CE372 WATER RESOURCES ENGINEERING LECTURE NOTES

1. HYDROLOGY
Hydrology may be broadly defined as the study of the life cycle of water, a simplified diagram of
which is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Hydrologic (Water) Cycle

Of particular importance in this cycle is the section where rainfall occurs and results in stream
flow. The quantity of water which becomes stream flow, as the result of rainfall and snow melt, is
critical to many activities, for example in designing flood protection works for urban areas and
agricultural land, and in assessing how much water may be extracted from a river for water

supply or irrigation. Generally, that part of rainfall which results in stream flow is referred to as
run-off, and the quantity of rainfall depends on a number of factors. The initial wetness and
permeability to the catchment play a major role. Rain falling on a very dry, permeable catchment
will tend to infiltrate the soil rather than move across the surface of the river, and, conversely,
rain striking a wet, comparatively impermeable surface will result in a high proportion of run-off.
The intensity of the rainfall and slope of the catchment will also affect the quantity of run-off to
the response. There will be a lag in time from the start of rainfall to the resulting flow in the river,
which will build up to a peak value. If the catchment has a rapid response, then, for a given
quantity of run-off, the peak flow in the river will be higher than if a slow response had occurred,
with the run-off being more evenly distributed with time. This is illustrated in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Run-off response variation

Precipitation
Precipitation is one of the most important phases in the hydrologic cycle. It represents the process
by which water vapor is removed from the air and distributed over Earths surface in solid or
liquid form. However, it does exhibit tremendous variability in time and space; quantifying this
variability for design purpose is a challenge.
Precipitation is measured by distributing rain gauges throughout a watershed. The three major
types of rain gauges are: (1) weighing, (2) float and siphon, and (3) tripping bucket. If the gauges
are evenly distributed in the watershed, a simple arithmetic mean may suffice for an average
rainfall depth determination. If the areal distribution of gauges is uneven or the precipitation is
quite variable, then a weighted average is necessary. The Thiessen method is a method that was
developed before the advent of hydrologic computer models.
The Thiessen method provides a weighting factor for each gauge based on its areal impact. The
gauge stations are located on a watershed map, and straight lines are drawn connecting each
gauge to nearby gauges. Perpendicular bisectors of the connection lines form polygons around
each gauge. This identifies an effective area for each gauge. The polygon areas are determined
and expressed as percentage of the watershed area. A weighted average precipitation is computed
by multiplying the precipitation at each gauge by its associated percentage and summing the
products. This can provide more accurate results than those obtained by simple arithmetic

averages. However, the Thiessen method assumes a linear variation of precipitation between
stations that may misrepresent localized orographic influences.

Example: Compute the average rainfall depth over the watershed shown in Figures by the
arithmetic and Thiessen methods.

Figure. Watershed gauge locations and precipitation amounts. (Distances from the watershed
centroid to the nearest gauge in each quadrant are depicted.)

Figure. Thiessen method for determining average watershed precipitation Arithmetic method:
Average the rainfall depths from the gauges in the watershed:

Arithmetic method: Average the rainfall depths from the gauges in the watershed:
(133 115 110) / 3 119.3 mm

Thiessen Method:
Area

Gauge Precipitation

Area Factor

(mm)

Weighted
Precipitation (mm)

110

0.30

33

II

107

0.07

7.5

III

115

0.30

34.5

IV

118

0.09

10.6

133

0.16

21.3

VI

121

0.08

9.7

Total

116.6

Rainfall Run-off Relationship

The percentage of rainfall resulting in run-off tends to vary during the period of rainfall,
increasing with time (as the catchment becomes wetter and infiltration reduces) and approaching
a constant value. The factors in this dynamic process are the amounts of rainfall going to soil
moisture, interflow, storage in depressions and interception by vegetation. These factors in turn
depend on topography, geology, land use, vegetative cover and degree of urbanization. Figure 3
shows the relative amounts of run-off and infiltration during a storm.

Figure 3. Rainfall run-off relationship

This pattern is reflected in the resulting plot of a river flow against time, known as hydrograph and
shown in Figure 4. There is, of course, a base flow component to the hydrograph, which is the dry
weather flow. The area under the hydrograph gives the volume of run-off, which can be divided by the
catchment are to give a value in, sayi milimeters, which can be compared to the total rainfall. In
attempting to predict the likely quantity to run-off and hydrograph shape from a given rainfall, there is
no purely theoretical means based on physical parameters which can be measured in the field. All
methods are semi-emprical in nature, and many comlex (mathematical) models are used, with rainfall as
input and run-off as the output.

Figure 4. Hydrograph
Where little or no records exist, a simple emprical formula may be used:

Q C i A
Q: Peak discharge
C: Coefficient of run-off
I: Mean rainfall intensity
A: Catchment area
Hydrologic Design
Many hydraulic projects require a hydrologic study to establish the design discharge. Indeed, the
design discharge is critical in establishing appropriate size and design of many hydraulic
structures.
Water is constantly being cycled between the sea, the air, and the land. This phenomenon is
called the hydrologic cycle. If the precipitation occurs over land, the water can take a number of
paths. Rainfall is either stored in depression, infiltrated into ground, or runs off the land driven by

gravitational forces. The depression storage water either infiltrates or evaporates. Infiltration
water is either held in the soil pores or moves downward to the water table. Water held in soil
pores can be used by plants and released back to the atmosphere through the process of
transpiration. Water that drains down the groundwater aquifer often ends up in rivers and
eventually the sea. This is also the ultimate destination of surface runoff water. Figure 11.1 is a
simple depiction of the process. Measurement of rainfall and stream flow is a prerequisite for
understanding the complex rainfall-runoff process.

Figure 5. Hydrologic budget for a reservoir

In equation form, the hydrologic budget is defined as

P Qi Qo I E T S
where P represents precipitation, Qi represents inflow, Qo represents outflow, I represents
infiltration, E represents evaporation, T represents transpiration, and S represents the change in
storage over time period of interest. A hydrologic budget represents a quantitative accounting of
the water within a system. Accounting for the stream flow entering and leaving the reservoir is
necessary. It may also be necessary to account for infiltration of water at the lake bottom and
evaporation from the lake surface. Note that the water in the reservoir represents the control
volume and is bounded by a control surface.
An accurate topographic map is necessary to properly deliante a watershed boundary. The
watershed is delineated in two steps:
1. Identify the design point with a circle on the topographic map and designate all peak
elevations with Xs close to design point and upstream to the headwaters of the watershed.
2. Circumscribe the stream with a watershed boundary that passes through the peak points
and the design point.
Any significant precipitation that occurs within the watershed boundary will produce
surface runoff that eventually flows through the design point.

Design Storm
A designed event is used as basis for designing a hydraulic structure. It is presumed that the
structure will function properly if it can accommodate the design event at full capacity. However,
the structure would fail to function as intended if the magnitude of the design event is exceeded.
Example 1: A rainfall event occurs over the Nelson Brook watershed. The average Rainfall
Intensity and average stream flows at the design point for 1-hr time increments were measured
during each hour of the 7-hour storm and are shown in the following table. Determine the
quantity of water in acre-feet that was added to the ground water table during the event if the
watershed is 350 acres. Assume that small pond and wetlands in the watershed have negligible
storage capacity.

Parameter

Hour
1

Stream Flow (cfs)

30

90

200

120

80

40

20

Rainfall Intensity
(in./hr)

0.5

2.5

0.5

P Qi Qo I E T S

P (0.5 2.5 1.0 0.5)in / hr (1 hr )(1 ft / 12 in)(350 acres) 131 ac ft

Qi 0
Qo (30 90 200 120 80 40 20)cfs(1 hr )(3600 sec/ 1 hr ) 47.9 ac ft
E 0 Assume that evaporation during the 7-hr storm is negligible

T 0 Assume that transpiration is also negligible

S 0 No change in storage in the control volume during the storm.

I 131 47.9 83.1 ac ft is added to the groundwater table.

Example 2: A storm occurs over the Pierre Creek watershed. Measurements of rainfall and
stream flow are listed in the following table. The drainage area that contributes stream flow to the
gauge site is 1,150 km2. Determine the unit hydrograph from this rainfall event for this
watershed.

Day

22

Hour

Rainfall
(cm)

00:00

Stream
Flow
(m3/s)

Base
Flow
(m3/s)

Direct
Runoff
(m3/s)

170

170

Unit
Hydrograph
(m3/s)

Hour
After
Start

06:00

1.7

150

150

12:00

5.1

400

157

243

38

18:00

4.7

750

165

585

91

12

00:00

0.8

980

172

808

125

18

06:00

890

180

710

110

24

12:00

690

187

503

78

30

18:00

480

195

285

44

36

00:00

370

202

168

26

42

06:00

300

210

90

14

48

12:00

260

217

43

54

18:00

225

225

60

00:00

200

200

06:00

180

180

170

170

12:00

=12.3

=3,435

With the data provided, the six-step computation procedure is employed to obtain the coordinates
of the unit hydrograph. The values in each column of the solution table just presented are
explained as follows:
Day and Hour: time of rainfall and discharge measurements
Rainfall: depth of rainfall that occurred within a six hour increment (for example, 1.7 cm of
rainfall between hour 00:00 and 06:00 on day 22.
Stream Flow: Instantaneous discharge measurements on Pierre Creek
Base Flow: Base-flow estimates taken from the depicted hydrograph
Direct Runoff: Portion of the rainfall that runs off the land surface and contributes the stream
flow (found by subtracting base-flow column from the stream flow column)
Unit Hydrograph: Ordinates found by dividing the direct runoff column by the volume of direct
runoff expressed in centimeters over the drainage area (i.e., the depth of runoff, which is found by

summing the direct runoff column, multiplying by the time increment-6 hr- and dividing by
drainage area):
Hrs After Start: hours after start of effective (runoff-producing) rainfall (establishing this time
frame is important for using the unit hydrograph as a design tool).
3,600 s 100 cm
(3,435 m / s )(6 hrs)(
)

hr m

Depth of Runoff

105 cm

(1,150 km )
km

6.45 cm

Note that 12.3 cm of rainfall is that was measured, only 6.45 cm produced runoff. The rest of the
rainfall was lost as infiltration and depression storage.

2. GROUNDWATER FLOW
When water is pumped from a well, drawdown of the water table occurs. The resulting shape of the
water table is called the cone of depression. Consider Figure 5 which shows this situation.

Figure 6. UnConfined Aquifer: flow to a well

The flow towards the well is on a cylindrical surface and at some point r from the well, may be stated
from Darcys law:

Q k i A

Q: discharge
k: Coefficient of permeability
I: Hydraulic gradient
A: Flow area
which becomes:
dh
Q k 2r h
dr
Thus, the flow between r2 an r1 may be written as:

h dh
h2

Q
dr
2 k r

h dh

h1

Q
2 k

r2

dr
r
r1

k (h22 h12 )
Ln(r2 / r1 )

This equation applies to unconfined conditions.

Confined Aquifer
Where an acqufier is confined under an impermeable material, as illustrated in Figure 7, flow
occurs radically towards the well thought the whole depth of the aquifer. If the piezometer tube is
inserted into the aquifer, the water will rise in it to what is called piezometric level or head, and
the locus of all these points defines the piozometric surfaces as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7. Confined Aquifer

When pumping occurs, the piozemetric surface is drawn down towards the well in a similar
manner to the cone of depression for an unconfined acquifer. Now from Equation

Q k i A
Therefore:

dh
Q k 2r b
dr
At radius r. the flow between r2 and r1 my be written:
2 k
dh
Q
h1
h2

r2

dr
r
r1

2 T
(h2 h1 ) Ln(r2 / r1 )
Q
Q

2 (h2 h1 )k
Ln(r2 / r1 )

Table 1. Typical Coefficient of Permeability Ranges for Some Natural Soil Formations

Figure 8. Laboratory determination of coefficient of permeability

Figure 9. Field determination of permeability coefficient in unconfined aquifers

Example 1: For an unconfined aquifer, the following data are gathered from the laboratory.
Calculate the coefficient of permeability of the test conditions: Q= 0.5 L/min, h1=53 mm at r1=40
mm, and h2=67 mm at r2=640 mm.

0.5 10 3
Q
8.33 10 6 m 3 / s
60
Q

k (h22 h12 )
Ln(r2 / r1 )

8.33 106 Ln(640 / 40)

Q Ln(r2 / r1 )
,

k
4.38 10 3 m / s
2
2
6
2
2
(67 53 )10
(h2 h1 )