CEC 102 HYDROLOGY

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Definition of Hydrology

The word hydrology is a compound word hydro (a Greek word meaning water) and – logy ( a
Latin word meaning body of knowledge). The course can therefore be defined as a science
which deals with water of the earth. It comprises of the study of the occurrence, circulation and
distribution of water. It also deals with the physical and chemical properties of water, their
reaction with the environment as well as their relationship with human beings. The study of
hydrology is very important to a Civil Engineer in that it helps in the design and operation of
engineering projects with respect to the control and efficient use of water. The study of
hydrology touches on virtually all aspects of Civil Engineering. The various areas of the use of
the study of hydrology includes but not limited to: the determination of flood flows that can be
expected at a spillway, highway bridge, culverts, or a city drainage system; reservoir capacity
required to assure adequate municipal water supply or irrigation during droughts; the effect of
reservoirs and other control works on flood flows in streams, and many others.

The study of hydrology is not only useful to the Civil engineer in the design and construction of
engineering structures but also to other professionals. It is also useful in the determination of the
type and extent of agriculture to be practiced, citing of industries and the size of population that
can be supported in the navigation of inland shipping and labour planning in the power
generation.

1.2 The Hydrological Cycle

The term hydrological cycle is used to describe the cyclic movement of water round the earth to
the atmosphere and back the earth. It consists of the movement of water from the atmosphere in
form of precipitation to the earth where it collects in streams and rivers from where it flows to
seas, oceans and lakes and back to the atmosphere in the form of evaporation. The conception is
that the cycle starts as evaporation of water from the oceans. The water vapour, is then transported by
moving air masses under suitable conditions, get condensed to form clouds moving with wind all over
the earth’s surface and which, in turn, may result in precipitation (in the form of rain water, snow, hail,
sleet etc.) over the oceans as well as the land surface of the earth.

There are variations in the duration of the cycle from time to time and from season to season
which partly natural and partly due to changes caused by humans. Human activities, especially
those aimed at regulating water as a resource (in its various uses, in the use of the land or in peak
reduction works to avoid flood damage), alter the hydrological cycle. While it may appear to be
continuous during the raining season, it may appear to have completely stopped during drought.
At times the circuit may be short at several stages during which the precipitation may fall
directly on sea, lakes and oceans and at times it may run through the whole course of the
precipitation falling on the ground which flows into streams and rivers as runoff which in turn
flows into the seas, lakes and oceans (see figure 1.1). It should be noted that water in the cycle
occurs in several ways, while it occurs in the atmosphere, it occurs as surface water, snow or ice
on the earth. It also occurs as either subsurface water or underground water occupying all the
voids within the geological stratum beneath the earth surface.

Evaporation

Precipitation

Atmospheric system
Evaporation O
S

Evapotranspiration
Precipitation
C

T
Surface runoff Stream
Evaporation
flow
E
Land system R

Exfiltration

Infiltration E
A

Evaporation Subsurface runoff Tidal flow

A
Subsurface system

Upward movement of N
ground water
M

Ground water runoff

Stream water to aquifer

Figure 1.1 Hydrologic cycle

1.3 The Importance of the Hydrologic Cycle in Water Resources Development

1. It helps to improve the ability to manage water and to provide the water-related
infrastructure that is needed to provide for human needs and to protect and enhance the
natural environment and associated biological systems
2. The scientific challenge posed by the need to observation of the global water cycle helps
to integrate in situ and space-borne observations to quantify the key water-cycle state
variables and fluxes. This is done by measuring the states, stocks, flows, and residence
times of water on regional to global scales followed by a series of coordinated missions
that will address the processes, on a global scale, that underlie variability and changes in
water in all its three phases.
3. It helps to foster the improved use of water data and information as a basis for
enlightened management of water resources, to protect life and property from effects of
extremes in the water cycle especially droughts and floods
4. Availability of data on water cycle prediction helps to to reduce loss of life and property
caused by water-related natural hazards, notably floods and droughts. Industrialized
societies have generally become less susceptible to drought because of their ability to
provide buffers to water supply in the form of either reservoir storage or groundwater
5. The hydrological cycle is associated with a complex balance of the planet’s water in its
various forms and proportions.
6. The hydrological cycle is intimately related to the climate because of the special physico-
chemical properties of water and the large volume in which it exists (in the oceans and
atmosphere and on land
7. Consideration of the hydrological cycle enables a more global vision of good water
resources management practice and flood management
8. The hydrological cycle helps to militate against the effect of the considerable limitations
in the state of science and technology with regards to the various time-scales on which
the various natural processes take place which may lead to mismanagement, especially
over long periods.
9. The hydrological cycle is intimately linked with changes in the atmospheric temperature and
radiation balance. Warming of the climate system in recent decades is unequivocal, as it is now
evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures,
widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising of the sea level globally.