HYDROLOGY (cont.

Elizabeth Edan M. Albiento

Adopted from: meted.ucar.edu
Understanding Hydrologic Cycle
 Runoff
Runoff is that portion of rainfall
that does not infiltrate into the
soil. In the case of a paved area,
the expected runoff would equal
the amount of rainfall minus
evaporation and any small
amount of surface storage.
As the soil becomes saturated,
less infiltration will take place.
For identical storms, the amount
of storm runoff will vary
depending on the soil moisture
conditions.
Sometimes less infiltration is
possible because of a previous
storm. The amount of water that
infiltrated during an earlier storm
increases the current soil moisture.
This means that the soil cannot
absorb as much water as before.
This results in a decreased
infiltration rate and more surface
runoff from the later storm.
Hydrograph – a graph of streamflow.
Its shape is influenced by the storm
and watershed characteristics.
Storm Factors
• Amount of precipitation
• Duration of precipitation
• Intensity of precipitation
• areal extent of precipitation
Watershed Factors
• Soil moisture at the time of the storm
• Channel network and drainage pattern
• Basin size and shape
• Overall basin slope
• Topography
• Soil type
• Vegetation
• Land use
Interflow - some water will flow just below the surface., or
subsurface flow. That portion of rainfall percolating to lower
layers becomes part of the groundwater. Groundwater flow
to a stream or river is termed baseflow. It is baseflow that
supports streamflow during non–storm periods.
Streamflow increases during the
rising limb of the hydrograph.
After the peak flow, the falling
limb, or recession, occurs. The
recession continues until the
next storm occurs or the level
returns to a value close to the
pre–storm flow. Because of the
storm, the baseflow component
may be slightly enhanced.
 Runoff Computation
• In order to compute the average rainfall over a basin or
catchment area, the rainfall is measured at a number
of rain gauge stations suitability located in the area.
• The number of rain gauge stations depends upon the
area and distribution of rainfall.
• If the basin or catchment area contains more than on
rain gauge station, the computation of average rainfall
may be done by the following methods:
– Arithmetic average method
– Thiessen polygon method
– Isohytel method
 Arithmetic Method
• Simplest method of estimating average rainfall.
• Average rainfall is calculated by arithmetic average of
recorded rainfall at various stations.
• If P1, P2, P3….Pn are the rainfall values measured at n
gauge stations, we have

Advantage: suitable method when rainfall is uniform.

 Example using Arithmetic Average
Method
Find the average rainfall over a catchment. The
rain gauge data is 12.6mm, 18.8mm, 14.8mm,
10.4mm and 16.2mm.
 Thiessen Polygon Method
• This method is a more common method of weighing
the rain gauge observation according to the area.
• Also called Weighed Mean Method.
• Accurate than arithmetic average method.
• Average rainfall can be computed by the following
expression.

Advantage: This method is based on

assumption that a rain gauge station best
represents the area which is close to it.
 Procedure:
1. Join the adjacent rain gauge stations.
2. Construct the perpendicular bisector of each of
these lines.
3. The polygon formed by the perpendicular bisectors
around a station encloses an area which is
everywhere closer to that station than to any other
station.
4. Find the area of the these polygons, shown hatched
in the figure.
5. Compute the average precipitation using the given
formula.
 Example using Thiessen Polygon
Method
Find the average rainfall over a catchment. The
rain gauge data is:
Rain Gauge Station Polygon Area, A (km²) Precipitation, P AxP
(mm) (km².mm)
A 40 30.8 1,232
B 45 33.4 1,503
C 38 34.6 1,314.8
D 30 32.6 978
E 43 24.6 1,057.8
Sum 193 6,085.6
 Isohytel Method
• An isohytel is a line, on a rainfall map of the basin, joining
places of equal rainfall readings.
• An isohytel map showing contours of equal rainfall
presents a more accurate picture of the rainfall
distribution over the basin.
• Average rainfall can be computed by the following
expression.

Advantage: The isohytel method is

the most elaborate and accurate
that other methods.
 Procedure:
1. From the rainfall values recorded at various rain
gauge stations, prepare the isohytel map.
2. Measure the areas enclosed between successive
isohyets with the help of planimeter.
3. Multiply each of these areas by the average rainfall
between the isohytes.
4. Compute the average rainfall using the given
formula.
 Example using Isohyetal Method
Find the average rainfall over a catchment. The
rain gauge data is:
Isohytes Area b/w isohytes, A Average Precipitation Product A x (P1+P2)/2
(cm) (km²) (P1+P2)/2
12
22 12.5 275
13
80 13.5 1,080
14
110 14.5 1,595
15
89 15.5 1,379.5
16
70 16.5 1,155
17
Sum 193 5,484.5
 Inverse distance weighting
• Prediction at a point is more influenced by nearby measurements
than that by distant measurements
• The prediction at an ungaged point is inversely proportional to the
distance to the measurement points
• Steps
– Compute distance (di) from ungaged point to all measurement points.
– Compute the precipitation at the ungaged point using the following
formula

d12  x1  x2 2   y1  y2 2
 Example using IDW Method
Find the average rainfall over a catchment. The
rain gauge data is:
Rain gauge Precipitation Distance P/d2 1/d2 (P/d2)/(1/d2)
Station (mm) (km) (mm)
P1 10 25 0.016 0.0016
P2 20 15 0.089 0.0044
P3 30 10 0.3 0.01
SUM 0.405 0.016 25.31

N  Pi 
  2
 
i 1  d i 
10

20 30
 2
ˆ
P
2 2
Pˆ  25 15 10  25 .24 mm
N 
1  1 1 1 25.31 mm
  2
i 1  d i 
 
25 2 152 10 2
Rainfall interpolation in GIS
• Data are generally
available as points with
precipitation stored in
attribute table.
 Rainfall maps in GIS

Nearest Neighbor “Thiessen” Spline Interpolation

Polygon Interpolation
 Presentation of rainfall data
A few commonly used methods of presentation
of rainfall data which have been found to be
useful in interpretation and analysis of such data
are:
1. Mass curve of Rainfall
2. Hyetograph
 Mass curve of rainfall
• If the total accumulated precipitation is plotted
against time, the curve obtained is known as
mass curve of Rainfall/ Storm.
• The curve rises steeply in the beginning and then
tends to become constant.
• Mass curve of rainfall are very useful in extracting
the information on the duration and the
magnitude of storm.
• Also, intensities at various time intervals in a
storm can be obtained.
Mass curve of Rainfall
 Hyetograph
• It can be defined as a plot of intensity of rainfall (cm/hr)
against the time interval, represented as a bar chart.
• The area under hyetograph represents the total
precipitation received in that period.
• This chart is very useful in representing the
characteristics of storm, and is particularly important in
developing the design storms to predict extreme floods.
• The time interval used depends on the purpose; in urban
drainage problems, small durations are used, while in
flood flow computations in larger catchments, the
intervals are of about 6 hr.
Hyetograph
 Ground Water
Groundwater is an important
part of the hydrologic cycle
and an important source of
water for many regions
around the world. Because
the water is underground, it
is not subject to the same
evaporation rates as a lake
on the surface.
 Aquifer Characteristics
An aquifer is an underground
volume of rock and sand that
contains water. Groundwater
stored within the aquifer is an
important part of the
hydrologic cycle. Researchers
estimate that 30 percent of
surface streamflow comes
from groundwater sources.
Globally, about half of the world's population depends on
groundwater for drinking water. Aquifer material is composed
of water, soil, the void space within the soil, and subsurface
material beneath the earth's surface.
The water stored in the void space is divided into two
general types:
• Unconfined - the groundwater is in contact with the
atmosphere through the pores of the overlaying soil.
• Confined - the groundwater is restricted by a nonporous
or very low porous layer termed an aquiclude and is not
in contact with the atmosphere.
Whenever the land
surface drops below
the top of the water
table, consistent
surface water features
such as lakes, ponds,
and rivers are likely to
occur.
The depth to the water table can be mapped. Such maps
show the variability of the groundwater distribution for a
basin.

This is a water table map of Cochise County, AZ. It shows a

varied water table from the surface to depths of greater
than 800 feet (244 meters).
 Water Yield and Flow
When the water table is lowered,
the aquifer material will produce a
certain percentage of water. A 0.15
storage coefficient means that 15
percent of the total volume of
aquifer material is composed of
water that will drain freely by
gravity.
The rest of the volume (85 percent in this example) is made up
of water that does not drain by gravity and earthen material
such as rock, sand, gravel, or clay. This means that a 10 unit
drop in the water table over an area does not produce 10
depth units of water. It produces 15% of those 10 units or 1.5
depth units of water.
Water flow through an aquifer can range upwards from 1,000
meters per day for gravel type materials, down to millimeters
per year for clay and similar materials. Because the water
movement through an aquifer is so much slower than surface
water, climate effects such as droughts or wet periods can be
delayed and attenuated.
 Recharge
Recharge is the introduction
of surface water to
groundwater storage such as
an aquifer.
Natural recharge-consists of
precipitation, or other
natural surface flows
infiltrating and percolating
into groundwater supplies.
Artificial or induced recharge - includes ways to increase
groundwater supplies beyond what would occur naturally. It
also include water spreading (or flooding), ditches, and
pumping techniques.
Incidental recharge - consists of actions such as irrigation and
water diversions which add to groundwater supplies but are
intended for other purposes such as irrigation or
transportation of water through a canal system. Recharge
may also refer to the amount of water added to an aquifer.
 Withdrawal
Withdrawal - is the artificial extraction of groundwater through
a well or network of wells.
Groundwater mining - when groundwater withdrawal rates are
greater than the recharge of water into the ground, a lowering
of the local water table occurs.
Cone of depression - a depression of the water table around
the well. If this situation continues, a general lowering of the
water table will occur.
Land subsidence - is the lowering of the ground surface from
changes that take place underground.
Most common causes of land subsidence come from human
activities such as groundwater pumping or the drainage of
organic soils (also termed hydrocompaction).
As the ground surface lowers, problems
occur and can include:
1) change in the elevation and slope of a
stream;
2) damage to infrastructure, such as
bridges, roads, storm drains, streets,
sewers, canals, and levees;
3) damage to private and public buildings
4) failure of well casings from forces
generated by compaction of fine–
grained materials in aquifer systems.
Impact of Land Subsidence
Signs on this pole show the approximate
altitude of the land surface in 1925,
1955, and 1977. This site in the San
Joaquin Valley southwest of Mendota ,
California was identified by research
efforts of Dr. Joseph F. Poland (pictured)
as the approximate location of maximum
subsidence in the United States.