Subject Code: WER360S

Module Name: Engineering Hydrology

Chapter 1: Introduction
(Hydrologic Cycle & Water Balance)

Presented by: Dr. Yaw Owusu-Asante

 What is hydrology
In a broader context, Hydrology is the scientific assessment of
the whole continuum of a water cycle and is therefore
concerned with the:

 occurrence
 distribution
 movement
 quality of water and
 their reaction with their environment, including their
relation to living things.

The domain of hydrology embraces the full life history of

water on the earth”
 Engineering Hydrology
Engineering Hydrologist’s tasks:

Example, questions facing the engineer in providing water supply and drainage for a
town the tasks involve:

 Establishing water sources for supply?

 Surface water or groundwater?
 What is the estimate of the capability or availability of supply? Quantify.
 How much rain is input into the catchment?
 How long will the dry periods be?
 How much storage is required to even out the flow?
 How much runoff will be lost to evaporation, transpiration, etc.?
 What capacity must the spillway have, if dam is required?
 What diameter should water supply pipelines be?
 What sizes should the drainage networks be?
 Demarcation of flood lines/zones?
 What are the risks associated with flooding and drought?
 Etc.

The answers to all these questions and others require knowledge in hydrology.

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.
 Engineering Hydrology
By and large, Engineering Hydrologist’s role increases in importance in
meeting the demands of larger populations for:

 Drinking water supply

 Sanitation (e.g. storm water drainage)
 Irrigation
 Industry and
 Power generation

Hydrology is an interpretive science and not an exact

science,
 hence many assumptions are made
 Experimental work is restricted.
 Fundamental requirement is to observe and measure data on all
important aspects
 Engineering Hydrology
Components of Engineering Engineering Hydrology is concerned
Hydrology: with:

 the quantitative relationship

Engineering
Hydrology between rainfall and runoff and
Floods Yield  the magnitude and time variations
D roughts P hreatic level
of runoff
S urface G roundwater
Hydrology Hydrology  predicting extreme events, so their
focus is primarily on floods and
R ural Urban droughts, e.g.
run-off run-off
o Design flood – spillways, culverts,
retention dams, storm water
drainage, bridges and flood lines
G auged
data
S ynthetic
data
for residential developments
o Design drought – reservoir
capacity
 Distribution of world’s total water
Reservoir Volume (km3 x 103) Percent of total Percent of fresh water

Oceans 1338000 96.5

Ice Caps and Glaciers 24364.1 1.8 69.6

Groundwater (Fresh) 10530 0.76 30.1

Groundwater (Saline) 12870 0.93

Lakes (Fresh) 91 0.007 0.3

Lakes (Saline) 85.4 0.006
Soil Moisture 16.5 0.001 0.05
Atmosphere 12.9 0.001 0.04
Streams and Rivers 2.12 0.0001 0.006
Marshes 11.47 0.001 0.03
Biosphere 1.12 0.000 0.003
Total 1385985 100.0
Fresh water 35029 2.5 100
 South Africa’s Water Resources

 Atmosphere above SA : ~27 trillion m3 in vapour form

 Average annual Precipitation = 450 mm (world av. 860 mm/a)

 Average annual lake Evaporation = 860 mm/a

 Over 800 hydrological gauging stations

 Data on volume of H2O impounded, water consumption and evaporation from

about 320 dams is gathered and analysed

 Water resources extremely scarce & limited

 Combined flow of all rivers Approx 49 000 million m3/year; less than half of that

of the Zambezi river!

 19 water management areas (catchment-based)
 HYDROLOGICAL SYSTEMS AND CYCLE
Systems

Systems are a way of conceptualizing

real-world phenomenon. We can
distinguish between three types of
systems

 In an open system, mass and energy

can move across the boundary

 In a closed system, mass stays

constant, energy can move across the
boundary

 In an isolated system, neither energy

nor matter can flux across boundary

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 HYDROLOGICAL SYSTEMS AND CYCLE
Cycle

A cycle is defined as a dynamic system that contains the following four

components:

 An element or set of elements that are in flux (not necessarily a chemical

element) e.g., water

 A set of reservoirs in which the element resides e.g., the oceans, the ice caps

 A set of fluxes, or processes that are moving the elements within reservoirs

and from one reservoir to another e.g., precipitation

 And some source of energy that is driving the cycle

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HYDROLOGICAL SYSTEMS AND CYCLE

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 HYDROLOGICAL CYCLE

 The hydrologic cycle is defined as the set of reservoirs and fluxes which
hold and move water through the atmosphere, on the surface, and in the
subsurface of the earth.

 Within the cycle, there are various reservoirs holding water and various
processes that move water within reservoirs and from one reservoir to the
next.

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 Reservoirs and Processes
Reservoirs include:

 Oceans

 atmosphere

 rivers and freshwater lakes

 unsaturated soil moisture (i.e. moisture in the soil)

 saturated groundwater

 magmatic water (i.e. water from the mantle)

 water in the ice caps and glaciers (the cryosphere)

 water in plants and animals (the biosphere).

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Reservoirs and Processes

Processes (Fluxes)

The fluxes are all the processes that

move water
1. from one reservoir to the next
e.g.,
 evaporation,
 infiltration
2. within a reservoir e.g.
 surface- and ground-water
flow
 Ocean currents
 Wind or air currents

Thought Questions: what is the primary source of

energy driving the hydrologic cycle? What are
the other sources of energy?

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 THE WATER BALANCE/BUDGET
The primary input in a water budget is precipitation.
Precipitation can be in a form of:
 rain,
 snow, and
 hail

Precipitation may be intercepted by tress, grass, other

vegetation, and structural objects (such as buildings) and will
eventually return to the atmosphere by evaporation.

Once precipitation reaches the ground, some of it may fill

depressions (depression storage), part may penetrate the
ground (infiltration) to replenish soil moisture and
groundwater reservoirs, and some may become surface runoff
– that is flow over the earth’s surface
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Catchment water budget/balance

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Catchment water budget/balance

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The total quantity of water available to the earth is
finite/indestructible.
A global hydrologic system can be looked at as closed, although
open hydrologic systems are abundant.

A water budget may be defined in simple terms as a balance

between inflows, outflows, and changes in storage. A
mathematical equation describing the water budget or balance for
a catchment (region A) can be given as:

Inflows – Outflows = Change in storage (1)

Thus:
Water budget above the surface:

P + R1 + Rg – R2 – Es – Ts – I = ΔSs (2)

Water budget below the surface:  Definition of variables

 P = precipitation
 I = infiltration
I + G1 – G2 – Rg – Eg – Tg = ΔSg (3)
 R1 = surface runoff entering the catchment;
 R2 = surface runoff leaving the catchment;
Water budget for the whole catchment : {(eqn 2) + (eqn 3)}
 Ss = storage on the surface;
 Sg = storage below the surface;
P – (R2– R1) – (Es + Eg) – (Ts + Tg) – (G2 – G1) = Δ(Ss + Sg) (4)  Rg = runoff due to groundwater flow effluent to the surface;
 G1 = groundwater flow into the catchment;
If we let R = (R2 – R1); E = (Es + Eg); T = (Ts + Tg); G = (G2 – G1);  G2 = groundwater flow out of the catchment;
and S = (Ss + Sg); then:  Es = evaporation from above the surface;
 Eg = evaporation from below the ground;
P– R – G – E – T = ΔS (5)  Ts = transpiration from above the surface;
 T = transpiration from below the surface;
 Catchment/watersheds/river basin
 Practically, hydrologists deal with some hydrologic regions:
 topographically defined (e.g. watersheds & river basins),
 politically specified (e.g. Country, County or City limits)
 Watersheds or drainage basins (catchment areas) are easier to
deal with
 Drained by a river/stream system(s) such that all outflow is
discharged through a single outlet lies in the ability to
properly measure or estimate the various hydrologic
components
 Solving practical hydrologic problems lies in the ability to
properly measure or estimate the various hydrologic
components

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 Class exercise on water balance
Undertake a water balance for the
catchment shown in the adjacent
figure for:
a) the surface water
component
b) the upper aquifer
component
c) the lower aquifer
component
Starting from the premise that:
 precipitation (600 mm) is the
only source of water into the
systems.
 input equals output.

Additional questions: separate

hand-out (tutorial)