Assoc.Prof.Dr.

Aytaç GÜVEN
Spring 2015-2016
 Hydrology,an earth science, deals with the water
on Earth: its occurence, distribution, movement
both on and under the surface, properties with
their change in time and geographic location, as
well as its relationship with the environment.
Water is essential for all life on earth. Humans
have been concerned with managing water as
a necessity of life and as a potential hazard at
least since the first civilizations developed
along the banks of river.
Our earth is often called the water planet. Water covers 70%
of the earth’s surface. It’s the only place in our solar system
with liquid water. Water has always driven civilization.
Yet we live in a world of salt. 97.5% is saltwater, 1.7% in
glaciers and snow cover, and less than 1% is fresh water
available to us and many plants and animals. This fact
clearly explains the importance of wise usage and fair
sharing of the water everywhere in the world.
Although the general belief is the abundance of
water in Turkey, unfortunately it is not so, and
water must be used with extreme care in Turkey.
Early civilizations, in Anatolia and around the world, learned that water is
not (always) available where it is needed.
So, water resources engineers built functioning canals,
levees, dams and wells,
i.e,
irrigation canals in
ancient Egypt.
The Chinese have long recognized the need for dams;
this diversion dam was first built in 4,000 BC
and since enlarged as you see it here.
The filed of water resources engineering can be
collected under three categories
 Water Use,
 Water Control, and
 Water Quality Management.
Dams are constructed to conserve water that
would otherwise flow to the ocean
and would not be available to supply our needs.
Irrigation is important to sustain life as we know it.
Water is transported from reservoirs formed by dams through parched
lands to provide,
clean and adequate water supplies to quench the thirst of our cities,
our towns, and rural communities.
Transported water is also used to supply water to irrigate our lands,
to grow the crops we need,
and the trees that provide many types of food we need.
In order to provide a comfortable life to people,
it is important to design and construct
hydroelectric-power project (to supply energy).
There are many examples of the historic use of water power,
such as McCormick’s Mill, and
the famous Mabry Mill on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Creating electricity is clean, non-polluting and
inexpensive — generated by water released from
dams.
Hydropower is our
most plentiful and
efficient renewable
resource for electric
generation.
Hydropower generation saves fossil fuels,
 Water Control

Control of water is necessary in order to prevent

the loss of life, the damage to the property and
difficulties in communities encountered due to
water related problems, mainly floods.
 Water Control

Flood control means to control the devastating

forces of water on a rampage during a flood
Which can cause major damage and hardship.
 Water Control

The design and construction of flood control

structures such as reservoirs and levees for
excess water,
Water creates recreational areas that are enjoyed for boating,
hiking,
camping,
swimming,
water rafting,
and fishing.
Dealing with Problems

 How much water is needed?

Social aspects
Economic aspects
Engineering
Life time of the project
 How much water can be expected?
Peak Rates Control of water
Volume of flow Water use
Location problem Water transmission
Time problem Water storage

Existing water=f(time,space)

 Who may use this water?

Water law (transboundary, international water)
 The concept of a global hydrologic cycle
dates from at least 3,000 B.P., when Solomon
wrote in Ecclesiastes 1:7 that

“All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is
not full; unto the place from whence the
rivers come, thither they return again.”
 Early Greek philosophers such as Thales,
Herodotus, Hippocrates, Plato, and Aristotle
also embraced the basic idea of the
hydrologic cycle.

 Leonardo da Vinci in Italy and Bernard Palissy

in France asserted, on the basis of field
observations, that the water in rivers comes
from precipitation.
 The occurence, distribution and movement
of water in the natural environment can be
visualised through a cyclic process as
known as the “hydrologic cycle”.
 Atmospheric Moisture

39
100 Moisture over land
Precipitation on land

61 385
P Evaporation from land Precipitation
on ocean
Snow
melt
Runoff Evap
Surface
runoff
Precipitation ET
424
Evap Evaporation
from ocean

Infiltration Streams
Groundwater
Recharge
Runoff
38 Surface discharge
Groundwater flow

Impervious 1 Groundwater
Lake strata GW discharge
Reservoir
 Evaporation (temperature, wind, atm.pressure)
 Precipitation
 Interception
 Transpiration
 Through fall
 Surface Flow
 Infiltration
 Subsurface Flow (interflow)
 Percolation
 Deep Percolation
 Groundwater Flow (baseflow)
1. Atmosphere
2. Vegetation
3. Snowpacks and ice icecaps
4. Land surface
5. Streams, lakes and rivers
6. Soil
7. Aquifers
8. Oceans
 Precipitation, from atmosphere onto land
surface
 Through fall, from vegetation onto land
surface
 Melt, from snow
 Surface runoff, ..
 Infiltration, from land surface to soil
 Percolation, from soil to aquifers
 Capillary rise, from aquifers to soil
 Groundwater flow, from streams, lakes, and
rivers to aquifers and viceversa and from
aquifers to oceans and viceversa
1. Evaporation (surface water to vapor)
2. Transpiration (through plants to air)
3. Sublimation (ice to water vapor)
4. Vapor diffusion (process by which water
vapor spreads or moves through permeable
materials caused by a difference in water
vapor pressure)
 Hydrologic design is generally the most
important, as it determines the magnitudes
related to the structures, and if these
magnitudes are faulty, then the correctness
or precision of the other steps will not make a
difference.
 Upon investigating historic failures of
hydraulic structures, it can be seen that
nearly 90% of these failures were due to
errors or omissions in the hydrologic design
step.
 P

E+T
P  R  G  E  T  S

S
G
Inputs-Outputs=Change in the storage
I(t)-Q(t)=ΔS
 Water Balance
Atmospheric Water

Soil Water Surface Water

Groundwater

Change of
Inflow – Outflow = Storage

dS
I Q 
dt