FACULTY OF ENGINEERING

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING AND BUILDING

Hydrology CWER32H
Water Engineering III CWER30

Compiled by F Ngwenya
 Lecture 1: Background
• Water engineering is a sub discipline of civil
engineering that is concerned with the
manipulation of the earth’s water – mainly for
human needs.
• Water on earth exists in the hydrosphere i.e.
15km into the atmosphere and 1km into the
lithosphere (Ven Te Chow et al, 1988)
circulating here in various states and through
various pathways (hydrological cycle).
• Our understanding of this cycle is central to our
ability to manipulate this resource and is
achieved through hydrology.
 15 km Hydrosphere

1 km Lithosphere

Earth

Water circulates in the hydrosphere

through the maze of paths
constituting the Hydrological Cycle
 Manipulation of water by
humans
-WATER RESOURCES : Dam
construction incl. all associated
appurtenances e.g., outlet works,
intake structures, spillways etc
- Irrigation systems

-WATER QUALITY: Water

treatment and clear water
distribution (closed
conduits, storage tanks
etc)
-FLOOD CONTROL: Open
channels/canals,
detention systems/storm
water drains
 Introduction to hydrology
• Hydrology is largely defined as the study of the
earth’s water or the hydrological cycle in many
texts. However, many comprehensive
definitions are available including that it is:
“ …the science that treats the waters
of the earth, their occurrence,
circulation and distribution, their
chemical and physical properties and
their reaction/ interaction with the
environment, including the relation
to living things.” (cited by Mays,
2005)
Lecture 2 : Engineering Hydrology
• Hydrology is multidisciplinary; scientific -
dealing with physical processes / laws
governing hydrology; and specialist
• In Water Engineering we are interested only in
those segments of hydrology that are
fundamental / applied in the planning,
design, construction and operation of
engineering projects to enable humans to
control and use water beneficially.
• These hydrology segments of significance in
engineering are qualified by different scholars
as “engineering hydrology” (Chadwick et al,
2004); “ applied hydrology” (Ven Te Chow et
al, 1988); “hydrology as applied in
engineering” (Wilson, 1990) etc
• More importantly, engineering hydrology is
concerned with the quantitative relationship
between rainfall and runoff (estimating,
predicting); magnitude and time variations of
runoff (Roberson
( et al, 1998, Chadwick et al,
2004).
2004)
Branches of Hydrology
Hydrology
(General)

Engineering
Hydrology

Surface water
Hydrology Groundwater
Hydrology

Rural
Urban Hydrology
hydrology
 The role of hydrology in water eng.
• Hydrology enables engineers to analyse risks /
hazards & benefits associated with water.
• Hydrological data makes it possible to predict
‘design events’ such as extreme natural events
e.g. floods (1 in 100 year) or droughts
• In order to plan & design safe and economical
water retaining and conveyance structures, we
need how much runoff will be generated? over
what duration? How much rain has/will
probably fall? How much will be lost to
evaporation? when is an event of particular
magnitude likely to recur? etc
• The knowledge of design events, say droughts, will
require that we design reservoirs of adequate capacity
to accommodate drought events
• The knowledge of design floods enables us to design
the spillway capacity/size to safely pass flood waters
in excess of reservoir capacity or locate structures at
certain elevations above floodlines
• We typically consider quantities such as means,
extremes and patterns/ histories of hydrologic
parameters e.g. mean annual runoff, mean annual
rainfall, stream flows/volumes/ flow rates/velocities,
abstraction losses etc all of which are obtained from
measurements of various parameters of the
hydrological cycle
• The technician / engineer / hydrologist in water
engineering must be competent at gathering,
processing, evaluating and intepreting this
hydrologic data and be able extrapolate the
unknown and apply this knowledge to achieve
the best design
• We will discuss how to obtain various
hydrological data in subsequent lectures.
The hydrological cycle (syn.: water cycle)
• The focus of hydrology is the hydrological cycle.
• The physical processes in the hydrological cycle are
classified as follows:
i) Atmospheric processes; cloud formation and
precipitation
ii) Surface processes; overland flow, stream flow, lake
storage
iii) Subsurface processes; infiltration, soil moisture
storage, groundwater flow
iv) Interfacial processes; evaporation, transpiration
The waters of the earth are generally understood to
occur in a cycle - to be of constant volume, in a
constant state of flux – same water just varied states
• The hydrological cycle is initiated/driven by
solar radiation which evaporates water
from various water bodies e.g. oceans, lakes,
streams etc. Also from vegetation
(transpiration)
• The process of evaporation causes water to
change its state from a liquid to gas.
• The gas or water vapor is transported and lifted
in the atmosphere in a number of ways, i.e.
orographic lifting, frontal lifting, and
convective lifting.
Hydrologic Cycle
Hydrological cycle

Atmospheric Subsystem

Surface Subsystem

Groundwater Subsystem
• As the water vapor laden air parcel ascends, it
expands (due to reduction in atmospheric
pressure with increasing altitude) and cools.
• The cooling of an air mass eventually results in
saturation, the temperature at which a mass of
air cools to saturation is called dew point
temperature.
• Droplets of water form in saturated air if
condensation nuclei (sea salts, by products
of combustion etc) are present in the
atmosphere.
• This process wherein water vapor changes to
liquid or solid is called condensation.
• The resultant water droplets or ice crystals will
tend to enlarge through collision and
coalescence due to differences in rising and
falling velocities of particles.
• Gravity increases the falling velocity of the
water droplets, a 7mm Ø water droplet travels
at 10m/s and usually breaks up into smaller
drops- raindrops that eventually reach the
earth’s surface as rain (Linsley et al, 1992).
• Precipitation is not always rain. It may take
other forms such as snow & hail
• Precipitation may follow various routes as it
falls.
 Precipitation pathways
1. Direct/Channel precipitation: precipitation
falling directly into the stream channel
2. Interception: precipitation may be intercepted
by vegetation, buildings etc and return to the
atmosphere due to evaporation
3. Depression storage: precipitation may be held
in depressions on the earth’s surface
4. Overland flow: precipitation reaching the
earth’s surface may flow on the surface
forming rivulets towards & into stream
channels (dependent on various factors)
5. Infiltration: Precipitation may enter into the
ground and replenish soil moisture and flow
as shallow subsurface flow – called
throughflow
6. Percolation: The infiltrated water may
percolate deeper (deep subsurface flow) to
recharge groundwater – called ground water
flow
7. The infiltrated water may later emerge as
springs or seep into streams to form surface
runoff or base flow
Global water distribution
96.5% of all the earth’s water is in the oceans.

1.7% of all the earth’s water is in the

groundwater.

1.7% of all the earth’s water is in polar

ice.

Estimated world water quantities extracted from Ven Te Chow, 1988 p.4
 Global water distribution – Bird &May?
• Oceans 97.2%
• Ice caps and glaciers 2.1%
• Groundwater 0.61%
• Rivers and lakes 0.01%
• Soil water 0.005%
• Atmosphere 0.001%

N.B. Prep. For next class : Read Chapter 2 of

Wilson: Meteorological data
 Systems Concept
Global hydrologic cycle is
represented in a simplified way
by means of “The System
Concept”

The systems approach

enables us to account for
all water in the globe or in
smaller systems e.g.
watershed.
Most hydrologic system are
inherently random, because
their major input is
precipitation, a highly variable
and unpredictable
phenomenon.

Block diagram representation of the global hydrologic system(Te Chow,1988)

 Example 1
Represent the storm rainfall-runoff process on a
watershed as a hydrologic system.
A watershed /catchment or
river basin is the area of land
Input draining into a stream at a
given location.

The watershed divide is a

line dividing land whose
drainage flows toward the
Output given stream from land
whose drainage flows away
from that stream.

A Watershed as a Hydrologic System

 Basic Equation of Hydrologic Cycle

Input Process Output

(Rainfall) (Basin) (Runoff)

Simple Hydrologic System Model / Water balance

/Water budget

Unsteady Flow Equation ; I – O = ∆S/∆t ; where

I = Input (volume/time)
O = Output (volume/time)
∆S/∆t = Time rate of change of storage
Basic Equation of Hydrologic Cycle

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

s=Land Surface
g=Groundwater

Level of plastic rock

 Basic Equation of Hydrologic Cycle
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
G (Net Groundwater Flow)=G2-G1
S= Ss+Sg