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CH 1-Hydrology

Hydrology is the scientific study of water's occurrence, movement, and distribution on Earth, crucial for understanding and managing water resources. It encompasses various processes such as precipitation, runoff, and evaporation, forming a continuous hydrologic cycle. The study of hydrology is essential for addressing environmental impacts, designing water management systems, and ensuring sustainable use of water resources.

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9 views

CH 1-Hydrology

Hydrology is the scientific study of water's occurrence, movement, and distribution on Earth, crucial for understanding and managing water resources. It encompasses various processes such as precipitation, runoff, and evaporation, forming a continuous hydrologic cycle. The study of hydrology is essential for addressing environmental impacts, designing water management systems, and ensuring sustainable use of water resources.

Uploaded by

amanuelshiferaw551
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Hydrology

Workinesh T.
WGCF-NR
What is Hydrology?
Definition
• 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
• This all are grouped together into a discipline.
Hydrology and is formed by two Greek words:
"hydro or Hudour" and "logos" meaning
"water" and "science".
Hydrology
It is the branch of science that encompasses the
study of occurrence, depletion, replenishment,,
distribution and movement or circulation of water
above, on and below the earth’s surface plus its
relationship with the environment
• 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
Why study hydrology?
Two main reasons for studying Hydrology are:
 There is need to understand hydrologic systems
with a view to understanding how human
activities affect the natural resources
 To enhance our ability to manage water resources
Two main branched of Hydrology
 Surface hydrology
 Ground water hydrology
Applications of Hydrology
Assessing Determining the
impacts of water balance
natural and
human induced for a region
environmental
Designing change on water
irrigation resources
schemes
Designing
drainage
systems Designing
Urban
drinking
water and Determining
sewer agricultural
Assessing water balance
export of systems
sediment Predicting
& nutrients floods
from fields
to water
systems

Designing buffers
Hydrologic Cycle
• Hydrologic Cycle-Scientific study of water and its
cyclic processes
• Water exists on the earth in all its three states, viz.
liquid, solid, gaseous and in various degrees of
motion.
Con’t

• Hydrologic cycle is the water transfer cycle,


which occurs continuously 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.
• The important phases of the hydrology cycle are:
(a) evaporation and evapo-transpiration
(b) precipitation and
(c) runoff.
Phases of the hydrology cycle includes all of the
followings
• Evaporation from water bodies
• Water vapor moves upwards
• Cloud formation
• Condensation
• Precipitate
• Interception
• Transpiration
• Infiltration
• Runoff–stream flow
• Deep percolation
• Ground water flow
Hydrologic Cycle
Con’t
• The globe has 1/4 land and 3/4 ocean/ water
body.
• Evaporation takes place from the surfaces of
ponds, lakes, reservoirs, ocean surfaces, etc
and transpiration from surface vegetation i.e.
from plant leaves of cropped land and forests,
etc.
• These vapors rise to the sky and are condensed
at higher altitudes by condensation nuclei and
form clouds resulting in droplet growth.
• The clouds melt and sometimes burst resulting
in precipitation of different form like rain,
snow, hail, sleet, mist, dew and frost.

• A part of this precipitation flows over the land


called runoff and part infiltrates into the soil
which builds up the ground water table.
• The surface runoff in the streams and the water
is stored in reservoirs.

• A portion of surface runoff and ground water


flows back to ocean.

• Again evaporation starts from the surfaces of


lakes, reservoirs and ocean, and the cycle
repeats.
Hydrologic Processes
Hydrologic Processes or Components:
Precipitation (P)
Surface Runoff (R)
Evapotranspiration (Evaporation and Transpiration ET)
Infiltration (f)
Groundwater (G)
 These processes are interconnected and hence their
relationship must be determined
 There is need to understand how each component is
measured/estimated
Complexity of the hydrologic cycle

– Heterogeneous system
soil, vegetation, topography, climate,…

– Interactions between the processes

– Dynamic system
Distribution of earth’s water
Water Budget Equations
• 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.
• 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:
Vi  Vo  S

Vi - Inflow volume in to the catchment, Vo - Outflow volume from the


catchment and ∆S - change in the water volume
Con’t
• 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
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
Surface Water in Ethiopia
 Ethiopia’s hydrology is a direct reflection of the
climate, the terrain and other physical characteristics.

 The country’s annual renewable fresh water


resources amount to some 122 BCM/yr in the twelve
river basins.

 However, only 3% remains in the country.

 The rest, 97% is lost in runoff to the lowlands of


neighboring countries.
Runoff from the River Basins of Ethiopia
River Basins of Ethiopia
Ground water estimated in the country
 The total safe yield of groundwater was
estimated to be 26.1 BCM.
 It is estimated that 54.4 BCM of surface runoff
and 2.6 BCM of ground water could be
technically developed for consumptive
purposes.
 The present actual consumption from surface
waters is less than 5% (2004).
 Therefore its contribution as a promoter of
economic development remains limited at the
moment.
Purpose of hydrological study
• Water production
• Design of sewers
• Drainage and irrigation
• Design of dams and reservoirs
• Readjusting the course of rivers
• Design of hydraulic structures
• Water diversion
More on purpose

• Protection of health
• Protection of the
environment
• Waste water treatment
• Flood control
• Control of erosion &
sediment transport
• Limitation of salt water
intrusion
• In general sense hydrology deals with
– Estimation of water resources

– The study of processes such as precipitation,


evapotranspiration, runoff, Infiltration,
Groundwater and their interaction

– The study of problems such as floods and droughts


and strategies to combat them
Role of the hydrologist

• Analysis of problems
• Quantitative assessment of the interactions
between the processes of the water cycle and
anthropogenic impacts

• Planning
• Design
• Control
End

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