EAH325

HIDROLOGI KEJURUTERAAN

Nurul Hana Mokhtar Kamal

cehana@usm.my
 Water Budget Equation
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Catchment area
• The area of land draining in to a stream or a
water course at a given location is called
catchment area / drainage area / drainage
basin / watershed.
• A catchment area is separated from its
neighbouring areas by a ridge called divide
/ watershed.
 Water Budget Equation
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Catchment area
A watershed is a geographical unit in which the
hydrological cycle and its components can be analysed.
The equation is applied in the form of water-balance
equation to a geographical region, in order to establish
the basic hydrologic characteristics of the region.
Usually a watershed is defined as the area that
appears, on the basis of topography, to contribute all
the water that passes through a given cross section of
a stream.
 Watershed and watershed divide
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Watershed/
catchment
Watershed/
catchment
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If a permeable soil covers an impermeable substrate, the

topographical division of watershed will not always correspond to
the line that is effectively delimiting the groundwater.
Watershed characteristics We l e a d
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 What is infiltration? We l e a d

• The movement of water through the air-soil

interface. It is one of the things that can
happen to precipitation that reaches the soil
surface
• Infiltration is the actual rate at which water is
entering the soil at any given time (SCSA,
1976)
 Processes of infiltration We l e a d

• Infiltration - entry through the soil surface

• Soil moisture - Storage in the soil profile
• Percolation - transmission through the soil
profile
Rate of infiltration and cumulative infiltration over time
(Musy and Higy, 2011) We l e a d

Ks = saturated hydraulic conductivity

 Infiltration We l e a d

Precipitation reaching the ground may

infiltrate.
This is the process of moving from
the atmosphere into the soil.
Infiltration may be regarded as either
a rate or a total. e.g. the soil can
infiltrate 1.2 inches/hour.
Alternatively, we could say the soil
has a total infiltration capacity of 3
inches.
Note: In both cases the units are
Length or length per time!
 Percolation We l e a d

Once the water infiltrates into the ground, the

downward movement of water through the soil
profile will begin.
 Percolation We l e a d

The percolating water

may move as a saturated
front - under the
influence of gravity…

Or, it may move as

unsaturated flow
mostly due to capillary
(hydrostatic) forces
 Infiltration nomenclature We l e a d

• i = intensity of rainfall (rate) (length/time)

• f = infiltration rate- measure of hydraulic conductivity
(length/time)
• F = infiltrated volume (Length3) or depth (L)

If i < f what happens?

If i > f what happens?

 Infiltration We l e a d

Infiltration is the actual rate at which water is entering the soil

at any given time(SCSA, 1976).
 Infiltration We l e a d

When water is applied to the surface of a soil, a part of it

seeps into the soil. This movement of water through the
soil surface is known as infiltration
• Infiltration plays a very significant role in the runoff
processes by affecting the timing, distribution and
magnitude of the runoff
• Further infiltration is the primary step in the natural
ground water recharge
Process of infiltration:
• The process of infiltration can be
easily understood through a simple
analogy.
• Consider a small container covered
with wire mesh as shown in the
Figure. If water is poured over the
mesh, a part of it will go into the
container and a part overflows.
• Further, the container can hold
only a fixed quantity of water and
when it is full no more flow into the
container can take place.
This analogy, though a highly simplified one, underscores
two important aspect;
1. The maximum rate at which the ground can absorb
water, the infiltration capacity
2. The volume of water that it can hold, the field
capacity
Since the infiltrated water may
contribute to groundwater
discharge in addition to increasing
the soil moisture, the process can
be schematically modeled as in the
Figure.

The figure considers two

situation
(i) low-intensity rainfall and
(ii) High-intensity rainfall and is
self explanatory
Factors Affecting Infiltration Capacity We l e a d

• Rainfall • Soil Moisture

• Soil Compaction • Temperature
• Depth of surface • Soil Porosity
detention • Soil Type
• Slope • Urban Areas
• Cracks
• Vegetation
 Infiltration capacity We l e a d

The maximum rate at which a given soil at a given time can absorb water is
defined as the infiltration capacity. It is designated as fc and is expressed in
units of cm/h or mm/h.
The actual rate of infiltration f can be expresses as;
f  f c when i  f c
f i when i  f c
Where, i is intensity of rainfall.

Factors influencing infiltration: Padlet homework!

The infiltration process is affected by a large number of factors and a few
important ones are;
• Characteristics of soil
• Soil surface condition
• Fluid characteristics
Characteristics of soil:
• The type of soil, e.g. sand, silt or clay, its texture, structure, permeability
and its under drainage are the important characteristics that influence
infiltration.
• A loose, permeable, sandy soil will have large infiltration capacity than a
tight, clayey soil
• A soil with good under drainage, i.e. facility to transmit the infiltrated
water downward to a groundwater storage would obviously have a higher
infiltration capacity
• When the soils occur in layers the transmission capacity of layers
determine the overall infiltration rate
• Also a dry soil can absorb more water than one whose pores are already
full
• Land use has a significant effect on fc. For example, a forest soil rich in
organic matter will have a much higher value of fc under identical
conditions than the same soil in an urban area where it is subjected to
compaction
Soil surface condition:
• At the soil surface, the impact of raindrops causes the fines in the soils to
displaced and these in turn can clog the pore space in the upper layer. This
is an important factor affecting infiltration capacity.
• Thus a surface covered with grass and other vegetation which can reduce
this processes has a pronounced influence on the value of fc

Fluid characteristics:
• Water infiltrating into the soil will have many impurities, both in solution
and in suspension.
• The turbidity of the water, especially the clay and colloid content is an
important factor as such suspended particles block the fine pores in the soil
and reduce its infiltration capacity
• Contamination of water by dissolved salts can affect the soil structure and
in turn affect infiltration rate.
• The temperature of water is also a factor in the sense that it affects the
viscosity of the water which in turn affects infiltration rate.
 How do we measure infiltration?
Infiltrometer is a device used to measure the rate
of water infiltration into soil or other porous
media. Commonly used infiltrometers are single
ring or double ring infiltrometer
 Double ring infiltrometer
Measurement of infiltration:
Information about the infiltration
characteristics of the soil at a given location
can be obtained by conducting controlled
experiments on small areas. The
experimental set-up is called infiltrometer
test.
• The infiltrometer consists of two
concentric rings
• This two rings are inserted (about 10
cm) into the ground and water is
maintained in both the rings to a
common fixed level
• The outer ring provides a water jacket to
the infiltrating water of the inner ring and
hence prevents the spreading out of the
infiltrating water of the inner ring
• Water is powered into the rings (both) to
a depth of 5 cm and a pointer is set to
mark the water level
Measuring infiltration: ring infiltrometer
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Falling head method: Pour in water, wait for steady

flow, then measure water depth over time.
Constant head method: Maintain a constant water
level, and measure how much water that requires
over time.

Single-ring Double-ring

Soil Physics 2010 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWxLbwLf1WA

Measurement of infiltration:
• As infiltration proceeds, the volume
is made up by adding water from a
burette to keep the water level at the
tip of the pointer
• Knowing the volume of water added
at different time intervals, the plot of
infiltration capacity versus is
obtained
• The experiment are continued till a
uniform rate of infiltration is obtained
and this may take 2-3 hours
• The surface of the soil is usually
protected by a perforated disk to
prevent formation of turbidity and its
settling on the soil surface
Plan view and sectional view of layout of a
double-ring infiltrometer and quick draw
tensiometers (from Rahardjo et al., 2002)
• A graph of cumulative infiltration rate versus time, prepared from known
volume of water added at different time intervals, during an infiltration
experiment is shown in the Figure

Cumulative infiltration rates from a double ring infiltration test on a

flat grass-covered surface (from Rahardjo et al, 2002)
 Modelling infiltration capacity

Curves of infiltration capacity and cumulative infiltration capacity

Where, Fp(t) is the accumulation of infiltration volume over a time period since the
start of the process
Many equations have been proposed to express the
curves fp(t) of Fp(t) for use in hydrological analysis such
as:

a) Horton’s equation (1933)

b) Green-Ampt equation (1911)
Horton’s equation
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Estimation of parameters of Horton’s model
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 Example: We l e a d

Infiltration capacity data obtained in a flooding-type infiltration

test is given below:

Time since start 5 10 15 25 45 60 75 90 110 130

(minutes)
Cum. Infiltration 1.75 3.00 3.95 5.50 7.25 8.30 9.30 10.20 11.28 12.36
depth (cm)

a) For this data, plot the curves of

i) Infiltration capacity versus time
ii) Infiltration capacity versus cumulative infiltration
iii) Cumulative infiltration versus time

b) Obtain the best values of the parameters in Horton’s infiltration capacity

equation to represent this data set.
Solution:
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Time Cum. Depth Incremental Time (hours)

(minutes) (cm) depth in the
interval (cm)
0
5 1.75 1.75 21.00 2.877 0.083
10 3.00 1.25 15.00 2.465 0.167
15 3.95 0.95 11.40 2.099 0.250
25 5.50 1.55 9.30 1.802 0.417
45 7.25 1.75 5.25 0.698 0.750
60 8.30 1.05 4.20 -0.041 1.000
75 9.30 1.00 4.00 -0.274 1.250
90 10.20 0.90 3.60 -1.022 1.500
110 11.28 1.08 3.24 1.833
130 12.36 1.08 3.24 2.167
(a)i) and iii)
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 We l e a d

(a) ii)
(b)
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Green-Ampt Equation
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 Infiltration Indices We l e a d

• In hydrological calculations involving floods, it

is found convenient to use a constant value of
inflitration rate for the duration of the storm.
• The defined average infiltration rate is called
infiltration index
• The 2 commonly used indices are
– φ- index (phi index)
– W-index
 φ- index We l e a d

• Definition: average rainfall above which the rainfall

volume is equal to the runoff volume.
• Derived from the rainfall hyetograph with the
knowledge of the resulting runoff volume
• Initial loss is also considered as infiltration
• Rainfall intensity < φ, infiltration rate equals to
rainfall intensity.
• Rainfall intensity > φ, differences between rainfall
and infiltration in an interval of time represents the
runoff volume as shown in hyetograph in the next
slide
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Effective rainfall/
rainfall excess
W-index We l e a d