Engineering

Hydrology

(CEE 4420)
TTU Civil Engineering

(Prepared by Abebe Gebregiorgis

1. Basic Hydrology
Concept
1.1. 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.

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

1.2 Hydrologic Cycle

Water exists on the earth in all its

three states, viz. liquid, solid,
gaseous and in various degrees of
motion.

Hydrologic cycle.

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 vapour
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.

1.3 Water Budget

Equation
Catchment
area

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 neighbouring areas by a
ridge called divide / watershed.

1.3 Water Budget

Equation
Catchment
area.

A watershed is a geographical unit in which

the hydrological cycle and its components
can be analysed. 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 and watershed divide

Watershed/
catchment

Watershed/
catchment

Wa
te

rsh
ed

div
id

Catchment area.
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

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
as depth

volume and these terms can be expressed

over the catchment area.

Components of hydrologic
cycle
Evapo
transpiration

Precipitati
on

Stream
flow
(Runof
)

Inter flow

Infiltratio
n
Base flow
Groundwater
flow

1.3 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

S
N

1
2

3
4

Global annual water

balance
Item
Ocean

Land

Area (km2)
Precipitation
(km3/year)
(mm/year)
Evaporation (km3/year)
(mm/year)
Runoff to ocean

361.3
148.8
458,000 119,000
1270
800

Rivers (km3/year)
Groundwater (km3/year)

44,700
2,200

Total Runoff (km3/year)

47,000

505,000
1400

72,000
484

Water Balance of
Continents

Water Balance .

Drop of water
..
Matter..

Water Balance of Oceans

1.4 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

THE END