Kwame Nkrumah University of

Science & Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

CE 355
HYDROLOGY
Prof. Kwaku Amaning Adjei
&
Dr. Charles Gyamfi
Dept. of Civil Engineering
KNUST

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 Where Do You Find Your Lecture
Materials?

rebrand.ly/LNCE355

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 Text Book & References
Textbook
• Subramanya, K. (2017). Engineering hydrology.
McGraw-Hill, New Delhi.
References:
• Raghunath, H. M. (2006). Hydrology: principles, analysis
and design. New Age International.
• Gupta, R. S. (2016). Hydrology and hydraulic systems.
Waveland Press.
• Applied Hydrology (Chow et al.)

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 Grading Policy
• Midsemester : 20%
• Assignments : 5%;
• Attendance : 5%;
• Final exam : 70%.

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 Course Overview
• The course aims to provide students with understanding
of hydrological processes as well as the techniques that
can be used to solve hydrologic problems.
• The course focuses on practical methods of acquiring
and analysing hydrological and meteorological datasets
plus a coherent presentation of the theories and
techniques that are used in practice.

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 Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course students will be able to:
1. explain the principles of the global hydrological cycle
and the different components of the cycle;
2. analyze how precipitation is measured and recorded for
a given watershed;
3. analyze point precipitation measurements in order to
obtain mean precipitation values and intensities;
4. compute aerial precipitation using the Mean
Precipitation, Theissen Polygon and Isohyetal Method;
5. use unit hydrographs to predict design stream flows and
appreciate flood control methods;

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 Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course students will be able to:
6. explain the structure of hydrological water balance and
routing models;
7. explain and calculate extreme values of hydrological
data sets;
8. explain and use standard statistical methods to describe
hydrological time series;

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 Introductory Concepts

CHAPTER 1

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 Chapter 1: Learning Outcomes
At the end of this lecture, you should be able to:
• List the application of hydrology and applicable fields of
practice
• Explain the importance of hydrology
• explain the principles of the global hydrological cycle and
the different components of the cycle;
• Write and explain water balance equation for a catchment

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 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.

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 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.

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 Applied Hydrology
Applied hydrology includes those segments of
hydrology related to the planning, design, and
operation of engineering projects for the control
and use of water.
• estimation of water resources
• the study of processes such as precipitation,
runoff, evapotranspiration and their interaction
and
• the study of problems such as flood and drought
and strategies to combat them.
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 Why Study Hydrology
Hydrology finds its greatest application in the design and
operation of water resources engineering projects, such as :
• Find out the maximum probable flood at proposed sites e.g.
Dams.
• The variation of water production from catchments
• Find the relationship between a catchment’s surface water and
groundwater resources
• Prediction of flood over a spillway, at a highway culvert or in
urban storm drainage
• water supply design which is based on catchments area,
amount of rainfall, dry period, storage capacity, runoff
evaporation and transpiration.

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 Hydrologic Cycle
• Water exists on the earth in all its three states, viz. liquid,
solid, gaseous and in various degrees of motion.

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 Hydrologic Cycle
• The hydrological cycle, also known as the water cycle, is
the continuous process by which water is circulated
between the earth's surface, the atmosphere, and the
oceans.
• This cycle is driven by the sun's energy, which causes
water to evaporate from the earth's surface and oceans
into the atmosphere, where it condenses into clouds.
• The water then falls back to the earth's surface as
precipitation, which can take the form of rain, snow,
sleet, or hail.

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 Hydrologic Cycle
• Once on the earth's surface, the water can be stored in lakes,
rivers, and groundwater aquifers, or it can be taken up by
plants through the process of transpiration.
• Some of the water that falls as precipitation also runs off the
land into rivers and streams, eventually making its way to the
oceans.
• The hydrological cycle is a fundamental process that sustains
life on earth, providing the water that is essential for human
and animal consumption, agriculture, and many other
purposes. It also plays a critical role in shaping the earth's
landscape and ecosystems, as water erodes rocks and soil,
creates and sustains wetlands, and supports diverse plant and
animal communities.
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 Hydrologic Cycle
• The hydrological cycle is a fundamental process that
sustains life on earth, providing the water that is essential
for human and animal consumption, agriculture, and
many other purposes.
• It also plays a critical role in shaping the earth's landscape
and ecosystems, as water erodes rocks and soil, creates
and sustains wetlands, and supports diverse plant and
animal communities.

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 The Hydrologic Cycle (Water Cycle)

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 Hydrologic System

Atmospheric
System

Pre
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n

ratio

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tio

io

ita
ita

at
nspi

tio
cip

po

n
Pre

a
otra

Ev
Evap

Lithospheric Oceanographic
System Streamflow System
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 Phases of the hydrologic cycle
The water-holding components of the hydrologic cycle are
• Atmosphere
• Vegetation
• Snowpack and icecaps
• Land surface
• Soil
• Streams, lakes, and rivers
• Aquifers
• Oceans

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 Phases of the hydrologic cycle
Liquid-transport phases of the hydrologic cycle are:
• Precipitation from the atmosphere onto land surface
• Throughfall from vegetation onto land surface
• Surface runoff from land surface to streams, lakes, and
rivers, and from streams, lakes, and rivers to oceans
• Infiltration from land surface to soil
• Interflow from soil to streams, lakes, and rivers and
vice versa

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 Phases of the hydrologic cycle
Liquid-transport phases of the hydrologic cycle
are:
• Percolation from soil to aquifers
• Capillary rise from aquifers to soil
• Groundwater flow from streams, lakes, and
rivers to aquifers and vice versa and from
aquifers to oceans and vice versa.

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 Phases of the hydrologic cycle
The Vapour – transport phases of the hydrologic cycle are
• Evaporation from land surface, stream, lakes, river, and
oceans to the atmosphere
• Evapotranspiration from vegetation to the atmosphere
• Sublimation from snowpack and icecaps to the atmosphere
• Vapour diffusion from soil to land surface

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 Why the Hydrological Cycle?
Example: Urbanization

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 Estimated Residence time of Water Resources

— Residence time = turnover time = the amount of time it takes for water to cycle
through the system (reservoir is at equilibrium).
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 Hydrologic Continuity Equation

• General terms: Rate of accumulation of mass in system =

Input rate - output rate
• Hydrologists (density ~ constant w/ T, thus use V):

• Assumptions:
We can measure or estimate all of the components

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 The Water Budget

• Conceptually it’s an accounting of inputs and outputs

• A note on units:
– Expressing runoff in mm yr-1: distributed over the
watershed; that is, the volume of flow will be
converted to the equivalent depth of water over
the entire watershed by dividing by the basin area

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 The Water Budget

V = P +Qin + GWin − Qout − GWout − ET

• Control volume (i.e. watershed or lake) - V
• Precipitation -P
• Runoff or discharge in - Qin
• Groundwater in - GWin
• Groundwater out - GWout
• Runoff or discharge out - Qout
• Evapotranspiration (out) - ET
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 Watershed

A watershed is the area of land where all of the water that

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falls in it and drains off goes to a common outlet.
 Example
• Catchment area = 25 ha
• Rainfall = 2280 mm y-1
• Runoff = 13 l s-1
Compute the annual ET rate (mm/y)
*1 ha = 10000m3
*1 l = 0.001m3

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 Example
• Catchment area = 25 ha
• Rainfall = 2280 mm y-1
• Runoff = 13 l s-1
Compute the annual ET rate (mm/y)

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 Take Home Review Questions
1. With the aid of a sketch explain the hydrologic cycle.
2. Describe the liquid transport phases of the hydrologic
cycle.
3. Name the vapour-transport phases of the hydrologic
cycle.
4. Give a brief description of different components of the
hydrologic cycle.
5. What is a catchment?
6. How can you determine the area of a catchment?

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