Hydrology

• Hydrology is the study of water; for Civil Engineers

mainly what lies on or under the earth’s surface,
including water discovery, storage and flow (DCE)
• The Science of hydrology deals with the occurrence
and movement of water on and over the surface of the
earth. It deals with various forms of moisture that
occur, and the transformation between the liquid, solid
and gaseous states in the atmosphere and in the
surface layers of land masses. It is concerned also with
the sea-the source and store of all the water that
activates life on this planet
 Hydrology
• Hydrology treats of the waters of the earth,
their occurrence, circulation, and distribution,
their chemical and physical properties, and
their reaction with their environment,
including their relation to living things
 Hydrological Cycle
• The hydrological cycle is defined as the cyclic
movement of water from the sea to the
atmosphere and then by precipitation to the
earth, where it collects in streams and runs back
to the sea. And the whole cycle starts again

• “Every river flows into the sea, but the sea is not
yet full. The water returns to where the rivers
began, and starts all over again.” Ecclesiastes 1:7
 Hydrological Cycle

The hydrological cycle

 Hydrological Cycle
Complication of the cycle
Such a cyclic order of events does occur but it is not
so simple as that:
• the cycle may be short-circuited at several stages
e.g., precipitation may fall directly into the sea,
lakes or river courses
• there is no uniformity in the time a cycle takes
• during droughts it may appear to have stopped
altogether while during floods it may seem to be
continuous
 Hydrological Cycle
Complication of the cycle cont’d
• the intensity and frequency of the cycle depend on the geography
and climate, since it operates as a result of solar radiation, which
varies according to latitude and season of the year
• The various parts of the cycle can be quite complicated and man
can exercise some control only on the last part, when the rain has
fallen and is making its way back to the sea.

Although this concept of the hydrological cycle is oversimplified, it

affords a means of illustrating the most important processes that the
hydrologist must understand.
 Hydrological Cycle
Beginning of the cycle
Water in the sea evaporates under solar
radiation, and clouds of water vapour move over
land areas. Precipitation occurs over land and
sea as snow, hail, rain and condensate in the
form of dew. Snow and ice on land are water in
temporary storage. However, global warming is
causing ice to melt at the poles and other areas
such as mountains
 Hydrological Cycle
Processes
• Interception: Rain falling on land surfaces may be
intercepted by vegetation and evaporate back to the
atmosphere.
• Infiltration and percolation: Some of the rain infiltrates
into the soil and moves down or percolates into the
saturated ground zone beneath the water table or
phreatic surface.
• Transpiration: The water that infiltrates also feeds the
surface plant life and some gets drawn up into this
vegetation where transpiration takes place from leafy
plant surfaces.
 Hydrological Cycle
Processes cont’d
• Evaporation, runoff and streamflow: The water remaining
on the surface partially evaporates back to vapour, but the
bulk of it coalesces into streamlets and runs as surface
runoff to the river channels. The river or lake surfaces also
evaporate, so still more is removed from here. Finally, the
remaining water that has not infiltrated or evaporated
arrives back at the sea via the river channel.
• Groundwater flow: The water in the saturated ground zone
flows slowly through aquifers (such as the Lusaka aquifer)
to river channels or sometimes directly to the sea.
Hydrological Cycle

Distribution of precipitation input

 Inventory of Earth’s Water
• It is well to have a clear idea of the scale of the
events that are being discussed
• Of the 0.6% fresh water, about half is below a
depth of 800m and so is not practically available
on the surface.
• This means that about 4 x 106 km3 of fresh water
is obtainable one way or another for man’s use
and is mainly in the ground. Usually it is
abstracted through springs and wells (boreholes
and shallow wells).
 Inventory of Earth’s Water
Table 1.1 Estimated earth’s water inventory
Processes & Functions of Hydrologists
Processes of main concern to Hydrologist are:
• precipitation
• evaporation and transpiration
• surface runoff or stream flow
• groundwater flow
Processes & Functions of Hydrologists
Hydrologist should be able to:
• interpret data about the processes
• predict (from his studies) the most likely
quantities involved in the extreme cases of
flood and drought
• predict the likely frequency of occurrence of
such events since much of hydraulic
engineering design is based on frequency of
extreme events.
 Hydrology as Applied in Engineering
Hydrology is an indispensable tool in the planning and building of hydraulic structures.
E.g., increasing or improving water supply for a city:
• engineer looks for source of supply
• estimate capability (of source) of supplying water
• how much rain falling on it (recharge)?
• length of dry periods?
• amount of storage required?
• amount of runoff lost as evaporation and transpiration?
• surface storage scheme or abstraction of groundwater from wells nearer the city?
• If dam to be built, spillway capacity?
• diameter of supply pipelines?
• afforestation of catchment area beneficial to scheme?

• Hydrologist can supply answers which are given as probable values, because
hydrology is not an exact science.
 Hydrology as Applied in Engineering
Civilisation is primarily dependent on water
supply.
As the trend towards larger cities and increasing
industrialisation continues, so will the role of the
hydrologist increase in importance in meeting
the demands of larger populations for water for
drinking, sanitation, irrigation, industry and
power generation.