1.

Basic Hydrology Concept

1.1. Introduction
• Water is vital for all living organisms on Earth.
• For centuries, people have been investigating where
water comes from and where it goes, why some of it is
salty and some is fresh, why sometimes there is not
enough and sometimes too much. All questions and
answers related to water have been grouped together
into a discipline.
• The name of the discipline is hydrology and is formed by
two Greek words: "hydro" and "logos" meaning "water"
and "science".
• What is Hydrology?
• It is a science of water.
• It is the science that deals with the occurrence, circulation
and distribution of water of the earth and earth’s
atmosphere.

• A good understanding of the hydrologic processes is

important for the assessment of the water resources,
their management and conservation on global and
regional scales.
• In general sense engineering hydrology
deals with
• Estimation of water resources
• The study of processes such as precipitation,
evapotranspiration, runoff and their
interaction
• The study of problems such as floods and
droughts and strategies to combat them
1.2 Hydrologic Cycle

• Water exists on the earth in all its three states, viz.

liquid, solid, gaseous and in various degrees of
motion.
 Hydrologic cycle….

• Water, irrespective of different states, involves

dynamic aspect in nature.
• The dynamic nature of water, the existence of
water in various state with different hydrological
process result in a very important natural
phenomenon called Hydrologic cycle.
 Blue & Green Water - perspective
Precipitation – the basic water resource

GW

GW
GW

GW

GW

Adapted from: GWP (M. Falkenmark), 2003, Water Management and Ecosystems: Living with Change
6
 Blue & Green Water - perspective
Precipitation – the basic water resource

GW

GW
GW

GW

GW

Adapted from: GWP (M. Falkenmark), 2003, Water Management and Ecosystems: Living with Change
7
 Hydrologic cycle….
• Evaporation of water from water bodies, such as oceans
and lakes, formation and movement of clouds, rain and
snowfall, stream flow and ground water movement are
some examples of the dynamic aspects of water.
Hydrologic cycle….
• Evaporation from
water bodies
• Water vapour moves
upwards
• Cloud formation
• Condensation
• Precipitate
• Interception
• Transpiration
• Infiltration
• Runoff–streamflow
• Deep percolation
• Ground water flow
 Hydrologic cycle….
• The hydrologic cycle has importance influence in a
variety of fields agriculture, forestry, geography,
economics, sociology, and political scene.
• Engineering application of the knowledge are found in
the design and operation of the projects dealing with
water supply, hydropower, irrigation & drainage, flood
control, navigation, coastal work, various hydraulic
structure works, salinity control and recreational use of
water.
 1.3 Water Budget Equation
Catchment area

• The area of land draining in to a stream or a water

course at a given location is called catchment area
/ drainage area / drainage basin / watershed.
• A catchment area is separated from its
neighbouring areas by a ridge called divide /
watershed.
 1.3 Water Budget Equation
Catchment area….
• A watershed is a geographical unit in which the
hydrological cycle and its components can be
analysed. The equation is applied in the form of
water-balance equation to a geographical region,
in order to establish the basic hydrologic
characteristics of the region. Usually a watershed
is defined as the area that appears, on the basis of
topography, to contribute all the water that passes
through a given cross section of a stream.
 Watershed and watershed divide

Watershed/
catchment
Watershed/
catchment
 Catchment area….
• If a permeable soil covers an impermeable substrate, the
topographical division of watershed will not always
correspond to the line that is effectively delimiting the
groundwater.
Watershed characteristics
Water Budget Equation

• For a given catchment, in an interval of time ∆t, the

continuity equation for water in its various phases can
be given as:
Mass inflow – Mass outflow = change in mass storage
• If the density of the inflow, outflow and storage
volumes are the same:

i  o  S
Vi - Inflow volume in to the catchment, Vo - Outflow volume from
the catchment and ∆S - change in the water volume
 Water Budget Equation…

• Therefore, the water budget of a catchment for a time

interval ∆t is written as:
P – R – G – E – T = ∆S
P = Precipitation, R = Surface runoff, G = net ground water flow out of the
catchment, E = Evaporation, T = Transpiration, and ∆S = change in storage
• The above equation is called the water budget equation
for a catchment

NOTE: All the terms in the equation have the dimension of

volume and these terms can be expressed as depth over the
catchment area.
 Components of hydrologic cycle

Evapo transpiration
Precipitation

Stream flow

(Runoff)

Inter flow
Infiltration

Base flow

Groundwater flow
1.3 World Water Budget
• Total quantity of water in the world is
estimated as 1386 M km3
• 1337.5 M km3 of water is contained in
oceans as saline water
• The rest 48.5 M km3 is land water
• 13.8 M km3 is again saline
• 34.7 M km3 is fresh water
• 10.6 M km3 is both liquid and fresh
• 24.1 M km3 is a frozen ice and glaciers in the polar
regions and mountain tops
Estimated World Water Quantitites
96%

2% 1% Ocean-saline
1% Land - saline
Fresh - Liquid
Fresh - Frozen
 Global annual water balance
SN Item Ocean Land
1 Area (km2) 361.3 148.8
2 Precipitation (km3/year) 458,000 119,000
(mm/year) 1270 800
3 Evaporation (km3/year) 505,000 72,000
(mm/year) 1400 484
4 Runoff to ocean
Rivers (km3/year) 44,700
Groundwater (km3/year) 2,200
Total Runoff (km3/year) 47,000
(mm/year) 316
 Water Balance of Continents
Area (M km^2)

50
45
40
30.3
30
20.7
20 17.8
8.7 9.8
10

0
Africa Asia Australia Europe N.Am erica S.Am erica

Precipitation (mm/yr)

2000
1648
1500

1000 736 734

686 726 670
500

0
Africa Asia Australia Europe N.Am erica S.Am erica
 Water Balance …….
Precipitation (mm/yr)

2000
1648
1500

1000 736 734

686 726 670
500

0
Africa Asia Australia Europe N.Am erica S.Am erica

Evaporation (mm/yr)

1200
1065
1000
800
547 510
600
400
433 415 383 Drop of water …..
200 Matter…..
0
Africa Asia Australia Europe N.Am erica S.Am erica

Total Runoff (mm/yr)

700
600 583
500
400 319
293 287
300 226
200 139
100
0
Africa Asia Australia Europe N.Am erica S.Am erica
 Water Balance of Oceans
1600 Area M km^2
1380
1400 Precp (mm/yr)
1210
1140
1200 1040 Evap. (mm/yr)
1010
1000
780
800
600
400 240
107 120 167
200 75
12
0
Atlantic Arctic Indian Pacific

Water flow in Ocean

400 350

200 230
200 130
70 60
0
Atlantic Arctic Indian Pacific
-200 -60

-400 Continental Inflow (mm/yr) -300

water exch. with ocean(mm/yr)
 1.4 Application in Engineering
• Hydrology finds its greatest application in the
design and operation of water resources
engineering projects
• The capacity of storage structures such as reservoir
• The magnitude of flood flows to enable safe disposal of
the excess flow
• The minimum flow and quantity of flow available at
various seasons
• The interaction of the flood wave and hydraulic
structures, such as levees, reservoirs, barrages and
bridges