HYDROLOGY

By: SHEILA C. COGAY

HYDROLOGIC CYCLE

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.

A good understanding of the hydrologic processes is

important for the assessment of the water resources, their
management and conservation on global and regional scales.
What is Hydrology?
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
Hydrologic Cycle
Water exists on the earth in all its three states, viz. liquid,
solid, gaseous and in various degrees of motion.
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 Hydrologic cycle.
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 vapor moves upwards
Cloud formation
Condensation
Precipitate
Interception
Transpiration
Infiltration
Runoffstreamflow
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.
Water Budget Equation
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.
A watershed is a geographical unit in which the hydrological cycle and
its components can be analyzed. 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.
Watershed/
catchment
Watershed/
catchment
Water Budget Equation
If a permeable soil
covers an
impermeable
substrate, the
topographical
division of
watershed will not
always correspond
to the line that is
effectively
delimiting the
groundwater.
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
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

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 736 734

686 726 670
500

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

2000
1648
1500

1000 736 734

686 726 670
500

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

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.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