ENGINEERING HYDROLOGY

Instructor:
Habtamu Kebede (MSc.)
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 CHAPTER-ONE
1. INRODUCTION
1.1. Hydrology Definition
 The term hydrology comes from two Greek words: hydōr,
"water"; &, logos, "study".
 Hydrology is a science that deals with the space-time
interaction of the quantity and quality of water on earth.
It deals with occurrence, movement, distribution, circulation,
storage, development, and management, their chemical and
physical properties, and their reaction with their
environment, including their relation to living things. 2
 CLASSIFICATION OF HYDROLOGY
a. Scientific hydrology :
 The study of hydrology which is concerned mainly with
academic aspects such as geology, chemistry, physics is
known as scientific hydrology.
b. Engineering Hydrology:
 a study concerned with Engineering application.

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1.2 Hydrologic Cycle & its component

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Hydrologic cycle is a cycle in which water moves from one phase to
another having different residence time.
It is a global sun driven process in which water is transported from
the oceans to atmosphere, from atmosphere to the land and then back
to the sea.

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 Process of Hydrological Cycle are:

 The hydrological cycle begins in the oceans.

 Sunlight heats ocean water and changes it into water

vapor.
 The vapor rises into the air and forms clouds.

 The clouds then release water as rain or snow, and

wind moves some clouds over land.

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• When rain or snow falls, some of it evaporates before reaching the
ground.

• Some water soaks into the soil and becomes groundwater.

• Plants release part of this water back into the air, through the
process of transpiration.

• The remaining water flows over the land into rivers, lakes, and
finally back to the ocean.

• Water soaks into the soil and Some water flows over the land into
rivers and lakes.

• This cycle continues again and again.

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Major Components of the Hydrologic Cycle
• Precipitation: Water that falls to the Earth in the form of rain, snow,
sleet, or hail from saturated clouds.
• Evaporation: The process by which liquid water changes into a
gaseous form (water vapor).
• Transpiration: The process by which plants release water vapor
into the air through their leaves.
• Interception: The portion of rainfall or snowfall that is caught and
held by plant leaves, branches, or buildings before reaching the
ground.
• DepressionStorage/Surface Detention: Excess rainfall that is
temporarily stored in small surface depressions.
• Infiltration: The process by which water enters and moves
downward into the soil.
• Groundwater: Water stored beneath the Earth’s surface in soil and
rock layers
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Human factors affecting surface runoff are;
1. Urbanization
More impervious surfaces reduce infiltration and accelerate
water motion.
2. Removal of vegetation and soil
Surface grading, artificial drainage networks increases
volume of runoff and shortens runoff time to streams from
rainfall and snowmelt.

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3. Vast usage of chemicals, pesticides, fertilizers and other
forms of pollutions can cause Eutrophication.
Eutrophication is a process in which bodies of water
(lakes, ponds, and rivers) receive excess nutrients that
stimulate excessive growth of algae.

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 1.3 Application of Engineering Hydrology
Hydrology is an applied science that deals with those segments of the
field pertinent to the planning, design, and operation of engineering
projects for the control and use of water.
In a general sense, it deals with:
 Estimation of water resources.
 Study of processes such as precipitation, abstractions, runoff, and
their interactions.
 Study of problems such as floods and droughts and strategies to
combat them.

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 Application of Engineering Hydrology
[Link] the 2. Determining 3. Designing
water balance agricultural irrigation schemes
for a region water balance

4. Designing 5. Designing
buffers 6. Predicting
drainage systems
floods

[Link] 9. Assessing impacts of

7. Assessing Urban natural and human
export of drinking induced environmental
water and change on water
sediment & sewer resources
nutrients from systems
fields to water
systems

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In all these projects, hydrological investigations are crucial
for the proper assessment of the following:
 The capacity of storage structures such as reservoirs.
 The magnitude of flood flows to enable safe disposal of
excess water.
 The minimum flow and quantity of water available during
different seasons.
 The interaction between flood waves and hydraulic
structures such as dams, levees, weirs, bridges, and
culverts. 15
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 1.4 Water Budget Equation(Hydrologic Equations)
The quantity of water going through various individual
paths of the hydrological in a given system can be described
by the continuity principle known as water budget Equation.

A water budget simply states that the rate of change in water

stored in an area, such as a watershed, is balanced by the
rate at which water flows into and out of the area.

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The conservation of mass is the most useful physical principle
in hydrologic analysis. For a given catchment area in an
interval of time , the continuity equation for water is
Mass of water inflow - mass of water outflow = change in
mass of water storage
Volume of inflow water – volume of outflow water = change
in storage volume of water
P - Q - G - ET - ∆S = 0
P=Precipitation Q=Stream discharge G=Groundwater
Discharge ET= Evapotranspiration ∆S = Change in Storage
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Example 1
A lake had a water surface elevation of 103.2m above datum at the
beginning of a certain month. In that month, the lake received an average
inflow of 6.0m3/s from surface runoff sources. In the same period, the
outflow from the lake had an average value of 6.5m3/s. Again, in that
month, the lake received a rainfall of 145mm and the evaporation from
the lake surface was estimated as 6.10cm. Write the water budget
equation for the lake and calculate the water surface elevation of the lake
at the end of the month. The average surface area can be taken as
5000ha. Assume that there is no contribution to or from the ground water
storage.
Solution 20
Given
t = 30 day=30*24*60*60 = 2592000s

I = 6.0/s = 6*2592000* (/s) *(s) = 15552000

O = 6.5/s = 6.5*2592000* (/s) *(s) = 23328000
p = 145mm = 0.145m, E =6.1cm = 0.0610m,
A = 5000*
Solution
I + P – E -G– O = S

0.145m – 0m - = S =0.058m
The water surface elevation of the lake = 103.2m +
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Example 1.2
Cont…
 Exercise
1. A river each had a flood wave passing through it. At a given instant
the storage of water in the reach was estimated as 15.5 ha.m. What
would be the storage in the reach after an interval of 3 hours if the
average inflow and outflow during the time period are 14.2 m 3/s and 10.6
m3/s respectively.

2. A catchment area of 140 Km2 received 120 cm of rainfall in a year. At

the outlet of the catchment, the flow in the stream draining the catchment
was found to have an average rate of 2 m3/s for 3 months, 3 m3/s for 6
months, and 5 m3/s for 3 months. Calculate the runoff coefficient of the
catchment. If the afforestation of the catchment reduced the runoff
coefficient to 0.5, what is the increase in the abstraction from
precipitation due to infiltration, evaporation, and transpiration, for the
same annual rainfall of 120 cm?
 Cont…
3. The catchment area of the reservoir is 10.5 km 2. Uniform precipitation
of 0.5 cm/h for 2 h was observed on a particular day. 50% of the runoff
reached the reservoir. A canal carrying a flow of 1 m 3/s is taken from the
reservoir. The rate of evaporation was 0.7 mm/hr/m 2. Assuming seepage
loss to be 50% of evaporation loss, find the change in reservoir level for
8 hours in the next, if the water spread of the reservoir was 0.45 km 2.

4. Estimate the constant rate of withdrawal from a 1375 ha reservoir in a

month of 30 days during which the reservoir level dropped by 0.75 m in
spite of an average inflow into the reservoir of 0.5 million m 3/day.
During the month the average seepage loss from the reservoir was 2.5
cm, the total precipitation was 18.5 cm and total evaporation was 9.5 cm.
 1.3. Historical Benchmarks
• Monitoring of river flows started by Egyptians 3800 B.
C.
• Concept of hydrologic cycle, 3000 B. P., King Solomon
in Ecclesiastes.
• Rainfall measuring, 2400 B. P. in India.

• Formal recognition of the scientific status of

Hydrology, 1920’s and 1930’s.
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 1.4. Ancient Hydrologic History
 There were many Nilometers in Egypt.
 The Nilometer was important as it measured the rise of the
floodwaters of the Nile.
 If the Nile did not rise enough, the land would experience
famine conditions.
 If the Nile rose too high, it would flood and destroy the
villages.
 Every temple in Egypt had a Nilometer because it was a
symbol of life. 27
Cont…

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 Cont…

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NILOMETER READING IN ELLS

Disaster
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WATER

1 NELL = 1.1m
Abundance SECURITY
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Security
Happiness
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Suffering
Hunger
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But, hydrology is a young 10

science….
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 QUIZ (5%)
1. Briefly discuss the difference between Scientific
Hydrology and Engineering Hydrology?
(1Pt)
2. Briefly discuss the application of Engineering
Hydrology related to Civil Engineering?
(2Pts)
3. List and describe components of hydrological cycle?
(2Pts)
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