A watershed or catchment basin is a

contiguous area that drains to a common

outlet. It is the area around a stream that
actually sends water into the stream.
 The drainage divide is the locus of points that separates adjacent
watersheds.

Perhaps the most easily recognized divide in the US is the Continental Divide.
On one side, water eventually ends up in the Pacific, and on the other, the Atlantic.
 On the left is the westernmost
subwatershed of the Great
Swamp watershed.
Millington
Gauge
 Some symbols

Water falls onto the earth’s surface as rain or snow, marked P for
precipitation. Some of the surface water Evaporates (E) or is transpired
(T) by plants to the gas phase “Water Vapor”, and returns to the
atmosphere. Some of it soaks into the ground, a process called
infiltration (F), and becomes a part of groundwater (G), our major source
of drinking water. The rest becomes runoff (R), and eventually most of
that gets to the sea.
Storm Water Component
Sequence
 Interception (part of Evap., E)
• LOSS: Interception loss is that part of the precipitation that falls on plants and doesn't reach
the ground. It evaporates (or sublimates) from leaves, near-ground plants and leaf litter or, to a
lesser extent, is absorbed by plants
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2006/2006-01-16-02.asp
Kenya’s Deforestation

The Mau in 2006, which once contained huge trees

 Kenya’s Drought

Njoro River, 2009

• Karura Forest replanting efforts, 2010

It will take 200 years to restore the forest

 Depression Storage (S)
• http://www.gohydrology.org/2010_09_01_archive.html

Detention storage eventually returns water downstream, as here.

Retention storage holds the water, as in a reservoir.

Storage is very important for flood control. Examples range from huge
natural systems such as the everglades and the Mississippi River’s
floodplain, to small storm sewer systems with artificial storage ponds.

Very gradual slope

Slow runoff
 Building on Detention Storage
• Unfortunately, many cities allow construction
on floodplains, which used to provide natural
detention storage. Detention storage should
hold storm water, and release it slowly,
avoiding floods. Instead:

The Mississippi floodplain

at New Orleans after Katrina

Our Florida storm room

Katrina: don’t forget the axe.

 Interflow and Base Flow

Interflow may reach the surface

prior to the stream channel
Baseflow is saturated zone water that flows into
the channel. The stream runs even when it hasn’t been raining.
Overland Flow, Sheetflow, early
Runoff (R)

• Intense rainfall, and rain after infiltration

slows, runs to the streams
 Streamflow, late
Runoff (R)
• Factors that determine velocity
–Gradient, or slope
–Channel characteristics including
shape, size, and roughness
–Discharge – the volume of water
moving past a given point in a
certain amount of time, i.e a
FLOWRATE Q=VA
–units volume/time
Infiltration (F) into Groundwater (G)
• Infiltration (symbol F) is controlled by
– Intensity and duration of rainfall
– Soil texture
– Slope of the land
– Nature of the vegetative cover

– Water can spread nearly

horizontally in the zone of aeration
(interflow) or can move downward
into the zone of saturation.
 Soil Moisture (part of infiltr. F) Interflow portion
may return to surface runoff. Remainder descends into
the groundwater
• Liquid water in pore spaces of upper zone of aeration
http://wwwbrr.cr.usgs.gov/projects/GW_Unsat/Unsat_Zone_Book/

http://ipy.arcticportal.org/ipy-blogs/item/1632
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/mbrfc/?n=msi
• Watershed Component
1. Watershed boundary,
2. Stream network,
3. Watershed soils/land ,and
4. Land use system.
• Boundary
• Stream order
• Stream network
 Watershed Morphology
• Stream order
• Stream number
• Stream Length
• Stream Area
• Stream Slope
• Drainage Density
• Stream Frequency
• Relief Ratio
• Relative relief
 Definitions and Terminologies
• Infiltration:
– The entry of water into the soil, generally by downward flow.
• Infiltration Rate (i):
– The amount of water entering the soil per unit time.
• Basic Infiltration Rate:
– The rate at which infiltration becomes constant is called as basic
infiltration rate. It is also called as constant infiltration rate and
upon type of soil.
• Infiltration Capacity (Infiltrability):
– The amount of water per unit time which a given soil profile takes in through
its surface when it is continued in contact with water at the atmospheric
pressure.
The infiltrating water
firstly increases the soil
moisture and the
remaining part moves
into the deeper parts of
the earth, joining the
groundwater
(percolation)
 Gravity force is influential before this
point

The time rate of change of water content

is zero. This point is Field Capacity.

If a soil is saturated and then allowed to drain, its water content of soil decrease
indefinitely in a quasi-exponential manner

Field capacity: is the water-content at which the gravity-drainage rate becomes “negligible.” The
field capacity is thus a measure of the water content that can be held against the force of gravity.
Measurement of Infiltiration

Infiltration is measured with a ring infiltrometer, which is a ring about 2 ft in diameter, driven into the soil. Water is placed in the ring and rate of infiltration is
measured by the drop in the water level. Infiltration rate is one of the most difficult hydrologic parameters to measure. Because water and soil conditions are
extremly variable both in time and in space, which can effect the measured rate.

A ring infiltrometer