UNESCO Chair in Water Resources

MSc Program (Water Resources Development and

Management)

Basic Hydrology (2022)

Lecture #2
Dr. Muna M. Musnad
Email: [email protected]
• Reference of these lectures:
Mohammad Tufail, P.E., PhD
 Water Resources Engineering
• Water Resources
Engineering is that branch of
civil engineering concerned
with maximizing the social
and economic benefit
associated with the world’s
water resources while
minimizing the adverse
environmental impacts due
to modifications to the
natural environment.
 Definition of a System
• System: a set of interconnected parts or
components that form a whole:
– Have some structure or organization
– Have functional relationships
 Hydrologic System

• Subsystems:
– Atmospheric
(meteorology)
– Lithospheric (hydrology)
– Oceanographic
(oceanography)
• Processes:
• Evaporation/Evapotranspir
ation
• Precipitation
• Stream flow
 Watershed System
• From a civil engineering perspective, the most
important subsystem is the watershed system. The
watershed system may be conceptualized as a spatial
subset of the lithospheric system. The watershed is
simply that area of land that contributes surface runoff
to a common point of interest.
 Watershed Delineation
• A watershed can be delineated using a topographic
map (Paper, Digital).

• How to Read Topographic Maps?

– Each contour line on a topographic map represents a

ground elevation or vertical distance above a reference
point such as sea level.
– All points along any one contour line are at the same
elevation.
– If a hill is more or less circular then the map will show it as
a series of more or less concentric circles ( contour lines)
 Watershed Classifications
• Watersheds may be classified using two
different approaches:
• Disaggregation Approach
– USGS
– Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC)
• Aggregation approach
– Stream classification
– Nth Order watershed
 Disaggregation Approach
• Larger watersheds
contain many smaller
watersheds. It all
depends on the
outflow point; all of
the land that drains
water to the outflow
point is the
watershed for that
outflow location
 Aggregation Approach
Order of the Streams (Horton 1945)

• Smallest recognizable streams are

designated as Order 1
• Where two channels of order 1 join; a
stream of order 2 results downstream
• In general, where two streams of order “i”
join, a stream of order i+1 results.

• Where a stream of lower order joins a

stream of higher order, the stream
downstream retains the higher of the two
orders.
• The order of drainage basin (watershed) is
designated as the order of stream draining
its outlet, the highest stream order in the
basin, I.
 Hydrologic Data

• Topographic Data (USGS)

• Rainfall and Evaporation Data : National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
• Environmental Data: Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA)
• Soils: National Resource Conservation Service (USDA:
NRCS)
• Stream flow Data
– U.S.G.S (United States Geological Survey)
– C.O.E (Corps of Engineers)
– T.V.A. (Tennessee Valley Authority)
 Watershed Response
• An initial understanding of a watershed can be
developed by first examining the nature of the
watershed response by measuring and
characterizing the inputs and outputs from
the watershed.
 Rainfall Hyetograph
• The total input into a
watershed associated
with a particular storm
event can be
represented graphically
through a plot of
rainfall versus time.
 Runoff Hydrograph

• The total output from a

watershed in response to
a particular input
(precipitation) can be
represented graphically
through a plot of flow vs
time.
 Mass balance in Hydrologic Systems

• Inputs–Outputs= Change in the Storage

= I–O= ΔS
• Mass continuity Equation
P–R–E–T–G= ΔS
P= precipitation T= transpiration
R= surface runoff G= ground water flow
E= evaporation ΔS = change in storage
 Precipitation
• Atmospheric moisture (water vapor) is the
necessary source for precipitation that is
derived from evaporation and transpiration
 Formation of Precipitation

1. Condensation:
– Dynamic Cooling: Adiabatic reduction of temperature
associated with upward movement of air.
– Cooling of moist air to a temperature below the
saturation point for water vapor.
– Mixing of air masses having different temperatures.
2. Coalescence
– Growth of droplets.
– Collisions: large drops run into smaller drops, large
drops decrease the drag on drops above.
 Precipitation Measurement
Non Recording Station: rain gage
measures inches of rainfall

Recording Gage: tipping bucket – measures

time distribution of rainfall 1 or 5 min
intervals

RADAR:NEXRAD
 Rainfall Representation

• Hyetograph

• Mass Curve
 Rainfall Representation
• IDF Curve: The rainfall intensity–duration–frequency
(IDF) curves are graphical representations of the
probability that a given average rainfall intensity
will occur within a given period of time (Dupont and
Allen 2000).
 Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP)

• Theoretically the greatest depth of

Precipitation for a given duration that is
physically possible over a given size of storm
area at a particular geographical location at a
certain time of year (Hansen, 1987)
• PMP is used as an input to hydrological
models to estimate maximum probable flood
(PMF)
 Precipitation Analysis

• Point Analysis
– Station Consistency
– Missing Data
• Spatial Variability
– Single Station
– Multiple Station
• Temporal Variability
– Long Term
– Short Term
 Station Consistency
• Station consistency is evaluated using a double mass analysis.

Correction Factor K = Slope(after)/slope(before)

 Missing Data

• Rainfall recording stations provide information

at only one point in a watershed. Rainfall may
vary a great deal 20% - 20 ft. In order to
predict the rainfall at another point, or to
supply missing data for a particular station
one may use one of two methods:
– Station Average Method ( < 10 % in annual value)
– Normal Ratio Method (> 10 %)
– National Weather Service Method (NWS)
Station Average Method
Normal Ratio Method
NWS Method
 Spatial Variability

• In addition to the precipitation at a particular

point varying with time, precipitation also
varies with respect to area, up to 20% over 20
feet. For most hydrologic analyses, it is
important to know the areal distribution of
precipitation. Usually average depths for
representative portions of the watershed are
determined and used for this purpose (ADP)
 Single Station ADP

• Rainfall intensities vary spatially and temporally during a storm Event. The
rainfall depth is highest near the storm center and it will generally
decrease with increasing distance from the storm center ( From National
Weather Service). Corrections should be applied when dealing with large
watersheds
 Multiple Station ADP

• For multiple stations, the average depth of

precipitation over the watershed is
determined using the information from all
stations:
– Arithmetic Method
– Thiessen Polygon Method
– IsohyetalMethod
– Distance Method
Averaging Precipitation Data
 Arithmetic Mean
P
 P1  P2  P3  ....  Pn 
n
• Simplest method
• Satisfactory method if
gages are uniformly
distributed and if
individual variations
are not great
 Thiessen Polygon Method
• Construct polygons by connecting
stations with lines
• Bisect the polygon sides Estimate
the area of each stations polygon
• Sum the areas
• Determine the stations weights by
dividing the station area by the
total area
• Determine areal precipitation by
summing weighted precipitation A P  A 2 P2  A 3 P3 ...... A n Pn
P 1 1
for each station A
 Thiessen Polygon Method

• Unique for each gage network

• Allows for areal weighing of precipitation data
• Does not allow for orographic effects (those
due to elevation changes)
• Most widely used method
 Isohyetal Method
• Draw lines of equal precipitation
• Estimate precipitation (average value based on two isohyets) in
each grid area within basin
• Sum the values (area*precip) in each grid area
• Divide the sum by the total grid area to obtain a watershed
areal estimate of precipitation

A1 P1  P2  A2 P2  P3  An Pn 1  Pn 

Pa      .....  
A 2 A 2 A 2
 Isohyetal Method
• Magnitude and extent of resultant rainfall
areas are calculated
• One of most accurate methods
• Difficult to draw accurately
• Can overlay topographical maps to take into
account orographic effects
 Distance Weighing Method

• Another station weighting

technique Method based
on distances from the
centroid of the basin. In
this case, underestimates
average compared to
other methods