CE 425 – Engineering Hydrology

Reference: Engineering Hydrology by Linsley

3 units – 3 hours per week

Requirements and Grading System

Quizzes (4) 40%
Prelim Exam 20%
Final Exam 20%
Project 10%
Class Participation 10%
Recitation
Attendance
 ENGINEERING
HYDROLOGY

HYDROLOGY, CLIMATE
CHANGE, AND SUSTAINABILITY
HYDROLOGY
 the science that treats the waters of
the Earth, their occurrence,
circulation, and distribution, their
chemical and physical properties, and
their reaction with the environment,
including the relation to living things.
The domain of hydrology embraces
the full life history of water on Earth.
(US National Research Council, 1991)
 Hudor - “water”; Logy - “study of”
What happens to rain? (Penman,
1961)

Engineering aspect of hydrology:

Mainly concerned with quantifying
amounts of water at various
locations (spatially) as a function of
time (temporally) for subsurface
water (groundwater) and for surface
water applications.
Hydrologic Cycle – central focus of
Hydrology
What is it?

 The movement of water from the sea through

the air to the land and back to the sea
 Hydrologic Cycle

The constant movement of water and water

vapor between land, sea, and atmosphere
through evaporation, transpiration,
precipitation, overland flow, infiltration, and
groundwater.

The components of the hydrologic cycle are

quantified through the water balance equation

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 Condensation
Rainfall

Evapotranspiration Evaporation

Runoff Infiltration

Percolation
Well field

Groundwater
Outflow
Sea
Marine Water
Body

Hydrologic Cycle in a Typical Watershed RRR 2016

Precipitation

 The primary mechanism for transporting

water from the atmosphere to the surface of
the earth is precipitation.
 When the clouds meet cool air over land,

precipitation, in the form of rain, sleet or

snow, is triggered and water returns to the
land (or sea). A proportion of atmospheric
precipitation evaporates.
Evaporation
 Water is transferred from the surface to the
atmosphere through evaporation, the process
by which water changes from a liquid to a gas.
The sun’s heat provides energy to evaporate
water from the earth’s surface. Land, lakes,
rivers and oceans send up a steady stream of
water vapour and plants also lose water to the
air (transpiration).
 Approximately 80% of all evaporation is from
the oceans, with the remaining 20% coming
from inland water and vegetation.
Transport
 The movement of water through the atmosphere, specifically
from over the oceans to over land, is called transport. Some
of the earth’s moisture transport is visible as clouds, which
themselves consist of ice crystals and/or tiny water droplets.
 Clouds are propelled from one place to another by either the
jet stream, surface-based circulations like land and sea
breezes or other mechanisms. However, a typical cloud one
(1) km thick contains only enough water for a millimeter of
rainfall, whereas the amount of moisture in the atmosphere
is usually 10-50 times greater than this.
 Most water is transported in the form of water vapour, which
is actually the third most abundant gas in the atmosphere.
Water vapour may be invisible to us, but not to satellites
which are capable of collecting data about it.
Condensation

 The transported water vapour eventually

condenses, forming tiny droplets in clouds.
Infiltration
 Some of the precipitation soaks into the ground and this is the
main source of the formation of the waters found on land -
rivers, lakes, groundwater and glaciers.
 Some of the underground water is trapped between rock or clay
layers - this is called groundwater. Water that infiltrates the soil
flows downward until it encounters impermeable rock and then
travels laterally. The locations where water moves laterally are
called ‘aquifers’. Groundwater returns to the surface through
these aquifers, which empty into lakes, rivers and the oceans.
 Under special circumstances, groundwater can even flow
upward in artesian wells. The flow of groundwater is much
slower than run-off with speeds usually measured in
centimetres per day, metres per year or even centimetres per
year.
Run-off
 Most of the water which returns to land flows downhill as
run-off. Some of it penetrates and charges groundwater while
the rest becomes river flow. As the amount of groundwater
increases or decreases, the water table rises or falls
accordingly. When the entire area below the ground is
saturated, flooding occurs because all subsequent
precipitation is forced to remain on the surface.
 Different surfaces hold different amounts of water and absorb

water at different rates. As a surface becomes less permeable,

an increasing amount of water remains on the surface,
creating a greater potential for flooding. Flooding is very
common during winter and early spring because frozen
ground has no permeability, causing most rainwater and
meltwater to become run-off.
 Hydrologic Systems
 A structure or volume in space, surrounded by a
boundary, that accepts water and other inputs,
operates on them internally, produces them as
outputs.
 The most common working media involved in
hydrologic analysis are water, air and heat energy.
 The hydrologic cycle is an example of a hydrologic
system which is further subdivided into three-
atmospheric water system, surface water system
and groundwater system.
 A more simple example is the storm-rainfall-runoff
process on a watershed: INPUT is the rainfall
distributed in time and space over the watershed,
OUTPUT is streamflow at the watershed outlet and
the BOUNDARY is the watershed divide.
Surface water in the hydrologic
cycle

Drainage basins, catchments and watersheds

Three (3) synonymous terms

Land bounded by topographic highs or drainage divides

over which water flows across or through on its way to a
common stream, river, or lake

Basic hydrologic unit for surface water

RRR 2010
 Catchment

A
eam
St

r
St
re
am
B

Divide

Divide

Watershed and Catchment Delineation

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Delineation of a Watershed or Drainage Basin
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 Variation of Watershed Size
Source: US EPA Watershed Academy
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 Watershed Features

Geology – rocks, landforms, faults

Slope and terrain

Soil – clays, sands, silts, gravels

Drainage – various patterns

Vegetation – grass, shrubs, forests

Inhabitants/Man-made structures
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Groundwater in the hydrologic cycle
Climate change effects and the
Hydrologic Cycle
What is climate change?
 A change in climate that is attributed directly
or indirectly to human activity that alters the
composition of the global atmosphere and
that is in addition to natural climate
variability observed over comparative time
periods.
 Water Budget
Water Budget is the accounting or allocation of water to each of the
component of the hydrologic cycle.

The hydrologic continuity equation for any system is:

dS
I Q 
dt
where,

I = inflow in vol/time

Q = outflow in vol/time

dS/dt = change in storage in vol/time

Applying the continuity equation to a basin or watershed, for a
given period of time, the overall water budget, in units of depth
(mm or cm) over the watershed will be:

P  O  G  E  T  S
where,
P = precipitation
O = runoff or outflow
G = groundwater flow
E = evaporation
T = transpiration
DS = change in storage
Problem: (Bedient & Huber)
A watershed with an area of 2500 km2 received 130 cm of
precipitation in a given year. The average rate of flow measured in
a river draining the watershed was 30 m3/s. Estimate the amount of
water lost (in cm) due to the combined effects of evaporation,
transpiration, and infiltration to ground? What is the runoff
coefficient?
Given:
Area 2500 km2 2500000000 m2
Rainfall (P) 130 cm 1.3 m
Outflow (Q) 30 m3/s 30 m3/s
Time ( T) 1 yr 31536000 s

Assumption: No change in storage from t = 0 to t = 1yr.

Required: Water lost due to combined effects of E, T and I,

runoff (in cm), runoff coefficient.
Solution:
Water Balance Equation:

P-O-G-E-T = ΔS
P-O = G+E+T
 m 3  31,536,000 s 
1.3 m  30    (G  E  T )
2 
 s  2,500,000,000 m 

1.3m  0.378m  (G  E  T )

Runoff Coefficient, c = Runoff/Precipitation

c = O/P

c = 0.378 / 1.30 = 0.29

Seatwork No.1:

A reservoir with a constant surface area of 21.6 km2 has an

elevation of 207.6 m above (mean sea level) MSL at the
beginning of the week. However, the elevation measurement at
the end of the week is missing. Meteorological measurements
made at reservoir for the week indicate that the total precipitation
accumulation was 101.6 mm and the total evaporation was 72.2
mm. Also, hydrologic measurements made at reservoir indicate
that the average river inflow rate is 34.0 m3/s, and the average
outflow rate is 56.6 m3/s. Estimate the missing lake elevation at
the end of the week.