The University of Jordan

Civil Engineering Department

Lecture Notes on:

Surface Water Hydrology
(SWH)

Prof. Dr. Radwan Al-Weshah

 Basic Hydrology Concept
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 on, below and above the earth.
– Hydrology is the science that encompasses the
occurrence, distribution, movement and properties of the
waters of the earth and their relationship with the
environment within each phase of the hydrologic cycle.
– The water cycle, or hydrologic cycle, is a continuous
process by which water is purified by evaporation and
transported from the earth's surface (including the
oceans) to the atmosphere and back to the land and
oceans.
• In general sense engineering hydrology
deals with
– Estimation of water resources
– The study of processes such as
precipitation, evapotranspiration, runoff
and their interaction
– The study of problems such as floods and
droughts and strategies to combat them
 Hydrology Interaction with Other Sciences
• Meteorology
– Study of the atmosphere including
weather and climate
• Surface water hydrology
– Flow and occurrence of
water on the surface
of the earth
• Hydrogeology
– Flow and occurrence
of ground water

Watersheds
 Engineering Uses of Surface Water Hydrology
• Average events (average annual rainfall,
evaporation, infiltration...)
– Expected average performance of a system
– Potential water supply using reservoirs
• Frequent extreme events (10 year flood, 10 year low
flow)
– Levees
– Wastewater dilution
• Rare extreme events (100 year flood to PMF)
– Dam failure
– Power plant flooding Probable maximum flood
 1.2 Hydrologic Cycle

Water exists on the earth in all its three states, liquid, solid and gas.
 Hydrologic cycle….

• Water, irrespective of different states, involves

dynamic aspect in nature.
• The dynamic nature of water, the existence of
water in various state with different hydrological
process result in a very important natural
phenomenon called: the Hydrologic cycle.
The hydrologic cycle is the central focus of
hydrology.
The cycle has no beginning or end.
Its processes occur continuously.
 Hydrologic Cycle
Hydrologic
Hydrologic Cycle
cycle

Atmospheric Subsystem

Surface Subsystem

Groundwater Subsystem
 The Hydrologic Cycle
Atmospheric Moisture

39
100 Moisture over land
Precipitation on land

61 385
P Evaporation from land Precipitation
on ocean
Snow
melt
Runoff Evap
Surface
runoff
Precipitation ET
424
Evap Evaporation
from ocean

Infiltration Streams
Groundwater
Recharge
Runoff
38 Surface discharge
Groundwater flow

Impervious 1 Groundwater
Lake strata GW discharge

Reservoir
 Atmosphere

Evaporation Evaporation
Precipitation

Water on Surface Overland Flow

Channel
Reservoir
Flow
Evapotranspiration

Ground Water Ground

Water
Flow
Ocean

The Hydrologic Cycle

 History of Hydrology - 1800s
• Chezy Channel Formula in the 1780s
• Open channel flow experiments - 1800s
• US Army Corps of Eng established (1802)
• Darcy and Dupuit laws of ground water - 1850s
• USGS first measured Miss River flow in 1888
• Manning’s Eqn - Open Channel Flow - 1889
• U.S. Weather Bureau 1891 (NWS)
• Major Hurricane at Galveston - 1900 (8000 dead)
 History of Hydrology - 1800s
• Chezy Channel Formula in the 1780s
• Open channel flow experiments - 1800s
• US Army Corps of Eng established (1802)
• Darcy and Dupuit laws of ground water - 1850s
• USGS first measured Miss River flow in 1888
• Manning’s Eqn - Open Channel Flow - 1889
• U.S. Weather Bureau 1891 (NWS)
• Major Hurricane at Galveston - 1900 (8000 dead)
 History of Hydrology - 1900s
• Early 1900s saw great expansion of water supply and flood
control dams in the western U.S. - in response to Dust Bowl
and the Great Depression of the 1920s & 30s
• U.S. Dept of Agriculture began many hydrologic studies
• Sherman UH and Horton infiltration theory - mid 1930s
• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (1930s) - large projects
• Major Hurricane at Florida - over 2000 deaths
• Penman (1948) - complete theory of evaporation
Water Resources Engineering
and Management
 Recent History of Hydrology
• Great urban expansion in 1950s and 60s - led to demand for
better water supply and prediction (after WW II)
• EPA formed in 1970 with a mission to clean up the rivers and
lakes of America - beginning of environmental science and
engineering as we know it today
• USGS and EPA actively involved in large-scale sampling programs
at the national level - (Major Rivers & Lakes)
• EPA funded development of computer models to address major
water quality issues in streams and lakes, and estuarine bays.
Rainfall Availability and Associated
Growth in Water Resources Engineering
Projects Worldwide
 Major Computer Advances
• Stanford watershed Model of 1966 - first digital code

• US Army Corps of Engineers Hydrologic Engineering Center

(HEC) models - 1970s to the present
• HEC-HMS and HEC-RAS (1990s release)

• EPA in 1969 - Storm Water Mgt Model (SWMM)

• USDA and others developed codes in mid 1970s
• EPA currently supports a suite of advanced models for
analyzing water quality in streams and lakes

• Development of FEMA (1970s) - floodplain mapping and the

federal flood insurance program - HEC models
 Hydrologic Cycle

Average Water Balance in

 Hydrologic cycle….
• Evaporation of water from water bodies, such as oceans
and lakes, formation and movement of clouds, rain and
snowfall, stream flow and ground water movement are
some examples of the dynamic aspects of water.
 Hydrologic cycle….
• Evaporation from
water bodies
• Water vapour
moves upwards
• Cloud formation
• Condensation
• Precipitate
• Interception
• Transpiration
• Infiltration
• Runoff–streamflow
• Deep percolation
• Ground water flow
 Hydrologic cycle….
• The hydrologic cycle has importance influence in
a variety of fields agriculture, forestry, geography,
economics, sociology, and political scene.
• Engineering application of the knowledge are
found in the design and operation of the projects
dealing with water supply, hydropower, irrigation
& drainage, flood control, navigation, coastal
work, various hydraulic structure works, salinity
control and recreational use of water.
 1.3 Water Budget Equation
Catchment area

• The area of land draining in to a stream or a

water course at a given location is called
catchment area / drainage area / drainage
basin / watershed.
• A catchment area is separated from its
neighboring areas by a ridge called divide /
watershed.
 1.3 Water Budget Equation
Catchment area….
• A watershed is a geographical unit in which the
hydrological cycle and its components can be
analysed. The equation is applied in the form of
water-balance equation to a geographical region,
in order to establish the basic hydrologic
characteristics of the region. Usually a watershed
is defined as the area that appears, on the basis of
topography, to contribute all the water that
passes through a given cross section of a stream.
 The Watershed or Basin
• Area of land that drains to a single outlet and is
separated from other watersheds by a drainage
divide.
• Rainfall that falls in a watershed will generate
runoff to that watershed outlet.
• Topographic elevation is used to define a
watershed boundary (land survey or LIDAR)
• Scale is a big issue for analysis
 Watershed delineated on a topographic map

Outlet
 Watershed Characteristics
Divid
e
 Size
 Slope
Reservoir

 Shape 1 mile Natura

l
strea
 Soil type m Urban

 Storage capacity Concrete

channel
 Watershed and watershed divide

Watershed/
catchment
Watershed/
catchment

Wa
ters
hed
div
ide
Watershed characteristics
 Water Budget Equation

• For a given catchment, in an interval of time ∆t,

the continuity equation for water in its various
phases can be given as:
Mass inflow – Mass outflow = Change in mass storage
• If the density of the inflow, outflow and storage
volumes are the same:

i  o  S
Vi - Inflow volume in to the catchment, Vo - Outflow volume from
the catchment and ∆S - change in the water volume
 Watershed water balance

E+T
P  Q  G  E  T  S

S
G
 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
 1.3 World Water Budget
• Total quantity of water in the world is
estimated as 1386 M km3
– 1337.5 M km3 of water is contained in
oceans as saline water
– The rest 48.5 M km3 is land water
• 13.8 M km3 is again saline
• 34.7 M km3 is fresh water
– 10.6 M km3 is both liquid and fresh
– 24.1 M km3 is a frozen ice and glaciers in the polar
regions and mountain tops
Estimated World Water Quantitites
96%

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

1000
686 726 736 734 670
500

0
Africa Asia Australia Europe N.Am erica S.Am erica
 Water Balance …….
Precipitation (mm/yr)

2000
1648
1500

1000
686 726 736 734 670
500

0
Africa Asia Australia Europe N.Am erica S.Am erica

Evaporation (mm/yr)

1200
1065
1000
800
600 547 510
400
433 415 383 Drop of water …..
200 Matter…..
0
Africa Asia Australia Europe N.Am erica S.Am erica

Total Runoff (mm/yr)

700
600 583
500
400 319
293 287
300 226
200 139
100
0
Africa Asia Australia Europe N.Am erica S.America
 Water Balance of Oceans
1600 Area M km^2
1380
1400 Precp (mm/yr)
1210
1140
1200 1040 Evap. (mm/yr)
1010
1000
780
800
600
400 240
107 120 167
200 75
12
0
Atlantic Arctic Indian Pacific

Water flow in Ocean

400 350

200 230
200 130
70 60
0
Atlantic Arctic Indian Pacific
-200 -60

-400 Continental Inflow (mm/yr) -300

water exch. with ocean(mm/yr)
 1.4 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