Topic 1 - Introduction
Topic 1 - Introduction
Topic 1. Introduction
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.
The name of the discipline is hydrology and is formed by two
Greek words: "hydro" and "logos" meaning "water" and
"science".
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 earths atmosphere.
i o S
Vi - Inflow volume in to the catchment, Vo - Outflow volume
from the catchment and S - change in the water volume
Water Budget Equation
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.
Components of hydrologic cycle
Evapo transpiration
Precipitation
Stream flow
(Runoff)
Inter flow
Infiltration
Base flow
Groundwater flow
World Water Budget
2% 1% Ocean-saline
1% Land - saline
Fresh - Liquid
Fresh - Frozen
Global annual water balance
SN Item Ocean Land
1 Area (km2) 361.3 148.8
2 Precipitation (km3/year) 458,000 119,000
(mm/year) 1270 800
3 Evaporation (km3/year) 505,000 72,000
(mm/year) 1400 484
4 Runoff to ocean
Rivers (km3/year) 44,700
Groundwater (km3/year) 2,200
Total Runoff (km3/year) 47,000
(mm/year) 316
Water Balance of Continents
Area (M km^2)
50
45
40
30.3
30
20.7
20 17.8
8.7 9.8
10
0
Africa Asia Australia Europe N.Am erica S.Am erica
Precipitation (mm/yr)
2000
1648
1500
0
Africa Asia Australia Europe N.Am erica S.Am erica
Precipitation (mm/yr)
2000
1648
1500
0
Africa Asia Australia Europe N.Am erica S.Am erica
Evaporation (mm/yr)
1200
1065
1000
800
547 510
600
433 415 383
400
200
0
Africa Asia Australia Europe N.Am erica S.Am erica
700
600 583
500
400 319
293 287
300 226
200 139
100
0
Africa Asia Australia Europe N.Am erica S.Am erica
Application in Engineering
Hydrology finds its greatest application in the design and
operation of water resources engineering projects
The capacity of storage structures such as reservoir
The magnitude of flood flows to enable safe disposal of the
excess flow
The minimum flow and quantity of flow available at various
seasons
The interaction of the flood wave and hydraulic structures,
such as levees, reservoirs, barrages and bridges