff volume/ precipitation volume
= (9.4608108) / (1.3  2500  106)
= 0.29 (29 %)

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 Problem #1
(iii). The water balance equation can be arranged to produce:

ET+F= P - R - ΔS
where:
P = (1.3  2500106)
= 3.25109 m3

R = 9.4608108 m3 (from [i])

ΔS = 0 (i.e. no change in storage)

So,
ET + F = 3.25109 - 9.4608108
= 2.30392109 m3

= (2.30392109) / (2500106)
= 0.92 m 33
Problem #2
Water at a constant rate of 370 cumec was observed to be entering
into Tarbela Reservoir in a certain season. If outflow from the
reservoir including infiltration and evaporation losses is 280 cumec,
find out the change in storage of reservoir for 10 days. Also convert
your answer into Hectare-meter.

I = 370 cumec O = 280 cumec

∆t = 10 days = 10 x 24 x 3600 = 864,000 sec
∆S = ?
According to water balance equation
∆S/∆t = I – O = 370 – 280 = 90 cumec
Total change in storage = ∆S = 90 x 864,000 = 7776000 m3
= 7776000/10000 = 777.6 hectare-m
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Problem #3
In a given year, a catchment with an area of 1750 km2 received 1250
mm of precipitation. The average rate of flow measured in a river
draining the catchment was 25 m3s-1.

(i). Calculate how much total river runoff occurred in the year
(in m3).

(ii).Calculate the runoff coefficient. What is the percentage

runoff ?
Area of the catchment = 1750 km2 = 1750 x 10^6 m2
Flow rate in the river = 25 m3/s
Precipitation received = 1250 mm = 1.25 m

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 Problem #3

Solution:

Total annual precipitation = (1.25) x (1750 x 10^6)

= 2187.5 x 10^6 m3

Flow rate during the year = 2187.5 x 10^6 / (365 x 24 x 60 x 60)

= 69.36 m3/s

Runoff Coefficient = Actual flow in river / Total

precipitation occurred
= 25 / 69.36
= 0.36

Percentage of flow = 0.36 x 100 = 36%

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