ENGINEERING

HYDROLOGY

1 | Introduction to
Hydrology &
Weather Basics
 Earth's water is always in movement, and the natural water cycle,
also known as the hydrologic cycle, describes the continuous
1.2 | Hydrologic Cycle movement of water on, above, and below the surface of the Earth.
and the Human Impact Water is always changing states between liquid, vapor, and ice,
with these processes happening in the blink of an eye and over

Hydrologic millions of years.

Where does all the Earth's water come from? Ancient, primordial

cycle
Earth was an incandescent globe made of magma, but all magmas
contain water. Water set free by magma began to cool down the
Earth's atmosphere, and eventually the environment became cool
enough so water could stay on the surface as a liquid. Volcanic
INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES
activity kept and still keeps introducing water into the atmosphere,
• Describe the Hydrologic Cycle and thus increasing the surface-water and groundwater volume of the
identify its different components
Earth.

• Apply Water Budget Equation and

Balance in solving hydrological Each path of the hydrologic cycle involves one or more of the
problems following aspects: (i) transportation of water, (ii) temporary storage
and (iii) change of state.

Note: Our information only covers the natural water cycle, which
does not take human activities into account. In today's world,
humans have a major impact on many components of the water
cycle.
 back to the atmosphere even while falling. Another part
may be intercepted by vegetation, structures and other
such surface modifications from which it may be either
evaporated back to atmosphere or move down to the
ground surface.

A portion of the water that reaches the ground enters the

earths surface through infiltration, enhance the moisture
content of the soil and reach the groundwater body.
Vegetation sends a portion of the water from under the
ground surface back to the atmosphere through the
process of transpiration. The precipitation reaching the
ground surface after meeting the needs of infiltration and
evaporation moves down the natural slope over the
surface and through a network of gullies, streams and
A convenient starting point to describe the cycle is in the rivers to reach the ocean. The groundwater may come to
oceans. Water in the oceans evaporate due to the heat the surface through springs and other outlets after
energy provided by solar radiation. The water vapor moves spending a considerably longer time than the surface flow.
upwards and forms clouds. While much of the clouds The portion of the precipitation which by a variety of paths
condense and fall back to the oceans as rain, a part of the above and below the surface of the earth reaches the
clouds is driven to the land areas by winds. There they stream channel is called runoff. Once it enters a stream
condense and precipitate onto the land mass as rain, snow, channel, runoff becomes stream flow.
hail, sleet, etc. A part of the precipitation may evaporate
components of the water cycle:
transportation & storage
The main components of the hydrologic cycle can be broadly It is important to note that the total water resources of the earth
classified as transportation ( flow) components and storage are constant and the sun is the source of energy for the
components as below: hydrologic cycle. A recognition of the various processes such
as evaporation, precipitation and groundwater flow helps one
TRANSPORTATION STORAGE COMPONENTS
to study the science of hydrology in a systematic way. Also, one
COMPONENTS
realizes that man can interfere with virtually any part of the
Precipitation Storage on the land surface hydrologic cycle, e.g. through artificial rain, evaporation
Evaporation (Depression storage, ponds, lakes,
suppression, change of vegetal cover and land use, extraction
Transpiration reservoirs, etc)
Infiltration Soil moisture storage
Runoff Groundwater storage
Atmosphere

Schematically the interdependency of the transportation

components can be represented as in the figure on the right.
The quantities of water going through various individual paths
of the hydrological cycle in a given system can be described by
the continuity principle known as water budget equation or
hydrologic equation.
• EVAPORATION. Evaporation is the process by which water • PRECIPITATION. Precipitation is water released from clouds
changes from a liquid to a gas or vapor. Evaporation is the in the form of rain, freezing rain, sleet, snow, or hail. It is the
primary pathway that water moves from the liquid state back primary connection in the water cycle that provides for the
into the water cycle as atmospheric water vapor. Studies have delivery of atmospheric water to the Earth. Most precipitation
shown that the oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers provide nearly falls as rain.
90 percent of the moisture in the atmosphere via evaporation, • SURFACE RUNOFF. Surface runoff is nothing more than
with the remaining 10 percent being contributed by plant water “running off” the land surface. Surface runoff is affected
transpiration. by both meteorological factors and the physical geology and
• CONDENSATION. Condensation is the process in which topography of the land. Only about a third of the
water vapor in the air is changed into liquid water. precipitation that falls over land runs off into streams and
Condensation is crucial to the water cycle because it is rivers and is returned to the oceans. The other two-thirds is
responsible for the formation of clouds. These clouds may evaporated, transpired, or soaks (infi ltrates) into groundwater.
produce precipitation, which is the primary route for water to Surface runoff can also be diverted by humans for their own
return to the Earth's surface within the water cycle. uses.
• TRANSPIRATION. • GROUNDWATER STORAGE. The upper layer of the soil is
Transpiration is essentially the unsaturated zone, where water is present in varying
evaporation of water from amounts that change over time, but does not saturate the soil.
plant leaves. Studies have Below this layer is the saturated zone, where all of the pores,
revealed that transpiration cracks, and spaces between rock particles are saturated with
accounts for about 10 water. The term groundwater is used to describe this area.
percent of the moisture in Another term for groundwater is "aquifer," although this term
the atmosphere, with is usually used to describe water-bearing formations capable
oceans, seas, and other of yielding enough water to supply peoples' uses.
bodies of water (lakes,
rivers, streams) providing nearly 90 percent, and a tiny
amount coming from sublimation (ice changing into water
vapor without fi rst becoming liquid).
 move vertically and horizontally through the soil and
subsurface material. Some of the water may infi ltrate deeper,
recharging groundwater aquifers.
• PERCOLATION. Percolation is the movement of water
through the soil and porous or fractured rock.
• SUBLIMATION. Sublimation is the conversion between the
solid and the gaseous phases of matter, with no intermediate
liquid stage. For those of us interested in the water cycle,
sublimation is most often used to describe the process of
snow and ice changing into water vapor in the air without fi rst
melting into water. The opposite of sublimation is
"deposition", where water vapor changes directly into ice—
such a snowfl akes and frost.

• GROUNDWATER FLOW. Water moves underground

downward and sideways, in great quantities, due to gravity
and pressure. Eventually it emerges back to the land surface,
into rivers, and into the oceans to keep the water cycle going.
People have been using groundwater for thousands of years
and continue to use it today, largely for drinking water and
irrigation.
• INFILTRATION. Infi ltration is the process by which water on
the ground surface enters the soil. Some water that infi ltrates
will remain in the shallow soil layer, where it will gradually
Where and how
much water is there
on earth?
This image shows blue spheres representing relative amounts
of Earth's water in comparison to the size of the Earth. These
images attempt to show three dimensions, so each sphere
represents "volume." They show that in comparison to the
volume of the globe, the amount of water on the planet is very
small.

The largest sphere represents all of Earth's water. Its diameter

is about 860 miles (the distance from Salt Lake City, Utah, to
Topeka, Kansas) and has a volume of about 332,500,000 cubic
miles (mi3) (1,386,000,000 cubic kilometers (km3)). This sphere
includes all of the water in the oceans, ice caps, lakes, rivers,
groundwater, atmospheric water, and even the water in you,
your dog, and your tomato plant.

The blue sphere over Kentucky represents the world's liquid

fresh water (groundwater, lakes, swamp water, and rivers).

Do you notice the "tiny" bubble over Atlanta, Georgia? That

one represents fresh water in all the lakes and rivers on the
planet.
Water budget In applying this continuity equation [Eq. (1.1)] to the paths of
the hydrologic cycle involving change of state, the volumes
considered are the equivalent volumes of water at a reference

equation temperature. In hydrologic calculations, the volumes are often

expressed as average depths over the catchment area. Thus,
For a given problem area, say a catchment, in an interval of for example, if the annual stream flow from a 10 km² catchment
time Dt, the continuity equation for water in its various phases 107
is 10⁷ m³ , it corresponds to a depth of ( ) = 1 m = 100
is written as 10 × 106
cm. Rainfall, evaporation and often runoff volumes are
Mass inflow mass outflow = change in mass storage expressed in units of depth over the catchment.

If the density of the inflow, outflow, and storage volumes are While realizing that all the terms in a hydrological water
the same budget may not be known to the same degree of accuracy, an
expression for the water budget of a catchment for a time
Vi - V0 = ΔS (1.1)
interval Dt is written as
where: Vi = inflow volume of water into the
P - R - G - E - T = ΔS (1.2-a)
problem area during the time
period where: P = precipitation

V₀ = outflow volume of water from the R = surface runoff

problem area during the time period
G = net groundwater flow out of the
ΔS = change in the storage of the water catchment
volume over and under the given area
during the given period E = evaporation
The storage S consists of three components as

S = Ss + Ssm + Sg

where: Ss = surface water storage

Ssm = water in storage as soil moisture

Sg = water in storage as groundwater

Thus in Eq. (1.2-a) S = ΔSs + ΔSsm + ΔSg

All terms in Eq. (1.2-a) have the dimensions of volume.

Note that all these terms can be expressed as depth over
the catchment area (e.g. in centimeters), and in fact this is a
very common unit.

In terms of rainfall-runoff relationship, Eq. (1.2-a) can be

represented as

R=P-L (1.2-b)

where: L = Losses = water not available to runoff

due to infiltration (causing addition to
soil moisture and groundwater
storage), evaporation, transpiration and
surface storage.
World water considered are the equivalent volumes of water at a reference
temperature. In hydrologic calculations, the volumes are often
expressed as average depths over the catchment area. Thus,

Balance for example, if the annual stream flow from a 10 km² catchment

is 10⁷ m³ , it corresponds to a depth of (

107
) = 1 m = 100
For a given problem area, say a catchment, in an interval of 10 × 106
time Dt, the continuity equation for water in its various phases cm. Rainfall, evaporation and often runoff volumes are
is written as expressed in units of depth over the catchment.

Mass inflow mass outflow = change in mass storage While realizing that all the terms in a hydrological water
budget may not be known to the same degree of accuracy, an
If the density of the inflow, outflow, and storage volumes are expression for the water budget of a catchment for a time
the same interval Dt is written as

Vi - V0 = ΔS (1.1) P - R - G - E - T = ΔS (1.2-a)

where: Vi = inflow volume of water into the where: P = precipitation

problem area during the time
period R = surface runoff

V₀ = outflow volume of water from the G = net groundwater flow out of the
problem area during the time period catchment

ΔS = change in the storage of the water E = evaporation

volume over and under the given area
T = transpiration
during the given period
ΔS = change in storage
In applying this continuity equation [Eq. (1.1)] to the paths of
the hydrologic cycle involving change of state, the volumes
• RESIDENCE TIME. The average duration of a particle of
water to pass through a phase of the hydrologic cycle is
known as the residence time of that phase. It could be
calculated by dividing the volume of water in the phase by
the average fl ow rate in that phase. For example, by
assuming that all the surface runoff to the oceans comes
from the rivers, the volume of water in the rivers of the
world = 0.00212 M km³, the average fl ow rate of water in
global rivers = 44700 km³/year. Hence residence time of
global rivers, Tr = 2120/44700 = 0.0474 year = 17.3 days.
 Human activities that
1.2 | Hydrologic Cycle
and the Human Impact impact the hydrological
human cycle
impact
INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES
• DEFORESTATION. Forests transport large quantities of water into the
atmosphere via plant transpiration. This replenishes the clouds and
instigates rain that maintains the forests. When deforestation occurs,
precious rain is lost from the area, fl owing away as river water and
causing permanent drying.
• Identify and examine human
activities that impact the • URBANIZATION. Impervious surfaces associated with urbanization
Hydrologic Cycle alter the natural amount of water that takes each route. The
consequences of this change are a decrease in the volume of water
that percolates into the ground, and a resulting increase in volume
and decrease in quality of surface water.
• REFORESTATION AND AFFORESTATION. Tree growth can consume
more water than other shorter vegetation. According to the mass
balance principle, if more water is used by trees, less water will fl ow
into rivers and lakes or recharge the groundwater that people can
directly use.
• IRRIGATION. Irrigation is the artifi cial watering of land that • CLOUD SEEDING. Cloud seeding is a weather modifi cation,
does not get enough water through rainfall. ... Unfortunately it where you change the amount or type of precipitation that
removes water from rivers and can cause surface run-off and falls from clouds through the usage of harmful substances.
leaching. The problem with irrigation is that it removes water During this process, the substances that fall from the clouds
from its natural source and often causes leaching and run-off are dispersed into the air, causing cloud condensation which
where it is used. further affects climate conditions.
• AGRICULTURE. Causes reduced vegetation cover and soil
compaction from machinery use can reduce the amount of
water that drains into the soil and therefore increase run off.
this can increase soil erosion and the need for irrigation.
• INDUSTRY. Industries cause enormous water pollution: By
directly discharging their untreated effl uents into water
bodies like rivers and lakes. By letting their polluting effl uents
fl ow onto land so that they get absorbed into the soil and
pollute underground water.
• TRANSPORT. Air pollution caused by transportation have a
direct effect on water pollution. When particles like sulfur
dioxide get high into the air they can combine with rain to
produce acid rain. Acid rain can turn lakes acidic, killing fi shes
and other animals.
• DAMS. Dams change the timing, amount and chemical
composition of a river's fl ow, leading to dramatic changes to
groundwater-storing fl oodplains and wetlands. Such changes
can lead to the destruction of forests, which among other
things help regulate local climate.