RECAP

WATER BUDGET EQUATION SAMPLE PROBLEM

• A river reach had a flood were passing through it. At a

given instant, the storage of water in the reach was
estimated as 15.5 Ha-m. What would be the storage in
the reach after an interval of 3 hours, if the average inflow
and outflow during the time period are 14.2 cubic meter
per second and 10.6 cubic meter per second,
respectively? (Ans. S = 193,880 cubic meter)

R (Net Surface Flow)=R2-R1 =S;

S=SO - S
S=SO - R2-R1
WATER BUDGET EQUATION SAMPLE PROBLEM
P=Precipitation
P E=Evaporation
T=Transpiration
Region A

Earth’s surface

R1
R=Surface Runoff
R2 G=Groundwater
Flow
Rg Eg Tg
Es Ts

Rg=Subsurface Flow
I=Infiltration
G1
I
S=Storage
Sg G2

s=Land Surface
g=Groundwater

Level of plastic rock

WATER BUDGET EQUATION SAMPLE PROBLEM

Water Budget in Land Surface

(P+R1+Rg)-(R2+Es+T s+I)=Ss (1)

Water Budget in Groundwater

(I+G1)-(G2+Rg+Eg+T g)=Sg (2)

P-(R2-R1)-(Es+Eg)-(T s+T g)-(G2-G1)= Ss+Sg *

*(1)+(2)
R (Net Surface Flow)=R2-R1
E (Net Evaporation) =E2+E1
T (Net Transpiration)=Ts+Tg
P-R-E-T-G=S
G (Net Groundwater Flow)=G2-G1
S= Ss+Sg
Definition
Measurement
Preparation of Data
Presentation of Rainfall Data
Mean Precipitation Calculation
(1) How is net radiation to the earth’s surface partitioned
into latent heat, sensible heat and ground heat flux and
how does this partitioning vary with location on the earth?
(2) What are the factors that govern the patterns of
atmospheric circulation over the earth?
(3) What are the key variables that describe atmospheric
water vapor and how are they connected?
(4) What causes precipitation to form and what are the
factors that govern the rate of precipitation?
(5) How is precipitation measured and described?
PRECIPITATION
PART OF HYDROLOGIC PROCESS IN WHICH WATER IN
AIR THAT WAS FORMED THROUGH CONDENSATION IS
HEAVY ENOUGH TO FALL BY MEANS OF
GRAVITATIONAL PULL
FORMS OF PRECIPITATION
• Rain
• Hail
• Snow
• Sleet
• Drizzle

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Rain
•-water drops of sizes larger
than 0.5mm. The size is 6mm

Type Intensity

Light rain Trace to 2.5 mm/h

Moderate rain 2.5mm/h to 7.5mm/h
Heavy rain >7.5mm/h.
Snow
ice crystals which usually
combine to form flakes

usual density of fresh snow:

0.6 to 0.159 g/cu.cm.

assumed density : 0.1

g/cu.cm
Drizzle
fine sprinkle of water droplets
of the size less than 0.5mm
and intensity less than
1mm/hr.

It appears to float in air.

Glaze
a freezing rain formed on ground
due to the low (0 degree
Celsius) temperature of ground
which coats the ground surface.
Sleet
frozen raindrops of
transparent grains as rainfalls
through the air at sub freezing
temperature

(In Britain: sleet denotes

precipitation of snow and rain
at the same time.)
Hail
showery precipitation in the
form of irregular pallets or
lumps of ice of size more than
8mm.

Occurs in violent
thunderstorms when vertical
currents are very strong.
USES OF PRECIPITATION DATA
 Runoff estimation analysis
 Groundwater recharge analysis
 Water balance studies of catchments
 Flood analysis for design of hydraulic structures
 Real-time flood forecasting
 low flow studies
Mechanism Producing Precipitation
• Three mechanisms are needed for formation of
precipitation:

Lifting and Cooling - Lifting of air mass to higher altitudes

causes cooling of air.
Condensation - conversion of water vapor into liquid
droplets.
Droplet Formation - Growth of droplets is required if the
liquid water present in a cloud is to reach ground against
the lifting mechanism of air.
LIFTING
THE MOVEMENT OF AIR MASS UPWARD IN ORDER
TO COOL AND CONDENSE
 TYPES OF LIFTING
• OROGRAPHIC
• FRONTAL
• CONVECTIVE

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DEFINITIONS
• Air mass : A large body of air with similar temperature
and moisture characteristics over its horizontal extent.
• Front: Boundary between contrasting air masses.
• Cold front: Leading edge of the cold air when it is
advancing towards warm air.
• Warm front: leading edge of the warm air when
advancing towards cold air.
Frontal Lifting
• Boundary between air masses with different properties is
called a front
• Cold front occurs when cold air advances towards warm air
• Warm front occurs when warm air overrides cold air

Cold front (produces cumulus cloud) Cold front (produces stratus cloud)
 Frontal or Depression rainfall

Occurs mainly in
winter in Britain but Water vapour
can occur any time Condenses to
of the year form clouds

Air cools down

Warm air Warm air rises

Cold air

Warm moisture laden air Further cooling leads

from the south meets cold to precipitation along
air from the north and the Warm Front
forms the Warm Front
Orographic lifting
Orographic uplift occurs when air is forced to rise because of the physical
presence of elevated land.
 Formation of Orographic Lifting

Occurs in the mountains

on the west coast of Water vapour
Britain Condenses to
form clouds
Further cooling
Air cools
leads to
down
Onshore precipitation
moisture laden
winds

Mountains on the west coast

of Britain forces the air to rise

2,000+ mm Under 750 mm

1,000 mm
Evaporation of
water from the
ocean
Convective lifting
Convective precipitation occurs when the air near the ground is heated by the
earth’s warm surface. This warm air rises, cools and creates precipitation.

Hot earth
surface
Convectional Rainfall

Water vapour
Further cooling
Condenses to
leads to heavy
form clouds
precipitation

Sun’s rays heat

up the ground

Air cools down

Warm air rises

Ground heats up the air

Precipitation formation
• Lifting cools air masses
so moisture condenses
• Condensation nuclei
• Aerosols
• water molecules
attach
• Rising & growing
• 0.5 cm/s sufficient to
carry 10 mm droplet
• Critical size (~0.1
mm)
• Gravity overcomes
and drop falls
Condensation
• Condensation is the change of water vapor into
a liquid. For condensation to occur, the air must
be at or near saturation in the presence of
condensation nuclei.
• Condensation nuclei are small particles or
aerosol upon which water vapor attaches to
initiate condensation. Dust particulates, sea salt,
sulfur and nitrogen oxide aerosols serve as
common condensation nuclei.
• Size of aerosols range from 10-3 to 10 mm.
Forces acting on rain drop
• Three forces acting on D

rain drop
• Gravity force due to weight Fb
Fd Fd
• Buoyancy force due to Fg
displacement of air
• Drag force due to friction Volume 

D3
with surrounding air 6

Area  D2
4
 
Fg   w g D 3
Fb   a g D 3

6 6

V2 2  V
2
Fd  Cd  a A  Cd  a D
2 4 2
 Terminal Velocity
• Terminal velocity: velocity at which the forces acting on the raindrop are in equilibrium.
• If released from rest, the raindrop will accelerate until it reaches its terminal velocity
 Fvert  0  FB  FD  W
D
  2V
2

 a g D  Cd  a
3
D  w g D 3
6 4 2 6
Fb
FD  FB  W
4 gD   w  Fd Fd
 V2   Vt    1
Cd  a D 2 t   a g D 3   w g D 3
4 2 6 6
3Cd   a  Fg

At standard atmospheric pressure (101.3 kpa) and temperature (20 oC),

w = 998 kg/m3 and a = 1.20 kg/m3 V

• Raindrops are spherical up to a diameter of 1 mm

• For tiny drops up to 0.1 mm diameter, the drag force is specified by
Stokes law
24  aVD
Cd  Re 
Re ma
Precipitation Variation
• Influenced by
• Atmospheric circulation and local factors
• Higher near coastlines
• Seasonal variation – annual oscillations in some places
• Variables in mountainous areas
• Increases in plains areas
• More uniform in Eastern US than in West
Rainfall patterns in the US
Global precipitation pattern
RAIN GAUGES
AN EQUIPMENT USED IN MEASURING THE DEPTH
OF RAINFALL
 TYPES OF RAIN GAUGES
1. NON-RECORDING
2. RECORDING
a) WEIGHING
b) FLOAT AND SIPHON
c) TIPPING BUCKET

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• 1. NON-RECORDING GAUGES

Water contained in the receiving vessel has a graduation

with an accuracy of 0.1 mm

12.7 cm (5.0 inch) diameter connected to funnel

H = 30.5 cm
• 2. RECORDING GAUGES

Produce a continuous plot

of rainfall against time and
provide valuable data of
intensity and duration of
rainfall for hydrological
analysis of storms
• SOME FORMS OF THE RECORDING GAUGES

1. Tipping Bucket Type

2. Weighing Type

3. Natural Siphon Type

AVERAGE RAINFALL IN AN AREA
ARITHMETIC MEAN METHOD

P1 = 10 mm P1
P2 = 20 mm
P3 = 30 mm P2
N
1
P
N
P
i 1
i
P3
10  20  30
P  20 mm
3
• Gages must be uniformly distributed
• Gage measurements should not vary greatly about the mean
THIESSEN POLYGON METHOD
• Any point in the watershed receives the same amount of
rainfall as that at the nearest gage
• Rainfall recorded at a gage can be applied to any point at
P1
a distance halfway to the next station in any direction
A1
• Steps in Thiessen polygon method
1. Draw lines joining adjacent gages P2
2. Draw perpendicular bisectors to the lines created in
step 1 A2
3. Extend the lines created in step 2 in both directions to
form representative areas for gages P3
4. Compute representative area for each gage A3
5. Compute the areal average using the following
formula
P1 = 10 mm, A1 = 12 Km2
1 N 12 10  15  20  20  30
P   Ai Pi P  20.7 mm P2 = 20 mm, A2 = 15 Km2
A i 1 47
P3 = 30 mm, A3 = 20 km2
ISOHYETAL METHOD

• Steps
• Construct isohyets (rainfall 10
contours)
• Compute area between each pair 20
of adjacent isohyets (Ai) P1
• Compute average precipitation for
each pair of adjacent isohyets (p i) A2=18 , p2 = 15 A1=5 , p1 = 5
• Compute areal average using the P2
following formula
A3=12 , p3 = 25

1 N
P   Ai Pi P3
A i 1 30 A4=12 , p3 = 35

M
5  5  18 15  12  25  12  35
P   Ai pi P  21.6 mm
i 1 47
INVERSE DISTANCE WEIGHING

• Prediction at a point is more

influenced by nearby measurements P1=10
than that by distant measurements
• The prediction at an ungaged point is
inversely proportional to the distance P2= 20 d1=25
to the measurement points
d2=15 P3=30
• Steps
– Compute distance (di) from ungaged
d3=10
point to all measurement points.
p
d12  x1  x2    y1  y2 
2 2

– Compute the precipitation at the N  Pi 

ungaged point using the following   2
 
i 1  d i 
10 20 30
 2 2
ˆ
P
2
formula
N 
Pˆ  25 15 10  25.24 mm
1  1 1 1
  2
i 1  d i 
 
252 152 102
ADEQUACY OF RAIN GAUGES IN AN AREA
Quantify the optimal number of stations for a catchment
based on the annual rainfall data. (CO 3, CO4)
SAMPLE PROBLEM

A catchment has six main gauge stations. In a year, the annual rainfall
recorded by the gauges are as follows
Station A B C D E F
Rainfall (cm) 82.6 102.9 180.3 110.3 98.8 136.7

For a 10% error in the estimation of the mean rainfall, calculate the
optimum number of stations in the catchment.
REPRESENTATIONS OF RAINFALL
SPATIAL REPRESENTATION
TEMPORAL REPRESENTATION
SPATIAL REPRESENTATION

• Isohyet – contour of constant rainfall

• Isohyetal maps are prepared by interpolating rainfall data
at gaged points.
TEMPORAL REPRESENTATION

1. Rainfall hyetograph – plot of rainfall depth or intensity as a

function of time
2. Cumulative rainfall hyetograph or rainfall mass curve – plot of
summation of rainfall increments as a function of time
3. Rainfall intensity – depth of rainfall per unit time
RAINFALL HYETOGRAPH
SAMPLE PROBLEM

PLOT THE HYETOGRAPH GIVEN THE DATA BELOW:

TIME (MIN) Cumulative Rainfall (mm)

0 0
5 1
10 5
15 6
RAINFALL HYETOGRAPH
TIME (MIN) Cumulative Rainfall (mm) Intensity (mm/h)
0 0 0
5 1 12
10 5 30
15 6 24

35
30
Intensity (mm/h)

25
20
15
10
5
0
0 5 10 15
Time (h)
CUMULATIVE RAINFALL HYETOGRAPH OR RAINFALL MASS CURVE
SAMPLE PROBLEM
PLOT THE MASS CURVE
GIVEN THE DATA
CUMULATIVE RAINFALL HYETOGRAPH OR RAINFALL MASS CURVE
PLOT THE MASS CURVE Time (min) Rainfall (in) Cumulative
Running Totals
30 min 1h 2h

GIVEN THE DATA 0

Rainfall (in)
0
5 0.02 0.02
10 0.34 0.36
15 0.1 0.46
20 0.04 0.5
25 0.19 0.69
30 0.48 1.17 1.17
35 0.5 1.67 1.65
40 0.5 2.17 1.81
45 0.51 2.68 2.22
50 0.16 2.84 2.34
55 0.31 3.15 2.46
60 0.66 3.81 2.64 3.81
65 0.36 4.17 2.5 4.15
70 0.39 4.56 2.39 4.2
75 0.36 4.92 2.24 4.46
80 0.54 5.46 2.62 4.96
85 0.76 6.22 3.07 5.53
90 0.51 6.73 2.92 5.56
95 0.44 7.17 3 5.5
100 0.25 7.42 2.86 5.25
105 0.25 7.67 2.75 4.99
110 0.22 7.89 2.43 5.05
115 0.15 8.04 1.82 4.89
120 0.09 8.13 1.4 4.32 8.13
125 0.09 8.22 1.05 4.05 8.2
130 0.12 8.34 0.92 3.78 7.98
135 0.03 8.37 0.7 3.45 7.91
140 0.01 8.38 0.49 2.92 7.88
145 0.02 8.4 0.36 2.18 7.71
150 0.01 8.41 0.28 1.68 7.24
Max. Depth 0.76 3.07 5.56 8.2
Max. Intensity 9.12364946 6.14 5.56 4.1
CUMULATIVE RAINFALL HYETOGRAPH OR RAINFALL MASS CURVE
PLOT THE MASS CURVE
GIVEN THE DATA

10

7
Cumulative Rainfall (in.)

4 3.07 in
8.2 in
3 30 min
2 5.56 in

1 1 hr

0 2 hr
0 30 60 90 120 150
Time (min.)
RAINFALL INTENSITY

𝑃
𝑖=
𝑇𝑑

Where:
P – depth of precipitation (mm or in)
Td- duration (usually in hours)
RAINFALL INTENSITY

Determine the design precipitation intensity and depth for a

20-minute duration storm with a 5-year return period in
Chicago.
RAINFALL INTENSITY

From the IDF

(Intensity-Duration-
Frequency) curve for
Chicago,
i = 3.5 in/hr for Td = 20
min and T = 5yr

P = i x Td = 3.5 x 20/60
= 1.17 in
RAINFALL INTENSITY
RAINFALL INTENSITY

Analysis of data on maximum one day rainfall depth at Madra indicated

that a depth 280 mm had a return period of 50 years. Determine the
probability of a one day rainfall depth = , or, greater than 280 mm at
Madra occurring

• Once in 20 successive years

20! 1 1 1
• 𝑃1,20 = (1 − )20−1 = 0.272
20−1 !1! 50 50
NEXT WEEK: PROBLEM
EXERCISES