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B. Meteorological Factors Affecting Runoff

This document discusses factors that affect river runoff and why rivers generally become wider and deeper downstream. It identifies two main types of rivers - effluent and influent. Effluent rivers gain water from groundwater sources as they flow downstream, causing increased discharge, width, and depth. Influent rivers are more common in arid areas and may lose water over time from seepage, evaporation, and plant/animal use, resulting in little change or even decreases in downstream discharge, width, and depth. Key differences between the two types relate to location, surrounding water table levels, and how flow volume changes as they progress toward their outlets.

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331 views

B. Meteorological Factors Affecting Runoff

This document discusses factors that affect river runoff and why rivers generally become wider and deeper downstream. It identifies two main types of rivers - effluent and influent. Effluent rivers gain water from groundwater sources as they flow downstream, causing increased discharge, width, and depth. Influent rivers are more common in arid areas and may lose water over time from seepage, evaporation, and plant/animal use, resulting in little change or even decreases in downstream discharge, width, and depth. Key differences between the two types relate to location, surrounding water table levels, and how flow volume changes as they progress toward their outlets.

Uploaded by

አድሜ ልስልሱ
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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b.

Meteorological factors affecting runoff:

 Type of precipitation (rain, snow, sleet, etc.)


 Rainfall intensity
 Rainfall amount
 Rainfall duration
 Distribution of rainfall over the watersheds
 Direction of storm movement
 Antecedent precipitation and resulting soil moisture
 Other meteorological and climatic conditions that affect evapotranspiration, such as
temperature, wind, relative humidity, and season.

Physical characteristics affecting runoff:

 Land use
 Vegetation
 Soil type
 Drainage area
 Basin shape
 Elevation
 Slope
 Topography
 Direction of orientation
 Drainage network patterns
 Ponds, lakes, reservoirs, sinks, etc. in the basin, which prevent or alter runoff from continuing
downstream
d.Why do rivers become wider and deeper downstream?
There are two fundamentally different types of rivers, related to how they interact
with the groundwater system. Effluent rivers are streams which get their water from
the groundwater. The surface of the stream directly relates to the surface of the
groundwater (called the water table), and the stream will rise and fall as the water
table rises and falls. Effluent streams are common in temperate to tropical climates,
and generally become both wider and deeper downstream due to increased discharge:
the continual addition of water from tributary streams (and their groundwater
sources). Effluent streams also commonly run year round, again because of their
relationship to the groundwater. Good examples of effluent streams would be the
Mississippi River, the Amazon, and the Columbia here in the Pacific Northwest. In
nearly every case effluent streams end up at the beach, and, in keeping with the Third
Law of GeoFantasy, are responsible for delivering the flotsam and jetsam of the earth
to the ocean.

The second type of stream is called an influent stream.These are far less common,
and are most commonly found in arid climates. Influent streams do not usually get
deeper and wider downstream. In fact, most actually lose water as they flow towards
their ultimate destiny. There can be several reasons for the loss of water. Seepage into
the ground (adding water to the groundwater system), evaporation, and use by plants
and animals are common causes of discharge reduction. Some actually lose so much
water that they dry up completely and never make it to the ocean at all. Good
examples of influent streams include the Nile, and the Colorado River in the
southwestern United States.

Differences Between Effluent and Influent Streams


Location
Effluent river systems are found mainly in tropical and temperate climates,
while influent streams are found in arid areas. The tropical regions have
surrounding hydrological systems, and the ground gets water from the
surrounding lakes and bigger rivers. Due to the harsh climatic conditions in
arid areas, influent streams lose a significant amount of water through
evaporation. Losing rivers are also found in places with karst topography,
where the underlying cave system captures water and ends up creating a
subterranean river.
Height of the Surrounding Water Table
Effluent rivers receive water from the ground through their streambeds, and
for groundwater to be discharged into the river, the height of the surrounding
water table must be higher than the streambed’s elevation. The height of the
streambeds of influent streams is usually higher than the altitude of the
surrounding water table.

Flow Volume
An effluent stream receives water from the ground, and therefore it expands
downstream by becoming deeper and broader. Influent streams are in arid
areas and lose a lot of water through evaporation and seepage into the
ground. The majority of effluent streams drain their water into the ocean, often
carrying most of their sediments into the sea. Most influent rivers lose all of
their water, drying up before even entering the sea
e. METHODS OF DISCHARGE MEASUREMENTS Volumetric and weight
method -the most precise but:only for relatively small discharges (necessary
volume of tank), mainly for calibration of flow meters Pipe flow meters based
on flow contraction
−orifice meter –the simplest, small
f. Runoff, in hydrology, quantity of water discharged in surface
streams. Runoff includes not only the waters that travel over the land
surface and through channels to reach a stream but also interflow, the
water that infiltrates the soil surface and travels by means of gravity
toward a stream channel (always above the main groundwater level)
and eventually empties into the channel
Gauging station, site on a stream, canal, lake, or reservoir where
systematic observations of gauge height (water level) or discharge are
obtained
The peak of the outflow hydrograph will be smaller than of the inflow hydrograph. This reduction
in the peak value is called attenuation.

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