Hydrology

Rain near the village Lunde, The north of Funen, Denmark.{{free media}}

Hydrology is a science concerned with the properties of the Earth's water, especially its movement in relation to land.

The science of hydrology is also being applied to astronomical objects that contain water in various forms. For students interested in off-world water, several lectures have been included.

More appropriately, hydrology directly applied to the Earth may be called geohydrology.

Content summary

Hydrology is the study of the water cycle. Natural and man-made processes guide water in its varied forms to a variety of ends. Use as irrigation, drinking water and process water by man is very common.

Def. "hydrology as used in the processing of radioactive materials" is called radiohydrology.

Def. the "study of the ecological processes associated with hydrology" is called ecohydrology.

Def. "the science that uses dendrochronology to investigate and reconstruct hydrologic processes, such as river flow and past lake levels" is called dendrohydrology.

Theoretical hydrology

Def. the "science of the properties, distribution, and effects of water on a planet's surface, in the soil and underlying rocks, and in the atmosphere" is called hydrology.

Learning Materials

Lectures

Chemical hydrology

• Waters
• Chemicals/Oxidanes

Glaciology

• Ices
• Black ices
• Brittle ices
• Sea ices
• Drift ices
• Ice sheets
• Glaciers
• Glaciology
• Classification of glaciers
• Alpine glaciers
• Maritime glaciers
• Tidewater glaciers
• Piedmont glaciers
• Polar glaciers
• Rock glaciers
• Tributary glaciers
• Valley glaciers
• Outlet glaciers
• Isolated glaciers
• Crater glaciers
• Cirque glaciers
• Hanging glaciers
• Surging glaciers
• Temperate glaciers
• Ice streams
• Ogives
• Dirt cones
• Astroglaciology
• Ice cores

Paleohydrology

• Huronian ice age
• Cryogenian ice age
• Andean-Saharan ice age
• Karoo Ice Age
• Holarctic-Antarctic Ice Age
• Little Ice Age

Physics

• Liquids
• Liquid objects
• Salinity
• Hydromorphology
• Oceans
• Oceanography
• Gulf Stream

Meteorology

• Atmospheres
• Weather
• Fair weather
• Telluric sources
• Hydrometeors
• Showers
• Rains
• Cryometeors
• Clouds

Ecohydrology

• Coral reefs
• Forests
• Phytoplanktons
• Ecology

Texts

• Water Resources Directory/Education
• Water Resources Directory/USA/Education
• Applied Ecology/Wetland Engineering
• Georgia Water/Best Practices/Simulation
• Georgia Water/External Links/Education
• Basic Geography

Hydrology Lessons

Diffusion

For a source contaminant concentration $\ C_{0}$ entering a flow of velocity ${\vec {U}}$ at a distance $\ x$ upstream from a point, the downstream concentration $\ C$ at that point is determined by the ratio...

${\frac {C}{C_{0}}}=e^{\frac {x*{\vec {U}}}{D}}$

Where... $\ D$ is the local dispersion coefficient determined by $\ D=0.067*depth*V_{f}$

and where friction velocity is $V_{f}={\sqrt {g*depth*ChannelSlope}}$

Velocity Distribution in an Open Channel (River)

Velocity distribution within a river follows a standard velocity profile for a confined space (pipe-flow)with the exception that the vertical distribution is truncated at the surface due to reduced friction with atmospheric gases versus the high friction against riverbed materials.

Boundary Layer thickness, also known as the displacement thickness, is defined by:

$\delta _{d}=\int _{0}^{H}{\frac {1}{H}}\left(1-{\frac {\vec {u}}{\vec {U}}}\right)dz$

where ${\vec {U}}$ is the average velocity and ${\vec {u}}(x)$ is the velocity distribution in a channel of uniform depth $\ H$.

${\bar {U}}={\frac {\int _{A}\left(\rho {\vec {V}}\cdot {\hat {n}}\right)dA}{\rho A}}$

So in the case of this river, where the current is always normal to the cross-sectional area of the river (idealized)...

${\bar {U}}={\frac {\int _{x}\int _{y}\left(\rho {\vec {V}}\right)dydx}{\rho A}}$

Assignments

Activities:

• Agriculture quiz
• Astroglaciology quiz
• Atmospheres quiz
• Atmospheric science quiz
• Black ice quiz
• Brittle ice quiz
• Glacier quiz
• Glaciology quiz
• Hydrology quiz
• Hydromorphology quiz
• Ice sheet quiz
• Liquid-object astronomy quiz
• Liquid objects quiz
• Liquids quiz
• Oceanography quiz
• Oxidanes quiz
• Rain quiz

Readings:

• ...

Study guide:

• Physical Properties of the Oceans

1. Wikipedia article:Temperature
2. Wikipedia article:Density

See also

• Hydromorphology
• Oceanography

External links

Additional helpful readings include:

• MIT OCW - Transport Processes in the Environment course
• MIT OCW - Groundwater Hydrology course
• MIT OCW - Chemicals in the Environment: Fate and Transport course
• MIT OCW - Water Resource Systems course
• MIT OCW - Aquatic Chemistry course
• MIT OCW - Water and Sanitation Infrastructure in Developing Countries course
• MIT OCW - Environmental Microbiology course

{{Physics resources}}