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Hydrology

Hydrology is the study of water on Earth including precipitation, evaporation, soil moisture, runoff processes and flooding. It provides essential information for designing irrigation systems, water supply networks, dams, bridges and flood controls. Key data includes rainfall amounts, river flows, groundwater levels and how these interact in the water cycle.

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39 views

Hydrology

Hydrology is the study of water on Earth including precipitation, evaporation, soil moisture, runoff processes and flooding. It provides essential information for designing irrigation systems, water supply networks, dams, bridges and flood controls. Key data includes rainfall amounts, river flows, groundwater levels and how these interact in the water cycle.

Uploaded by

satyavathi Pentapati
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Hydrology

Hydrology is a science that deals with the occurrence, distribution


and movement of water on the earth, in the atmosphere and below the
surface of earth.

In general Science of Hydrology deals with

a. Estimation of water resources

b. Study of processes like Precipitation, evapo-transpiration, runoff


and the interactions between them

c. Study of problems such as floods and droughts and strategies to


combat them.

The basic knowledge of hydrology is must for all irrigation


engineers who are engaged in planning, design and construction of
irrigation structures, bridges, culverts, flood control works etc.

Knowledge of hydrology is useful in

1. Water Supply Engineering: Water is required for the people for


various uses such as domestic use, industrial use, commercial
use, for extinguishing the fire etc. Water is to be supplied to the
people through properly designed and well planned public water
supply schemes. The per capita demand of water in India for
various uses is approximately is as follows

Type of use Demand in litres/ day/ person


Domestic 135
Industrial 50
Commercial 20
Civic/Public use 10
Wastes/Thefts etc 55
Total 270 litres/day/person

Domestic water demand includes the water required in private


buildings for drinking, cooking, bathing, gardening sanitary toilets
etc. The amount of water requirement varies according to living
conditions of individuals
Industrial and commercial water demand includes the quantity of
water required for running offices, industries, factories, hotels,
hospitals etc. The specific industrial demand must be assessed on
the basis of their nature, magnitude and quantity of water required
per unit of production.

The demand for public/civil use includes the quantity of water


required for public utility purposes like watering parks, road
constructions and maintenance works, maintaining public fountains
etc
Water is also required for fire demand. The quantity of water
required for extinguishing fires should be easily available and kept
always stored in storage bins.

2. Irrigation Engineering: Every crop requires a certain quantity of


duty and delta at regular intervals throughout its period of growth.
In countries like India, as the rain water is insufficient as required
by crops, water has to be supplied from other sources for irrigation
purposes.The water requirement may be different for kharif and
rabi crops.

(Duty of crop: It is the relation between the volume of water and the
area of crop it matures.

Delta of crop: The total quantity of water required by a crop for its full
fledged growth )

3. Hydropower Generation: Producing electricity from the generators


coupled to the turbines requires huge quantity of water stored in
reservoirs. I order to ensure continuous production of hydro power,
it is absolutely essential to store water for a certain head. The
amount of water required to generate P kWatts of power equals to
P/9.81H where H is the Head of water available.

4. Navigation and Recreation: Eventhough no water is consumed for


navigation, but certain amount of water is required for navigation
and recreational purposes. The canals built for navigation purpose
act as recreastional canals also. A minimum depth of water is to be
maintained always.
5. Disposal of sewage and industrial waste: The treatment to be
given to purification of waste water mixed with domestic or sewage
waste depends on quality of waste water and as per the tolerance
levels of effluents in streams.

Hydrological studies are important in various other fields like


agriculture, Forestry, Geography, Economics, Sociology, Politics,
Water Power, Irrigation and drainage, Water Power, Flood Control,
Navigation, Canal Works, Coastal Works, Design and operation of
projects dealing with water supply and Recreational Works etc.

Hydrology is an interdisciplinary subject which requires support


from subjects like Meteorology, Geology, Statistics, Chemistry,
Physics and fluid Mechanics.

Hydrological Cycle: The water available on the earth is in


constant circulation from earth to atmosphere and back to earth.
This circulatory system of water is known as hydrological cycle.

Various processess involved in Hydrological Cycle are -Evaporation,


Transpiration, Condensation, Precipitation, Infiltration, Run-Off,
storage in vegetation and soil, Ground Water Storage, Ground Water
Discharge.
Evaporation: The water from the surfaces of oceans, rivers, lakes
and moist soil evaporates into atmosphere. The water available in
the atmosphere in the form of moisture also gets evaporated into
vapours. These vapours are carried over the land by air in the form
of clouds.

Transpiration: Water gets evaporated from the leaves of the


plants through their pores during photosynthesis.

Condensation and Precipitation: Evaporated vapours get


cooled and fall on earth in the form of precipitation. Fall of moisture
from atmosphere to the earth surface in any form is called
Precipitation. Precipitation may be in liquid form or in the frozen
form. Usual forms of precipitation are rain, snow, hail, sleet etc.

Run off: When moisture falls off on the earths surface as


precipitation , a part of it is again evaporated from surfaces of
oceans, rivers, lakes etc by evaporation and a part from plants by
transpiration. The remaining precipitation runs to the oceans
through surface or subsurface streams in the form of run-off.

Types of Run off:


1. Surface Run-off: Precipitated water meet the sea after
flowing over the land through streams and rivers.
2. Sub Surface Run-off: A portion of precipitation infiltrates
into surface soil, runs as sub-surface run-off and reaches the
streams and rivers.
3. Ground Water Flow: The part of precipitation which
percolates down into ground water reservoirs.

Water Budget: Amount of water present on earth in various forms is


called water budget

Global Water Budget:

Total water available in world ~ 1360 million cubic kms

Seas & Oceans 97.3%


Ice Caps 2.03%

Ground Water 0.61% (Deep GW 0.34% & <800m deep 0.27%)

Lakes & Rivers 0.01%

Other Sources like Soil moisture, Biological water and Atmospheric


vapour 0.05%

Indias Water Budget:

Average annual rainfall 1170 mm (~4000km3)

Immediate Evaporation into atmosphere= ~ 700 km3

Infiltration to ground = ~2,150 km3

Surface Run off = ~ 1,150 km3

The total water resources (River systems) in the country = ~1,953 km3.

Water in Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna basins =~ 62% (1202 km3)

Remaining 23 basins = ~751 km3

Minimum in Western Rajasthan 100 mm

Maximum in Chirrapunji 11000 mm

*A river basin is the area of land from which all the water flows into a
particular river
Annual Rainfall Map of India:

Applications of Hydrology: Hydrological data is important in design and


operation of water resources engineering projects such as irrigation,
water supply, flood control, water power and navigation.

Various applications are

1. To find amount of water available from catchment area of a place

2. To assess maximum possible floods at a place to construct a


spillway, culvert or urban storm water drainage system etc.

3. To estimate the reservoir capacity of a dam

4. To design various hydraulic structures like canals, diversion head


works etc.

5. To design irrigation structures and water supply for irrigation

6. To design city water supply system

7. To plan flood control and draught control measures

8. To assess environmental impact studies

9. To take erosion control measures


10. To design navigation canals

11. To design hydro electric power plants etc

Sources of Hydrological Data:

1. Indian Meteorological Department (IMD)

2. Central Water Commission (CWC)

3. State Water Resources or Irrigation Department for stream flow


data of various rivers

4. Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) for ground water data

5. Geological Society of India (GSI) & State Geological Directorate


for Geological features

6. National Beaureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning for Data
related to soils

7. State / National Remote Sensing Agencies for land use and land
cover data

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