Hydrology is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and quality of water on Earth and other planets,

including the hydrologic cycle, water resourcesand environmental watershed sustainability. A practitioner of
hydrology is a hydrologist, working within the fields of earth or environmental science, physical
geography, geology or civil and environmental engineering.[1]
Hydrology is subdivided into surface water hydrology, groundwater hydrology (hydrogeology), and marine hydrology.
Domains of hydrology includehydrometeorology, surface hydrology, hydrogeology,drainage basin management
and water quality, where water plays the central role.
Oceanography and meteorology are not included because water is only one of many important aspects within those
fields.
Hydrological research can inform environmental engineering, policy and planning.
The term hydrology is from Greek: , hydr, "water"; and , logos, "study".

Branches

Chemical hydrology is the study of the chemical characteristics of water.

Ecohydrology is the study of interactions between organisms and the hydrologic cycle.

Hydrogeology is the study of the presence and movement of groundwater.

Hydroinformatics is the adaptation of information technology to hydrology and water resources applications.

Hydrometeorology is the study of the transfer of water and energy between land and water body surfaces
and the lower atmosphere.

Isotope hydrology is the study of the isotopic signatures of water.

Surface hydrology is the study of hydrologic processes that operate at or near Earth's surface.

Drainage basin management covers water-storage, in the form of reservoirs, and flood-protection.

Water quality includes the chemistry of water in rivers and lakes, both of pollutants and natural solutes.

See also

Oceanography is the more general study of water in the oceans and estuaries.

Meteorology is the more general study of the atmosphere and of weather, including precipitation as snow
and rainfall.

Limnology is the study of lakes. It covers the biological, chemical, physical, geological, and other attributes
of all inland waters (running and standing waters, both fresh and saline, natural or man-made). [2]

Water resources are sources of water that are useful or potentially useful. Hydrology studies the availability
of those resources, but usually not their uses.

Applications

Determining the water balance of a region.

Determining the agricultural water balance.

Designing riparian restoration projects.

Mitigating and predicting flood, landslide and drought risk.

Real-time flood forecasting and flood warning.

Designing irrigation schemes and managing agricultural productivity.

Part of the hazard module in catastrophe modeling.

Providing drinking water.

Designing dams for water supply or hydroelectric power generation.

Designing bridges.

Designing sewers and urban drainage system.

Analyzing the impacts of antecedent moisture on sanitary sewer systems.

Predicting geomorphologic changes, such as erosion or sedimentation.

Assessing the impacts of natural and anthropogenic environmental change on water resources.

Assessing contaminant transport risk and establishing environmental policy guidelines.

Groundwater
Ground water is water beneath Earth's surface, often pumped for drinking water.[1] Groundwater hydrology
(hydrogeology) considers quantifying groundwater flow and solute transport. [citation needed] Problems in describing the
saturated zone include the characterization of aquifers in terms of flow direction, groundwater pressure and, by
inference, groundwater depth (see: aquifer test). Measurements here can be made using a piezometer. Aquifers are
also described in terms of hydraulic conductivity, storativity and transmisivity. There are a number of geophysical

methods[3] for characterising aquifers. There are also problems in characterising the vadose zone (unsaturated
zone).[4]

Infiltration
Main article: Infiltration (hydrology)
Infiltration is the process by which water enters the soil. Some of the water is absorbed, and the
rest percolates down to the water table. The infiltration capacity, the maximum rate at which the soil can absorb
water, depends on several factors. The layer that is already saturated provides a resistance that is proportional to its
thickness, while that plus the depth of water above the soil provides the driving force (hydraulic head). Dry soil can
allow rapid infiltration by capillary action; this force diminishes as the soil becomes wet. Compaction reduces the
porosity and the pore sizes. Surface cover increases capacity by retarding runoff, reducing compaction and other
processes. Higher temperatures reduce viscosity, increasing infiltration.[5]:250275

Soil moisture
Soil moisture can be measured in various ways; by capacitance probe, time domain reflectometer or Tensiometer.
Other methods include solute sampling and geophysical methods.

Surface water flow

Hydrology considers quantifying surface water flow and solute transport, although the treatment of flows in large
rivers is sometimes considered as a distinct topic of hydraulics or hydrodynamics. Surface water flow can include
flow both in recognizable river channels and otherwise. Methods for measuring flow once water has reached a river
include the stream gauge (see: discharge), and tracer techniques. Other topics include chemical transport as part of
surface water, sediment transport and erosion.
One of the important areas of hydrology is the interchange between rivers and aquifers. Groundwater/surface water
interactions in streams and aquifers can be complex and the direction of net water flux (into surface water or into the
aquifer) may vary spatially along a stream channel and over time at any particular location, depending on the
relationship between stream stage and groundwater levels.

Precipitation and evaporation

In some considerations, hydrology is thought of as starting at the land-atmosphere boundary [citation needed] and so it is
important to have adequate knowledge of both precipitation and evaporation. Precipitation can be measured in
various ways: disdrometer for precipitation characteristics at a fine time scale; radar for cloud properties, rain rate
estimation, hail and snow detection; Rain gauge for routine accurate measurements of rain and snowfall; satellite
rainy area identification, rain rate estimation, land-cover/land-use, soil moisture.
Evaporation is an important part of the water cycle. It is partly affected by humidity, which can be measured by
a sling psychrometer. It is also affected by the presence of snow, hail and ice and can relate to dew, mist and fog.
Hydrology considers evaporation of various forms: from water surfaces; as transpiration from plant surfaces in
natural and agronomic ecosystems. A direct measurement of evaporation can be obtained using
Symon's evaporation pan.
Detailed studies of evaporation involve boundary layer considerations as well as momentum, heat flux and energy
budgets.

Remote sensing

Remote sensing of hydrologic processes can provide information of various types. [citation needed] Sources include land
based sensors, airborne sensors and satellite sensors. Information can include clouds, surface moisture, vegetation
cover.

Water quality
Main article: Water quality
In hydrology, studies of water quality concern organic and inorganic compounds, and both dissolved and sediment
material. In addition, water quality is affected by the interaction of dissolved oxygen with organic material and
various chemical transformations that may take place. Measurements of water quality may involve either in-situ
methods, in which analyses take place on-site, often automatically, and laboratory-based analyses and may
include microbiological analysis.

Integrating measurement and modeling

Budget analyses

Parameter estimation

Scaling in time and space

Data assimilation

Quality control of data see for example Double mass analysis

Prediction[edit]
Observations of hydrologic processes are used to make predictions of the future behaviour of hydrologic systems
(water flow, water quality). One of the major current concerns in hydrologic research is "Prediction in Ungauged
Basins" (PUB), i.e. in basins where no or only very few data exist.

Statistical hydrology[edit]
By analyzing the statistical properties of hydrologic records, such as rainfall or river flow, hydrologists can estimate
future hydrologic phenomena. When making assessments of how often relatively rare events will occur, analyses
are made in terms of the return period of such events. Other quantities of interest include the average flow in a river,
in a year or by season.
These estimates are important for engineers and economists so that proper risk analysis can be performed to
influence investment decisions in future infrastructure and to determine the yield reliability characteristics of water
supply systems. Statistical information is utilized to formulate operating rules for large dams forming part of systems
which include agricultural, industrial and residential demands.

Modeling
Hydrological models are simplified, conceptual representations of a part of the hydrologic cycle. They are primarily
used for hydrological prediction and for understanding hydrological processes, within the general field of scientific
modeling. Two major types of hydrological models can be distinguished:[citation needed]

Models based on data. These models are black box systems, using mathematical and statistical concepts to
link a certain input (for instance rainfall) to the model output (for instance runoff). Commonly used techniques
are regression,transfer functions, and system identification. The simplest of these models may be linear models,

but it is common to deploy non-linear components to represent some general aspects of a catchment's
response without going deeply into the real physical processes involved. An example of such an aspect is the
well-known behavior that a catchment will respond much more quickly and strongly when it is already wet than
when it is dry..

Models based on process descriptions. These models try to represent the physical processes observed in
the real world. Typically, such models contain representations of surface runoff, subsurface
flow, evapotranspiration, and channel flow, but they can be far more complicated. These models are known as
deterministic hydrology models. Deterministic hydrology models can be subdivided into single-event models and
continuous simulation models.

Recent research in hydrological modeling tries to have a more global approach to the understanding of the behavior
of hydrologic systems to make better predictions and to face the major challenges in water resources management.

Transport
Main article: Hydrologic transport model
Water movement is a significant means by which other material, such as soil, gravel, boulders or pollutants, are
transported from place to place. Initial input to receiving waters may arise from a point source discharge or a line
source or area source, such as surface runoff. Since the 1960s rather complex mathematical models have been
developed, facilitated by the availability of high speed computers. The most common pollutant classes analyzed
are nutrients, pesticides, total dissolved solids and sediment.
Irrigation is the artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural
crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate
rainfall. Additionally, irrigation also has a few other uses in crop production, which include protecting plants against
frost,[1]suppressing weed growth in grain fields[2] and preventing soil consolidation.[3] In contrast,agriculture that relies
only on direct rainfall is referred to as rain-fed or dryland farming.
Irrigation systems are also used for dust suppression, disposal of sewage, and in mining. Irrigation is often studied
together with drainage, which is the natural or artificial removal of surface and sub-surface water from a given area.

Types of Irrigation
Surface irrigation
Main article: Surface irrigation
In surface (furrow, flood, or level basin) irrigation systems, water moves across the surface of agricultural lands, in
order to wet it and infiltrate into the soil. Surface irrigation can be subdivided into furrow, borderstrip or basin
irrigation. It is often called flood irrigation when the irrigation results in flooding or near flooding of the cultivated land.
Historically, this has been the most common method of irrigating agricultural land and still is in most parts of the
world.
Localized irrigation is a system where water is distributed under low pressure through a piped network, in a predetermined pattern, and applied as a small discharge to each plant or adjacent to it. Drip irrigation, spray or microsprinkler irrigation and bubbler irrigation belong to this category of irrigation methods. [28]

Subsurface Textile Irrigation (SSTI) is a technology designed specifically for subsurface irrigation in all soil
textures from desert sands to heavy clays. A typical subsurface textile irrigation system has an impermeable base
layer (usuallypolyethylene or polypropylene), a drip line running along that base, a layer ofgeotextile on top of the
drip line and, finally, a narrow impermeable layer on top of the geotextile (see diagram). Unlike standard drip
irrigation, the spacing of emitters in the drip pipe is not critical as the geotextile moves the water along the fabric up
to 2 m from the dripper.
Drip (or micro) irrigation, also known as trickle irrigation, functions as its name suggests. In this system water falls
drop by drop just at the position of roots. Water is delivered at or near the root zone of plants, drop by drop. This
method can be the most water-efficient method of irrigation, [29] if managed properly, since evaporation and runoff are
minimized. The field water efficiency of drip irrigation is typically in the range of 80 to 90 percent when managed
correctly.

In sprinkler or overhead irrigation, water is piped to one or more central locations within the field and distributed
by overhead high-pressure sprinklers or guns. A system utilizing sprinklers, sprays, or guns mounted overhead on
permanently installed risers is often referred to as a solid-set irrigation system. Higher pressure sprinklers that rotate
are called rotors and are driven by a ball drive, gear drive, or impact mechanism. Rotors can be designed to rotate
in a full or partial circle. Guns are similar to rotors, except that they generally operate at very high pressures of 40 to
130 lbf/in (275 to 900 kPa) and flows of 50 to 1200 US gal/min (3 to 76 L/s), usually with nozzle diameters in the
range of 0.5 to 1.9 inches (10 to 50 mm). Guns are used not only for irrigation, but also for industrial applications
such as dust suppression and logging.
Sprinklers can also be mounted on moving platforms connected to the water source by a hose. Automatically
moving wheeled systems known as traveling sprinklers may irrigate areas such as small farms, sports fields, parks,
pastures, and cemeteries unattended. Most of these utilize a length of polyethylene tubing wound on a steel drum.
As the tubing is wound on the drum powered by the irrigation water or a small gas engine, the sprinkler is pulled
across the field. When the sprinkler arrives back at the reel the system shuts off. This type of system is known to
most people as a "waterreel" traveling irrigation sprinkler and they are used extensively for dust suppression,
irrigation, and land application of waste water.
Center pivot irrigation is a form of sprinkler irrigation consisting of several segments of pipe (usually galvanized
steel or aluminium) joined together and supported bytrusses, mounted on wheeled towers with sprinklers positioned
along its length.[30]The system moves in a circular pattern and is fed with water from the pivot point at the center of
the arc. These systems are found and used in all parts of the world and allow irrigation of all types of terrain. Newer
systems have drop sprinkler heads as shown in the image that follows.
Most center pivot systems now have drops hanging from a u-shaped pipe attached at the top of the pipe with
sprinkler head that are positioned a few feet (at most) above the crop, thus limiting evaporative losses.

Irrigation by Lateral move (side roll, wheel line, wheelmove)[31][32][edit]

A series of pipes, each with a wheel of about 1.5 m diameter permanently affixed to its midpoint, and sprinklers
along its length, are coupled together. Water is supplied at one end using a large hose. After sufficient irrigation has
been applied to one strip of the field, the hose is removed, the water drained from the system, and the assembly
rolled either by hand or with a purpose-built mechanism, so that the sprinklers are moved to a different position
across the field. The hose is reconnected. The process is repeated in a pattern until the whole field has been
irrigated.
This system is less expensive to install than a center pivot, but much more labor-intensive to operate - it does not
travel automatically across the field: it applies water in a stationary strip, must be drained, and then rolled to a new
strip. Most systems utilize 4 or 5-inch (130 mm) diameter aluminum pipe. The pipe doubles both as water transport
and as an axle for rotating all the wheels. A drive system (often found near the centre of the wheel line) rotates the
clamped-together pipe sections as a single axle, rolling the whole wheel line. Manual adjustment of individual wheel
positions may be necessary if the system becomes misaligned.