• DROUGHTS

 A climatic anomaly characterized by deficit supply of moisture.

 This may result from subnormal rainfall over large regions causing below normal natural
availability of water over long periods of time.

 A hydrological extreme like flood and is a natural disaster.

 Are of the creeping kind; they develop in a region over a length of time and sometimes may
extend to continental scale.

Drought Classifications

 Meteorological Drought - It is a situation where there is more that 25% decrease in

precipitation from normal over an area.

 Hydrological Drought – Prolonged meteorological drought with marked depletion of surface

water and groundwater.

 Agricultural Drought – Occurs when the soil moisture and rainfall are inadequate during the
growing season to support healthy crop growth maturity

• Meteorological Drought

A meteorological sub-division is considered to be affected by drought if it receives a total seasonal

rainfall less than that of 75% of the normal value.

Moderate Drought – If the seasonal deficiency is between 26%-50%

Severe Drought – If the deficiency is above 50% of the normal value

Drought Year – The area affected by moderate/severe drought either individually/collectively is more
than 20% of the total area of the country

Drought Prone Area – 0.23 ≤ P ≤ 0.4

Chronically Drought-Prone Area – p > 0.4

• Hydrological Drought

From a hydrologist’s point of view, drought means below average values of stream flow, contents in
tanks and reservoirs, groundwater and soil moisture. Such Hydrological drought has four components:

 Magnitude (Amount of Deficiency)

 Duration

 Severity (Cumulative Amount of Deficiency)

 Frequency of Occurrence
Agricultural Drought

Deficiency of rainfall has been the principal criteria for defining agricultural drought. However,
depending on whether the study is at regional level, crop level or plant level, there have been a variety
of definition.

Aridity Index (AI) = (PET – AET)/ PET x 100

PET – Potential Evapotranspiration AET – Actual Evapotranspiration

Intensity of Agricultural Drought

• Drought Management

Drought management involves development of both short-term and long-term strategies

Short-term Strategies – includes early warning, monitoring and assessment of droughts

Long-term Strategies – aim at providing drought mitigating measures through proper soil and
water conservation, irrigation scheduling and cropping patterns

• Drought Management

• Drought Management

 Creation of water storages through appropriate water resources development

 Inter-basin transfer of surface waters from surplus water areas to drought-prone areas

 Development and management of ground-water potential

 Development of appropriate water-harvesting practices

 In situ soil moisture conservation measures

 Economic use of water in irrigation through practices such as drip irrigation, sprinkler irrigation,
etc.

 Reduction of evaporation from soil and water surfaces

 Development of afforestation, agro-forestry and agro-horticulture practices

 Development of fuelwood and folder

 Sand dune stabilization

• Water Harvesting

Water Harvesting is a general term to include all systems that concentrate, collect and store runoff from
small catchments for later use in smaller user areas,
Water Harvesting is defined as the process of collecting and concentrating runoff water from a runoff
area into a run-on area, where the collected water is either directly applied to the cropping area and
stored in an on-farm water reservoir for future productive uses (domestic use, livestock watering,
aquaculture and irrigation). The collected water can also be used for groundwater recharge and storage
in the aquifer, (recharge enhancement)

• Drought Management

Water
Harvesting

Flood Water Harvesting

Rainwater Harvesting (Runoff of Small Stream )

Roof Top Water Harvesting of

Harvesting Small Ground With Storage Without Storage
(RTWH) Area Surface

A flood is an overflow of water that submerges land which is usually dry. This can happen in a multitude
of ways. Most common is when rivers or streams overflow their banks. Excessive rain, a ruptured dam or
levee, rapid ice melting in the mountains, or even an unfortunately placed beaver dam can overwhelm a
river and send it spreading over the adjacent land.

Causes of floods

 Upslope factors

The amount, location, and timing of water reaching a drainage channel from natural precipitation
and controlled or uncontrolled reservoir releases determines the flow at downstream locations. Some
precipitation evaporates, some slowly percolates through soil, some may be temporarily sequestered as
snow or ice, and some may produce rapid runoff from surfaces including rock, pavement, roofs, and
saturated or frozen ground.

 Downslope factors

Water flowing downhill ultimately encounters downstream conditions slowing movement. The
final limitation is often the ocean or a natural or artificial lake. Elevation changes such as tidal
fluctuations are significant determinants of coastal and estuarine flooding. Less predictable events
like tsunamis and storm surges may also cause elevation changes in large bodies of water.

 Coincidence

Extreme flood events often result from coincidence such as unusually intense, warm rainfall melting
heavy snow pack, producing channel obstructions from floating ice, and releasing small impoundments
like dams.

The primary effects of flooding

 Loss of life,

 damage to buildings and other structures, including bridges, sewerage systems, roadways, and
canals.

 Damage of power transmission.

 loss of sewage disposal facilities.

 Lack of clean water

 Raises the risk of waterborne diseases

 Damage to roads and transport infrastructure

 agriculture

Benefits of floods

 recharging ground water,

 making soil more fertile and increasing nutrients in some soils.

 provide much needed water resources in arid and semi arid regions

 spread nutrients to lakes and rivers, which can lead to increased biomass and
improved fisheries for a few years.

Principal types of floods

 Areal

Floods can happen on flat or low-lying areas when water is supplied by rainfall or snowmelt more
rapidly than it can either infiltrate or run off. The excess accumulates in place, sometimes to hazardous
depths. Areal flooding begins in flat areas like floodplains and in local depressions not connected to a
stream channel, because the velocity of overland flow depends on the surface slope.

 Riverine (Channel)
 When overland flow occurs on tilled fields, it can result in a muddy flood where sediments are
picked up by run off and carried as suspended matter or bed load,

 Estuarine and coastal

Flooding in estuaries is commonly caused by a combination of sea tidal surges caused by winds
and low barometric pressure, and they may be exacerbated by high upstream river flow. Coastal areas
may be flooded by storm events at sea, resulting in waves over-topping defenses or in severe cases
by tsunami or tropical cyclones.a storm surge, from either a tropical cyclone or an extratropical
cyclones.

 Urban flooding

It is the inundation of land or property in a built environment, particularly in more densely

populated areas, caused by rainfall overwhelming the capacity of drainage systems, such as storm
sewers. In urban areas, flood effects can be exacerbated by existing paved streets and roads, which
increase the speed of flowing water.

 Catastrophic

Catastrophic riverine flooding is usually associated with major infrastructure failures such as the
collapse of a dam, but they may also be caused by drainage channel modification from
a landslide, earthquake or volcanic eruption. Examples include outburst floods and lahars. Tsunamis can
cause catastrophic coastal flooding, most commonly resulting from undersea earthquakes.

Alternative methods to identify the magnitude of a floods:

 Rational method

For hydraulic designs on very small watersheds, a complete hydrograph of runoff is not always
required. The maximum, or peak, of the hydrograph is sufficient for design of the structure in question.
Therefore, a number of methods for estimating a design discharge, that is, the maximum value of the
flood runoff hydrograph, have been developed. The rational method is a simple technique for estimating
a design discharge from a small watershed. It was developed by Kuichling (1889) for small drainage
basins in urban areas. The rational method is the basis for design of many small structures. In particular,
the size of the drainage basin is limited to a few tens of acres.

 Empirical method

One of the earliest flood formulas was that devised by Mulvaney in 1851. Today, almost 130 years
later, his rational formula is still famous and is still widely used as a method in design. Mulvaney's was
the first formula to relate peak flow to rainfall intensity and drainage area. It was followed by a broad
class of other empirical methods relating peak flow to similar and other physical characteristics of a
drainage basin.

VEN TE CHOW (1 962) reviewed a number of these methods. As the era of simple empiricism
ended, that of 'modern' hydrology started in the early 1930's, with the work of SHERMAN (1932).
Sherman's paper 'Streamflow from rainfall by the unit-graph method' represented a milestone in
hydrology. It led to the development of component models, in which the land phase of the hydrologic
cycle is broken into components, the major ones being rainfall, infiltration, evapotranspiration, aquifer
response, and streamflow routing. The essence of the unit hydrograph concept

HYDROGRAPHS

Factors affecting Flood Hydrograph

Components of Hydrograph

Base flow Separation

Effective Rainfall

A hydrograph, also known as storm hydrograph or flood hydrograph, is a graph showing the
rate of flow (discharge) versus time past a specific point in a river, or other channel or conduit carrying
flow.

*The rate of flow is typically expressed in cubic meters or cubic feet per second (m3/s or ft3/s).

Elements of a Flood Hydrograph

IMPORTANT EFFECTS:

SHAPE OF THE BASIN

The shape of the basin influences the time taken for water from the remote parts of the
catchment to arrive at the outlet. Thus the occurrence of the peak and hence the shape of the
hydrograph are affected by the basin shape.

IMPORTANT EFFECTS:

SIZE

Small basins behave different from the large ones in terms of the relative importance of
various phases of the runoff phenomenon. In small catchments the overland flow phase is predominant
over the channel flow. Hence the land use and intensity of rainfall have important role on the peak
flood.

On large basins these effects are suppressed as the channel flow phase is more
predominant.

The peak discharge is found to very as An where A is the catchment area and n is an
exponent whose value is less than unity being about 0.5. The time base of the hydrograph from large
basins will be larger than those of corresponding hydrographs from smaller basins.

The duration of the surface runoff from the time of occurrence of the peak is
proportional to Am, where m is an exponent less than unity and is of the order of magnitude of 0.2.
IMPORTANT EFFECTS:

SLOPE

The slope of the main stream controls the velocity of flow in the channel. As the
recession limb of the hydrograph represents the depletion of storage, the stream channel slope will
have a pronounced effect on this part of the hydrograph. Large stream slopes give rise to quicker
depletion of storage and hence result in steeper recession limbs of hydrographs. This would obviously
result in a smaller time base.

IMPORTANT EFFECTS:

DRAINAGE DENSITY

The drainage density is defined as the ratio of the total channel length to the total
drainage area.

A large drainage density creates situation conducive for quick disposal of runoff down
the channels. This fast response is reflected in a pronounced peaked discharge.

In basins with smaller drainage densities, the overland flow is predominant and the
resulting hydrograph is squat with a slowly rising limb.

Role of drainage density on the hydrograph

IMPORTANT EFFECTS:

LAND USE

Vegetation and forests increase the infiltration and storage capacities of the soils.
Further, they cause considerable retardance to the overland flow. Thus the vegetal cover reduces the
peak flow. This effect is usually very pronounced in small catchments of area less than 150 km2. Further,
the effect of the vegetal cover is prominent in small storms.

CLIMATIC FACTORS

Among the climatic factors the intensity, duration, and direction of storms are the
three important ones affecting the shape of a flood hydrograph.

COMPONENTS OF A HYDROGRAPH

Essential components of a hydrograph are:

The rising limb,

The crest segment, and

The recession limb.

RISING LIMB

Also known as concentration curve represents the increase in discharge due to the
gradual building up of storage in channels and over the catchment surface.
 The initial losses and high infiltration losses during the early period of a storm cause the
discharge to rise rather slowly in the initial periods. As the storm continues, more and more flow from
distant parts reach the basin outlet. Simultaneously the infiltration losses also decrease with time. Thus
under a uniform storm over the catchment, the runoff increases rapidly with time. As indicated earlier,
the basin and storm characteristics control the shape of the rising limb of a hydrograph.

CREST SEGMENT

One of the most important parts of a hydrograph as it contains the peak flow.

The peak flow occurs when the runoff from various parts of the catchment
simultaneously contribute the maximum amount of flow at the basin outlet.

Generally, for large catchments, the peak flow occurs after the cessation of rainfall, the
time interval from the centre of mass of rainfall to the peak being essentially controlled by basin and
storm characteristics.

Multiple-peaked complex hydrographs in a basin can occur when two or more storms
occur in close succession.

RECESSION LIMB

-which extends from the point of inflection at the end of the crest segment to the
commencement of the natural groundwater flow represents the withdrawal of the water from the
storage built up in the basin during the earlier phases of the hydrograph.

The storage of water in the basin exist as

surface storage, which includes both surface detention and channel storage

interflow storage,

groundwater storage.

Barnes (1940) showed that the recession of a storage can be expressed as

Qt = Q0Ktr

Where:

Q0 and Qt are discharged at a time interval of t days with Q0 being the initial discharge;

Kr is a recession constant of value less than unity

It can also be expressed in an alternative form of the exponential decay as

Qt = Q0e-at

Where: a = -ln Kr

The recession constant Kr can be considered to be made up of three components to take

care of the three types of storage as

Kr = Krs • Kri • Krb

Where:

Krs = recession constant for surface storage

Kri = recession constant for interflow

Krb = recession constant for base flow

Typically the values of these recession constant, when t is in days, are

Krs = 0.05 to 0.20

Kri = 0.50 to 0.85

Krb = 0.85 to 0.99

BASE FLOW SEPARATION

In many hydrograph analyses a relationship between the surface-flow hydrograph and

the effective rainfall (i.e. rainfall minus losses ) is sought to be established.

The surface-flow hydrograph is obtained from the total storm hydrograph by separating
the quick-response runoff. It is usual to consider the interflow as a part of the surface flow in view of its
quick response. Thus only the base flow is to be deducted from the total storm hydrograph to obtain the
surface flow hydrograph.

Three methods of base-flow separation:

Method I

Straight-Line Method

In this method the separation of the base flow is achieved by joining with a straight line
the beginning of the surface runoff to a point on the recession limb representing the end of the direct
runoff.

An empirical equation for the time interval N (days) from the peak to the point B is

N=0.83 A0.2

Where:

A = drainage area in km2

N =time interval is in days

METHOD II

In this method the base flow curve existing prior to the commencement of the surface
runoff is extended till it intersects the ordinate drawn at the peak. This point is joined to point B by a
straight line. Segment AC and CB demarcate the base flow and surface runoff.

METHOD III
 In this method the base flow recession curve after the depletion of the flood water is
extended backwards till it intersects the ordinate at the point of inflection. Points A and F are joined by
an arbitrary smooth curve.

The surface runoff hydrograph obtained after the base-flow separation is also known as
direct runoff hydrograph (DRH).

EFFECTIVE RAINFALL (ER)

Also known as Excess Rainfall.

It is that part of a rainfall that becomes direct runoff at the outlet of the watershed.

It is thus the total rainfall in a given duration from which abstractions such as infiltration and initial
losses are subtracted.

Rainfall that is neither retained on the land surface nor infiltrated into the soil.

EFFECTIVE RAINFALL (ER)

For purpose of correlating DRH with the rainfall which produced the flow, the
hyetograph of the rainfall is also pruned by deducting the losses.

The initial loss and infiltration losses are subtracted from it.

The resulting hyetograph is also known as effective rainfall hyetograph (ERH). It is also
known as hyetgraph of rainfall excess or supra rainfall.

Both DRH and ERH represent the same total quantity but in different units. Since ERH i
usually in cm/h plotted against time, the area of ERH multiplied by the catchment area gives the total
volume of direct runoff which is the same as the area of DRH. The initial loss and infiltration losses are
estimated based on the available data of the catchment.

Example Problem

Rainfall of magnitude 3.8cm and 2.8cm occurring on two consecutive 4-h durations on a
catchment of area 27km2 produced the following hydrograph of flow at the outlet of the catchment.
Estimate the rainfall excess and

ɸ-index.

Example Problem 2

A storm over a catchment of area 5.0km2 had a duration of 14 hours. The mass curve of rainfall
of the storm is as follows:

If the ɸ- index for the catchment is 0.4cm/h, determine the effective rainfall hyetograph and the
volume of direct runoff from the catchment due to the storm.

UNIT HYDROGRAPH
Defined as the hydrograph of direct runoff resulting from one unit depth (1cm) of rainfall excess
occurring uniformly over the basin and at a uniform rate for a specified duration (D hours)

The term “unit” here refers to a unit depth of rainfall excess which is usually taken as 1cm. The duration,
being a very important characteristics, is used as a prefix to a specific unit hydrograph. Thus, one has a
6-unit hydrograph, 12-h unit hydrograph, etc. and in general a D-h unit hydrograph applicable to a given
catchment

UNIT HYDROGRAPH
implies the following:

• Represents the lumped response of the catchment to a unit rainfall excess of D-h duration to
produce a direct-runoff hydrograph. It relates only the direct runoff to the rainfall excess.
Hence, the volume of water contained in the unit hydrograph must be equal to the rainfall
excess. As 1cm depth of rainfall excess is considered, the area of the unit hydrograph is equal to
a volume given by 1cm over the catchment.

UNIT HYDROGRAPH
implies the following:

• The rainfall is considered to have an average intensity of excess rainfall (ER) of 1/D cm/h for the
duration D-h of the storm.

• The distribution of the storm is considered to be uniform all over the catchment.

Catchment Area = 1292km2

Two basic assumptions constitute the foundation for the Unit-Hydrograph

• Time Invariance – This implies that the DRH for a given ER in a catchment is always the same
irrespective of when it occurs.

• Linear Response – This means that if an input x1(t) causes an output y2(t) = rx1(t), then y2(t) =
ry1(t)

FLOOD CONTROL

* Flood control has been practiced since ancient times with methods such as reforestation, and
the construction of levees, dams, reservoirs and channels diverting floodwater, called flood
ways.

CHANNEL CONVEYANCE

* Changes in the channel conveyance properties can help reduce flood risk by increasing a
river’s capacity

* This can be achieved in a number of different ways:

1. Reduction of the hydraulic resistance to flow

2. Increasing the river’s cross-sectional area
 3. Increasing the river’s slope through a decrease in length

* Reduction of the hydraulic resistance to flow can be achieved through any one of the
following measures:

1. Clearing the banks of vegetation and debris

2. Clearing sand bars and point bars

LEVEES

* Levees are one of the oldest forms of river flood control used to protect people and their
property from damaging flood waters

* They consist of the earthen embankments built between the river and the are to be protected.

* Levees restrict the flood water’s flow to the river side of the levees. This will increase the stage
in the river.

* Levees should be built well outside the meander width of the river’s prone to lateral migration.

RESERVOIR

* A "storehouse" is a storage space for fluids. These fluids may be water, hydrocarbons or gas. A
reservoir usually means an enlarged natural or artificial lake, storage pond or impoundment
created using a dam or lock to store water. Reservoirs can be created by controlling a stream
that drains an existing body of water. They can also be constructed in river valleys using a dam.
Alternately, a reservoir can be built by excavating flat ground and/or constructing retaining walls
and levees.

FLOODWAY

* A channel for an overflow of water caused by flooding.

FLOOD BYPASS

* A flood bypass is a region of land or a large man-made structure that is designed to convey
excess flood waters from a river or stream in order to reduce the risk of flooding on the natural
river or stream near a key point of interest, such as a city. Flood bypasses, sometimes called
flood ways, often have man-made diversion works, such as diversion weirs and spillways, at
their head or point of origin. The main body of a flood bypass is often a natural flood plain.

* Flood bypasses are typically used only during major floods and act in a similar nature to a
detention basin. Since the area of a flood bypass is significantly larger than the cross-sectional
area of the original river or stream channel from which water is diverted, the velocity of water in
a flood bypass will be significantly lower than the velocity of the flood water in the original
system.

FLOOD CONTROL CHANNELS

* Flood control channels are a series of large and empty (except when a flood is actually present)
open-air channels that extend a ways below the street levels of some larger cities, so that if and
 when a flood occurs, the flood will run into the channels, and proceed to be drained to the
proper body of water. Flood control channels are sometimes built on the former courses of
waterways as a way to reduce flooding. They are not to be confused with watercourses which
are simply confined between levees. These structures may be made entirely of concrete, with
concrete sides and an exposed bottom, with riprap sides and an exposed bottom, or completely
unlined.

FLOOD WALL

* A flood wall (or floodwall) is a primarily vertical artificial barrier designed to temporarily contain
the waters of a river or other waterway which may rise to unusual levels during seasonal or
extreme weather events. Flood walls are mainly used on locations where space is scarce, such as
cities or where building levees or dikes (dykes) would interfere with other interests, such as
existing buildings, historical architecture or commercial use of embankments.

* Flood walls are nowadays mainly constructed from pre-fabricated concrete elements. Flood
walls often have floodgates which are large openings to provide passage except during periods
of flooding, when they are closed.

FLOOD BARRIER

* A flood barrier, surge barrier or storm surge barrier is a specific type of floodgate, designed to
prevent a storm surge or spring tide from flooding the protected area behind the barrier. A
surge barrier is almost always part of a larger flood protection system consisting of floodwalls,
levees (also known as dikes), and other constructions and natural geographical features.

* Flood barrier may also refer to barriers placed around or at individual buildings to keep
floodwaters from entering those buildings.

Groundwater

• Part of precipitation that infiltrates through the soil to the water table. It is an important
component of water resource system.

Sources of Groundwater

• Precipitation

• Interception

• Subsurface flow

• Soil Moisture

Zones of Underground Water

• Zone of Aeration/Vadose Zone - a zone that contains both water and air

• Saturated Zone - Where all the interconnected openings between rock particles are filled
with water
 • Soil Moisture – water in the upper layers of aeration

• Groundwater – called the water in the zone of saturation

• Perched Water Table – when a small water body is separated from the main groundwater body
by a relatively small impermeable stratum

• Capillary Fringe/Tension-saturated Zone – the place above the water table. In this region the
pore space is completely filled with water

• Groundwater may be recharged or discharged

Two characteristics of all rocks that affect the presence and movement of Groundwater:

• Porosity

– size and amount of void spaces

porosity% = Pore Volume/Total Volume x 100%

• Permeability

– the relative ease with which water can move through spaces in the rock

Aquifer

an underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock or unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand or

silt) from which groundwater can be extracted using water well.

Two Types of Aquifer

• Unconfined Aquifers

– are those into which water seeps from the ground surface directly above the aquifer

• Confined Aquifer

– are separated from the ground surface by an impermeable layer and are generally at
greater depths than unconfined aquifers.

Discharge of Groundwater

• Transpiration and Evaporation

• Springs

• Subsurface flow

• wells
 Determination of Permeability

• Permeability

– the ability of a substance to allow another substance to pass through it, especially the
ability of a porous rock, sediment or soil to transmit fluid through pores and cracks

• Permeameters

– device use to determine permeability

Sources of Contamination in Groundwater

• Salt contamination

• Leakage and spills

• Pesticides and fertilizers

• Waste disposal

• Advection

– describes movement of contaminant with and at the speed of the moving water

• Dispersion

– it leads to a spreading of concentration fronts as they evolve over time and enhanced
mixing of contaminated water with surrounding uncontaminated water

• Molecular Diffusion

– Spreading of contaminants from the pore space from regions of high concentration to
low cow concentration in response to concentration gradients

• Radioactive Decay

– Results in the transformation of a radioisotopes into one or more daughter products

• Volatilization

– phase transfer into soil gas in the unsaturated zone

• Sorption-absorption

– transfer into soil and rock particles