Hydrology Introduction

1. Introduction

General
Practical applications of hydrology are found in such tasks as
- Design and operation of hydraulic structures
- irrigation
- waste water treatment and disposal
- water supply
- hydropower generation
- Flood control.
Water is the most complex natural resource correlating its availability from the
atmosphere lithosphere through hydrosphere. The availability of water is highly uneven
in space and time. Some of the basic things to be considered while planning and
designing the engineering structures are:
- Maximum flows which are expected to occur at place
- Maximum reservoir capacity to be fixed to meet all water demands from
multipurpose reservoir.
- Minimum flows which can occur during any dry period
- Possible regulation of flood at the downstream reaches once the hydraulic
structure is erected.
- Possible supply of water from a river to meet water supply demands for
agriculture, hydropower generation, industrial supplies, domestic supplies,
navigational requirements, recreational uses and aquaculture.
- Environmental impact of hydraulic structure.
- Study of groundwater potential.
Improper assessment of water resources potential is disastrous. Many a times,
underestimation of flood leads to overtopping of the dam and consequent failure of the
structure. For the projects where water potential is overestimated, the system may not be
in a position to full up to the full reservoir level.
Before designing any water resources related structures, evaluation of the hydrologic
potential at the project site is important. In order to do the evaluation, collection and
analysis of long-term hydrological and meteorological data are essential.

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1.1. Definition

The break-up of the world hydrology is: "hydro" and "logy". "Hydro" means water and
"logy" means science. Hydrology is therefore the science of water and is defined as

 the science which deals with the occurrence , distribution and disposal of water on the
planet earth. It is the science which deals with the various phase of the hydrologic cycle
(in the atmosphere in the form of water vapour, on the surface as runoff, snow or ice, and
beneath the surface as ground water).

The study of hydrology is in short is the study of the hydrological cycle , which has three
important phases namely rainfall, runoff and evaporation .

1.2. The hydrologic cycle

The interdependence and continuous movement of all forms of water provide the basis
for the concept of the hydrological cycle. To understand the complicated relationship
between precipitation and runoff, it is imperative to get a complete insight in to the
hydrological cycle.
The hydrologic cycle is a continuous process by which water is transported from the
surface of the earth and the oceans to the atmosphere and back to the land and the
sea.
Essentially, the hydrological cycle envisages that all water is involved in a cyclical
movement that continues indefinitely. water evaporates from the oceans and the land
surface to become part of the atmosphere; water vapor is transported and lifted in the
atmosphere until it condenses and precipitates on the land or the oceans; precipitated
water may be intercepted by vegetation, become overland flow over the ground surface,
infiltrate into the ground, flow through the soil as subsurface flow, and discharge into
streams as surface runoff. Much of the intercepted water and surface runoff returns to the
atmosphere through evaporation. The infiltrated water may percolate deeper to recharge
groundwater, later emerging in springs or seeping into streams to form surface runoff,
and finally flowing out to the sea or evaporating into the atmosphere as the hydrologic
cycle continues.

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Water vapour in atmosphere

Precipitation

Interception

Surface detention

Evaporation Surface runoff Infiltration Evaporation

Channel storage Soil moisture

Interflow Percolation
Stream flow
Wa
Base flow GW. Storage

Fig.1.1: Schematic Representation of a Hydrologic Cycle

Water in large bodies (ocean, or large lakes)

The part of the precipitation, which reaches the ground surface, may then be follow one
of the three courses. It may,
- First, remain on the surface as surface storage in the form of pools, puddles, and
surface moisture which are eventually evaporated back into the atmosphere.

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- Secondly, it may flow over the surface as overland flow into depressions and channels
to be come surface runoff in the form of streams and lakes, from which it will either
evaporates back into the atmosphere, or seeps towards the groundwater, or will
continue to flow as surface flow into the ocean.
A hydrologic cycle undergoes the complicated process of
- Precipitation, interception, evaporation, transpiration, infiltration, percolation,
runoff and various storages.
- The evaporated water in the atmosphere forms cloud
- On condensation it will start to fall as precipitation
- The leaves and steams of vegetation will intercept some of the precipitated water.
- The rest will infiltrate into the soil or will flow down as surface runoff.
- The infiltrated water may join the stream later as subsurface flow or will percolate
further down to charge the groundwater potential.
- The surface flow will join small streams and then through a network of channels
discharge water to the large water bodies like oceans or seas,
- part of the infiltrated water will be available to the root of trees and returns to the
atmosphere through a process called transpiration
- From most of the processes and storage evaporation takes place continuously.
- It is this cycle of water, which maintains life on earth.
Parameters governing the system are many and a minor change in the system causes
drought and flood.
- Vertical percolation of rainwater results in groundwater accretion only if the soil is
highly permeable and if the groundwater is near the surface.
- Low soil permeability encourages overland flow.

Basin recharge and runoff

As rain falls towards the earth, the leaves and steams of vegetation intercept a portion of
it. The water so retained together with depression storage and soil moisture, constitutes
basin recharge, the portion of precipitation which does not contribute to the stream flow
or groundwater.

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- Depression storage includes the water which is retained as puddles in surface

depressions.
- Soil moisture is held as capillary water in the smaller pore space of the soil or as
hygroscopic water absorbed on the surface of soil particles.
- Rainwater, exclusive of the water withheld as a basin recharge, may flow three paths
to a stream.

The groundwater component will eventually be removed either by upward capillary

movement to the soil surface and vegetation cover, where it will be returned by
evaporation and transpiration to the atmosphere, or by groundwater seepage and flow into
surface streams and by runoff to the oceans.
Different processes and storages can be listed as:
Surface and above Sub-surface
Processes Precipitation, surface runoff, - Infiltration,
Stream flow, Evaporation - Percolation,
- Evapotranspiration,
- Interflow
- Base flow
Storage - Atmospheric moisture - Soil moisture (unsaturated zone)
- Interception (temporary) - Groundwater (saturated zone)
- Surface detention - Fixed water (deep percolation)
- Channel storage and
- Storage in large water bodies

The evaporated water in atmosphere forms cloud. On condensation it falls as

precipitation. The hydrological cycle continuously keeps a balance between the water of
the earth and the moisture in the atmosphere. Precipitation is the fall of moisture from the
atmosphere to the earth surface in any form. For land areas:

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Precipitation = Runoff + Losses

Inflow = Outflow   Storage
If this equation can be solved, a quantitative assessment of the movement of water over,
through, and across the land is possible because the equation must be applied to a specific
area for specific period of time.

1.3. Water Budget/Balance Equation

Catchment Area

The area of land draining into a stream or a watercourse at a given location is known as
catchment area. It is also called as drainage area or drainage basin. In USA, it is known as
watershed.
A catchment area is separated from its neighboring areas by a ridge called divide in USA
and watershed in UK, (Fig. below). The areal extent of the catchment is obtained by
tracing the ridge on a topographic map to delineate the catchment and measuring the area
by a planimeter.
It is obvious that for a river while mentioning the catchment area the station to which it
pertains (Fig.) must also be mentioned. It is normal to assume the ground water divide to
coincide with the surface divide. Thus, the catchment area affords a logical and
convenient unit to study various aspects relating to the hydrology and water
resources of a region.

Tributary
M

Station M
River A
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Watershed/Divide

River A

M 
Fig.1.2: Schematic Sketch of Catchment of River A at Station M

Further, it is probably the single most important drainage characteristic used in

hydrological analysis and design.

Water budget (water balance) equation

For a given problem area, say a catchment, in an interval of time t, the
continuity equation for water in its various phases is written as.

Mass in flow – mass outflow = change in mass storage

Catchment
Inflow Change in mass storage Outflow

If the density of the inflow, outflow and storage volumes are the same

(Eq. 1)

where

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inflow volume of water into the problem area during the time period,
outflow volume to water from the problem area during the time
period, and
S = change in the storage of the water volume over and under the given area
during the given period.
In applying this continuity equation (Eq. 1) to the paths of the hydrologic cycle involving
change of state, the volumes considered are the equivalent volumes of water at a
reference temperature.
In hydrologic calculations, the volumes are often expressed as average depths over the
catchment area. Thus, for example, if the annual stream flow from a 10 km 2 catchment

is 107 m3, it corresponds to a depth of

Rainfall, evaporation and often runoff volumes are expressed in units of depth over the
catchment.

While realizing that all the terms in a hydrological water budget may not be known to the
same degree of accuracy, an expression for the water budget of a catchment for a time
interval t is written as

P P=Precipitation
Region A
E=Evaporation
Earth’s surface
T=Transpiration
R1 R=Surface Runoff
Rg Eg Tg
R2 G=Groundwater Flow
Es Ts
Rg=Subsurface Flow
I=Infiltration
S=Storage
I
G1 s=Land Surface
Sg
P
G2 g=Groundwater
P=Precipitation
Region A

Earth’s surface

E=Evaporation
R1
R2
Rg Eg Tg
Es Ts

T=Transpiration
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R=Surface Runoff
G1

Sg G2

Level of plastic rock

G=Groundwater Flow
Level of plastic rock
 Hydrology Introduction

Water Budget in Land Surface

P
Region A

Earth’s surface
I - O = S
R1
R2
(P+R1+Rg)-(R2+Es+Ts+I) = Ss
Rg Eg Tg
Es Ts

Water Budget in Groundwater

G1
I
I - O = S
Sg G2

(I+G1)-(G2+Rg+Eg+Tg) = Sg

Level of plastic rock

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Water Budget in Land Surface

(P+R1+Rg)-(R2+Es+Ts+I)=Ss (1)
Water Budget in Groundwater
(I+G1)-(G2+Rg+Eg+Tg)=Sg (2)

P-(R2-R1)-(Es+Eg)-(Ts+Tg)-(G2-G1)= Ss+Sg *

R (Net Surface Flow)=R2-R1

E (Net Evaporation) =E2+E1
T (Net Transpiration)=Ts+Tg P-R-E-T-G=S … Eq. 2
G (Net Groundwater Flow)=G2-G1
S= Ss+Sg

Equation (2) is the water budget equation for the catchment. All terms in the equation
have the dimensions of volume. Note that all these terms can be expressed as depth over
the catchment area, (for Example in centimeters), and in fact this is a very common unit.
Further, the infiltration does not occur explicitly in the water budget (Eq. 2) as the
infiltration, which is a loss to the runoff process is a gain to the ground water system.

Example 1: a lake had a water surface elevation of 103.200 m above datum at the
beginning of a certain month. In that month the lake received

 an average inflow of 6.0 m3/s from surface runoff sources.

 In the same period the outflow from the lake had an average value of 6.5m3/s.
 Further, in that month, the lake received a rainfall of 145 mm and
 the evaporation from the lake surface was estimated as 6.10cm.

Write the water budget equation for the lake and calculate the water surface elevation of
the lake at the end of the month.
The average lake surface area can be taken as 5000 ha. Assume that there is no
contribution to or from the ground water storage.

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Example 2: A small catchment of area 150 ha received a rainfall of 10.5 cm in 90

minutes due to a storm. At a the outlet of the catchment, the stream draining the
catchment was dry before the storm and experienced a runoff lasting for 10 hours with an
average discharge value of 2.0 m3/s. The stream was again dry after the runoff event. (a)
What is the amount of water, which was not available to runoff due to combined effect of
infiltration, evaporation and transpiration?
(b)What is the ratio of runoff to precipitation?

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