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fm BLBK276-Gupta August 31, 2010 13:58 Trim: 246mm X 189mm Printer Name: Yet to Come

MODERN HYDROLOGY AND SUSTAINABLE WATER DEVELOPMENT

Modern Hydrology and Sustainable Water Development S. K. Gupta

© 2011 S. K. Gupta. ISBN: 978-1-405-17124-3



Author Biography

After graduating in geophysics from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT),Kharagpur, Dr. S.K. Gupta did his PhD from IIT, Bombay in 1974. He is arecipient of the Vikaram Sarabhai National Award in Hydrology and AtmosphericSciences. Dr. Gupta nucleated the Isotope Hydrology group at the PhysicalResearch Laboratory, Ahmedabad and carried out research for more than past 3decades. Presently, he is the Principal Coordinator of the National Programmefor Isotopic Fingerprinting of Waters of India. Dr. Gupta has more than 150publications in internationally refereed research journals and several books tohis credit. Dr. Gupta has also been a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Hawaiiat Manoa and an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the University of Heidelberg

and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Canberra. He is also a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences,India.



Modern Hydrologyand Sustainable

Water Development

S.K. GuptaPhysical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication



This edition first published 2011, C© 2011 by S.K. Gupta

Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwell’s publishing program has been mergedwith Wiley’s global Scientific, Technical and Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell.

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Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Gupta, Sushil K. (Sushil Kumar), 1946-Modern hydrology and sustainable water development / S.K. Gupta.

p. cm.Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 978-1-4051-7124-3 (cloth)

1. Hydrology. 2. Water resources development. I. Title.GB661.2.G866 2010551.48–dc22

ISBN: 978–1–4051–7124–32010008112

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This book is published in the following electronic formats: eBook 9781444323979; Wiley Online Library 9781444323962

Set in 9.5/12 pt Garamond by Aptara R© Inc., New Delhi, India

1 2011



DEDICATION

to

Prof. D. Lal, FRSHis life and work continue to inspiremy academic endeavours.


fm BLBK276-Gupta September 1, 2010 14:10 Trim: 246mm X 189mm Printer Name: Yet to Come

Contents

Foreword xiPreface xvAcknowledgements xviiA note for students and teachers xix

1 Fundamentals of hydrology 11.1 Properties of water 11.2 Common water quality parameters 41.3 Hydrologic cycle and global water distribution 101.4 Units and dimensions 171.5 Significant figures and digits 19

2 Surface water hydrology 202.1 Lakes 202.2 Glaciers 232.3 Streams 252.4 Watershed concept 252.5 Instrumentation and monitoring 262.6 Runoff processes and flow measurement 382.7 Rainfall-runoff analysis and modelling 432.8 Stream processes 492.9 Stream characteristics 54

2.10 River and reservoir routing 562.11 Scales and scaling 592.12 The invisible resource: groundwater 602.13 Tutorial 63

3 Groundwater hydrology 703.1 Occurrence of groundwater 703.2 Movement of groundwater 743.3 Hydraulic head 743.4 Dispersion 853.5 Specialized flow conditions 863.6 Groundwater measurements 873.7 Groundwater pollution 89



viii CONTENTS

3.8 Composite nature of surfacewater and groundwater 903.9 Conjunctive use of surfacewater and groundwater 91

3.10 Tutorial 93

4 Well hydraulics and test pumping 954.1 Steady flow 964.2 Superposition in space and time 1044.3 Boundaries and images in flow modelling 1064.4 Well flow under special conditions 1084.5 Well losses 1094.6 Tutorial 111

5 Surface and groundwater flow modelling 1145.1 Surface water flow modelling 1155.2 Groundwater flow modelling 1185.3 Surface and groundwater interactions and coupled/integrated

modelling 133

6 Aqueous chemistry and human impacts on water quality 1356.1 Principles and processes controlling composition of natural waters 1366.2 Natural hydrochemical conditions in the subsurface 1546.3 Presenting inorganic chemical data 1556.4 Impact of human activities 1586.5 Geochemical modelling 1676.6 Chemical tracers 1696.7 Groundwater – numerical modelling of solute transport 1716.8 Relation between use and quality of water 1746.9 Industrial use 178

6.10 Tutorial 179

7 Hydrologic tracing 1817.1 Isotopes and radioactivity 1827.2 Hydrologic tracers 1837.3 Tracers and groundwater movement 1887.4 Stable isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen 1947.5 Dissolved noble gases 1997.6 Models for interpretation of groundwater age 2077.7 Tracers for estimation of groundwater recharge 2117.8 Tutorial 214

8 Statistical analyses in hydrology 2178.1 Descriptive statistics 2188.2 Probability theory 2228.3 Hydrologic frequency analysis 2418.4 Nonparametric density estimation methods 2458.5 Error analysis 2468.6 Time series analysis 2518.7 Tutorial 265



CONTENTS ix

9 Remote sensing and GIS in hydrology 2689.1 Principle of remote sensing 2699.2 Approaches to data/image interpretation 2799.3 Radar and microwave remote sensing 2819.4 Geographic Information Systems (GIS) 2849.5 Applications in hydrology 288

10 Urban hydrology 29710.1 Water balance in urban areas 29910.2 Disposal of waterborne wastes 30210.3 New approaches and technologies for sustainable urbanization 317

11 Rainwater harvesting and artificial groundwater recharge 32211.1 Historical perspective 32211.2 Rainwater harvesting – some general remarks 32311.3 Watershed management and water harvesting 33511.4 Tutorial 337

12 Water resource development: the human dimensions 33812.1 The global water crisis 33812.2 Global initiatives 34012.3 Water and ethics 34012.4 Global water tele-connections and virtual water 346

13 Some case studies 34913.1 The Yellow River Basin, China 34913.2 The Colorado River Basin, United States 36213.3 The Murray-Darling River Basin, Australia 37313.4 The North Gujarat–Cambay region, Western India 380

14 Epilogue 38914.1 Water and its properties, quality considerations, movement, and modelling of

surface- and groundwater 38914.2 Distribution of water in space and time 39614.3 Water resource sustainability 399

Bibliography 403Index 433Plate section faces page 172



Foreword

Over the past 50 years the population of the worldhas increased from 3 billion to 6.5 billion and it islikely to rise by another 2 billion by 2025 and byanother 3 billion by 2050. Following the currenttrends it is certain that the increasing populationwill mean a greater need for food. More peoplewill dwell in cities and will strive for a higher stan-dard of living. This will imply rapid urbanization, ac-celerating land-use change, depleting groundwaterresources, increasing pollution of surface streams,rivers, and groundwater, and decaying infrastruc-ture. To produce more food, there will be greaterpressure on agriculture, which will call for moreirrigation. There will be increasing demands for en-ergy, which will also require more water. Thus, thedemand for water in both rural and urban areas willrise and outpace the growth in population.

To make matters worse, there is the spectre ofclimate change. During the last one hundred years,the temperature has arisen by nearly 0.6◦C , and itis expected to rise by another 2◦C during the next100 years. This would translate into intensificationof the hydrologic cycle, rising sea levels, more vari-able patterns of rainfall (more intense, more ex-treme), more changes in runoff (more frequentlyoccurring floods and droughts), shorter snowfallseasons, earlier start of spring snowmelt seasons,melting of glaciers, increasing evaporation, dete-rioration in water quality, changes to ecosystems,migration of species, changes in plant growth, re-

action of trees to downpours, drying up of biomassduring droughts, and quicker growing and subse-quent wilting of crops. In other words, the en-tire ecosystem will undergo a significant changeat local, regional, and global scales. One can onlyconjecture on the long-term consequences of suchchanges.

The impact of climate change on water resourcesmanagement would entail serious ramifications.Larger floods would overwhelm existing controlstructures; reservoirs would not receive enoughwater to store for the use of people and agricul-ture during droughts; global warming would meltglaciers and cause snow to fall as rain; regimes ofsnow and ice, which are natural regulators thatstore water in winter and release it in summer,would undergo change; and there would be moreswings between floods and droughts. It is likely thatdams, after a lull of three decades, would witness acomeback.

Current patterns of use and abuse of waterresources are resulting in the amount withdrawnbeing dangerously close to the limit and evenbeyond; an alarming number of rivers no longerreach the sea. The Indus, the Rio Grande, theColorado, the Murray-Darling, and the YellowRiver – are the arteries of some of the world’s maingrain-growing areas. Freshwater fish populationsare in precipitous decline; fish stocks have fallenby 30% (WWF for Nature), larger than the fall



xii FOREWORD

in populations of animals in any ecosystem. Fiftypercent of the world’s wetlands were drained,damaged, or destroyed in the 20th century; inaddition to the fall in the volume of fresh water inrivers, invasion of saltwater into deltas, and changein the balance between fresh water and salt water.

When compared to the global water resourcessituation, local water shortages are multiplyingeven faster. Australia has suffered a decade-longdrought. Brazil and South America, who dependon hydroelectric power, have suffered repeatedbrownouts – not enough water to drive turbines.Excess pumping of water from feeding rivers ledto the near-collapse of the Aral Sea in Central Asiain 1980; and global water crisis impinges on thesupplies of food, energy, and other goods.

The water resources situation in the United Statesis facing the same trend, with decaying infrastruc-ture built 50 to 100 years ago, such that 17% oftreated water is lost due to leaky pipes. In Texasthere is an ongoing drought, where ranchers havealready lost nearly 1 billion dollars; worst hit areCentral Texas and the Hill Country. December2008–February 2009 has been the driest on record;60% of the state’s beef cows are in counties withsevere to exceptional drought; in 2006, drought-related crop and livestock losses were the worstfor any single year, totalling $4.1 billion. The ef-fects of this drought are long-term.

Modern Hydrology and Sustainable WaterDevelopment, by Dr S.K. Gupta, is timely andaddresses a number of key questions gravitatingaround the interactions between water, en-ergy, environment, ecology, and socio-economicparadigms. The subject matter of the book willhelp promote the practice of hydrology focusedon sustainable development, with due consid-eration to linkages between regional economicdevelopment, population growth, and terrestrialand lithological hydrologic systems. It statesthe challenges and opportunities for science,technology, and policy related to sustainablemanagement of water resources development andin turn sustainable societal development.

Introducing the basic concepts and principlesof hydrologic science in Chapter 1, the subjectmatter of the book is organized into 14 chapters,each corresponding to a specific theme and con-

taining a wealth of information. Surface water inlakes, glaciers, streams, and rivers encompassingwatershed concepts, stream flow components, hy-drograph separation, landform and fluvial geomor-phology, and the very wide range of time and spacescales that hydrologic theories must span, is dealtwith in Chapter 2. Subsurface flow is dealt within the next two chapters, primarily encompass-ing groundwater hydrology and well hydraulics.The next chapter deals with methods of computer-aided modelling of surface and groundwater flowsystems. Keeping in mind the impact of human ac-tivities on the hydro-environment, aqueous chem-istry is the subject matter of Chapter 6. Tracer hy-drology, developed during the last few decadesand playing an important role in modern hydrol-ogy, constitutes the subject matter of Chapter 7.Chapter 8 deals with statistical analyses and tech-niques required for making hydrologic predictionsand design. Fundamentals of remote sensing andGIS, another powerful field developed during thelast few decades, are described in Chapter 9. Ur-ban hydrologic processes are the theme of Chap-ter 10. Chapter 11 covers rainwater harvesting andgroundwater recharge and is important given re-curring water shortages around the world, espe-cially in developing countries. This topic has beenreceiving a lot of emphasis today. Acknowledgingthe rightful place of the human dimension in waterresource development and management, Chapter12 goes on to discuss water ethics. A few case stud-ies of field situations, linking many of the aspectsdiscussed in the preceding chapters, are includedin Chapter 13. A wrap-up of various chapters,concluding in a holistic manner, is presented inChapter 14.

The book is well written and well organized. Itreflects the vast experience of its author. It will helpimprove our understanding of the sensitivity of keywater quantity and quality management targets tosustainable development. The book is timely andmakes a strong case for sustainable developmentand management in relation to the science andpractice of hydrology. It will be useful to studentsand faculty in engineering, and agricultural, envi-ronmental, Earth, and watershed sciences. Waterresources planners, managers, and decision-makerswill also find the book of value. Dr Gupta is to



FOREWORD xiii

be applauded for preparing such a timely book onhydrology.

Professor Vijay P. Singh, Ph.D., D.Sc., Ph.D.(Hon.), P.E., P.H., Hon. D. WRE

Caroline and William N. Lehrer DistinguishedChair in Water Engineering

Professor of Civil and Environmental EngineeringProfessor of Biological and Agricultural

EngineeringAcademician, GFA; President, FARA

President, G.B.S. BoardEditor-in-Chief, WSTLEditor-in-Chief, ASCE Journal of Hydrologic

EngineeringDepartment of Biological and Agricultural

Engineering andDepartment of Civil and Environmental

EngineeringTexas A and M UniversityScoates Hall, 2117 TAMUCollege Station, Texas 77843-2117, USA



Preface

Water is essential not only to people but to all formsof life on Earth. The importance of water for the im-provement of health, the production of food, andthe support of industry is vital in the rapidly de-veloping world of today. The wider political andsocial context of water resource development hasalways been important and will remain so in the fu-ture. Three very important examples of this widercontext are: (i) the relationship between large-scaleirrigation and society; (ii) the role of self-help in ru-ral water supply schemes in developing countries;and (iii) large-scale long-distance transfers of water.Because of its importance to life and society, wateris important to students and professionals in sev-eral fields. Chief amongst these are civil engineerswith diverse specializations, geologists, agricultureand irrigation engineers, and personnel in chargeof municipal and industrial water supplies. Environ-mentalists and planners often have vital interests inhydrology. Indirectly concerned persons can alsobe found in the fields of economics, mining andpetroleum engineering, forestry, public health, andlaw amongst others.

Until comparatively recently the approach to hy-drology was essentially a pragmatic one. However,during the past few decades, increased demandson water for various applications have stimulatedmany unsustainable practices of exploitation but,on the other hand, there has been development ofnew techniques for investigating the occurrence

and movement of water in its various forms. Si-multaneously, research has contributed to a betterunderstanding of the subject of hydrology and newconcepts of resource management have evolved.

Although it is impossible to present the subject ofhydrology fitted to such a diversity of interests, thecommon need of all is an understanding of funda-mental principles, methods, and problems encoun-tered in the field as a whole. This book, therefore,represents an effort to make available a unified pre-sentation of the various aspects of the science andpractice of hydrology. It is intended to serve bothas a reference book and as a textbook. The mate-rial derives its scientific underpinning from the ba-sics of mathematics, physics, chemistry, geology,meteorology, engineering, soil science, and relateddisciplines. The aim has been to provide sufficientbreadth and depth of understanding in each sub-section of hydrology. The intention is that after go-ing through the book, in the manner of undertakinga course in hydrology, a student should be able tomake basic informed analyses of any hydrologicdataset and plan additional investigations, whenneeded, keeping in mind issues of water ethics andthe larger issue of global change and the central po-sition of water therein. Readers with a backgroundin diverse disciples, using the book as a referencework in hydrology, should also be able to find therequired information in the context of the practiceand the basic science of hydrology. This book is



xvi PREFACE

subdivided into 14 chapters covering the most im-portant conventional and modern techniques andconcepts to enable a sustainable development ofwater resources in any region.

In this book, the utmost care has been takento present the material free from errors of any

kind; some errors and omissions may have es-caped editorial scrutiny. If detected, the authorrequests that these be communicated to him byemail: skg [email protected].

S.K. Gupta



Acknowledgements

This endeavour could not have succeeded withoutthe institutional support of the Physical ResearchLaboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad – where I learnedand researched in hydrology for more than threedecades. This is the best opportunity of expressingmy gratitude to this great institution. Dr PrabhakarSharma has painstakingly corrected my manuscript.It is difficult to thank him enough for his encour-agement and effort. Dr B.S. Sukhija also reviewedChapter 7 on hydrologic tracing and provided im-

portant input. My patient wife Surekha has been thebiggest supporter of this enterprise, always edgingme on towards completion – I am indebted to herfor all the care and support received. Having a col-league such as Dr R.D. Deshpande, always ready toprovide help in every possible manner, has been avery fortunate situation for me.

While all those above have contributed to thesuccessful completion of this project, any omissionis solely my responsibility.



A note for students andteachers

The first 12 chapters of this book have been orga-nized into three broad themes:

1) Water, its properties, its movement, modellingand quality (Chapters 1–6);

2) Studying the distribution of water in space andtime (Chapters 7–9); and

3) Water resource sustainability (Chapters 10–12).

The first chapter introduces the fundamental con-cerns and concepts of hydrology. Starting with thebasic physical and chemical properties of water,quality parameters, the physics of water flow, andmeasurement techniques, it also includes the hy-drologic cycle. Two broad subdivisions of terres-trial water, namely, visible water sources at the sur-face and invisible water underground, are also in-troduced. The second chapter presents the subjectof water in lakes, glaciers, and streams, watershedconcepts, stream flow components, hydrographseparation, landform, and fluvial geomorphology.Also introduced is the fundamental equation inhydrology, namely, the concept contained in theequation of continuity, equations of free surfaceflow, saturated and unsaturated flow, and the verywide range of time and space scales that any hydro-logic theory must span.

The invisible flow of water, namely, groundwa-ter, is dealt with in the next two chapters. The com-posite nature of surface and groundwater, aquiferformations and their properties, hydraulic head,saturated flow equations, groundwater measure-ments, and pollution are described in Chapter 3.Well hydraulics, including steady and unsteady ra-dial flow equations, for unconfined, confined, and

leaky aquifers, including the methods of well test-ing, well losses, and hydraulics associated with par-tial penetration, form the subject matter of Chap-ter 4. Methods of surface and groundwater flowmodelling, including finite difference, finite ele-ment, and analytical element methods, their com-parative account, model calibration, parameter es-timation, and sensitivity analysis, are discussed inChapter 5.

Many human activities have adverse impacts onthe hydro-environment in ways that decrease theusefulness of the resource substantially, either forhuman beings or other life forms. Aqueous chem-istry is central to understanding: (i) sources ofchemical constituents in water; (ii) important nat-ural chemical processes in groundwater; (iii) vari-ations in chemical composition of groundwater inspace and time; and (iv) estimation of the fate ofcontaminants, both in surface and groundwaters,and for remediation of contamination. The focusof Chapter 6 is on principles of chemical thermo-dynamics, processes of dissolution and/or precip-itation of minerals, and on undesirable impacts ofhuman activities, including transport and attenu-ation of micro-organisms, non-aqueous phase liq-uids, geochemical modelling, and the relation be-tween use and quality of water.

The second broad theme of studying distribu-tion of water in space and time is addressed in thenext three chapters. Fundamentals of the theoryand practice of tracer hydrology developed duringthe last few decades and playing an important rolein modern hydrology, particularly when the inter-est is in obtaining a direct insight into the dynam-ics of surface and subsurface water, are described



xx A NOTE FOR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS

in Chapter 7. The various tracers from dissolvedgases and chemicals to radioactive and stable iso-topes of dissolved constituents, including the watermolecules themselves, have provided useful toolsto understand transport processes, phase changes(evaporation, condensation, sublimation), and gen-esis of water masses and their quality.

Hydrologists are often required to make predic-tions on variability and long-term assurance of wa-ter availability and hydro-hazards, even as under-standing of complex physical interactions and pro-cesses that govern natural hydrologic phenomenaeludes. Recourse is then taken to understand the in-herent statistical distribution of water in space andtime. Statistical techniques and probability theory,as relevant to hydrology, form a simple descriptionof statistics to time series analysis, and are the sub-ject matter of Chapter 8.

Availability of many different earth-sensing satel-lites, with diverse calibrated sensors mounted onsophisticated platforms providing synoptic viewand repetitive coverage of a given location, helpto detect temporal changes and observations atdifferent resolutions of several parameters impor-tant to water resource development, planning,and management. Together with computers, theirvastly enhanced data handling capacity and pow-erful software to manipulate geographical data inthe form of a geographical information system(GIS), a new field of analysing digital remote sens-ing data with other geo-referenced hydrologic/environmental/societal data has evolved. Diverseapplications of this intertwined field include esti-mation of precipitation, snow hydrology, soil mois-ture monitoring, groundwater hydrology, urban is-sues, and monitoring of global change. These appli-cations and fundamentals of the two techniques ofremote sensing and GIS are described in Chapter 9.

The next three chapters address the broadtheme of water resource sustainability. Hydrologicprocesses occurring within the urban environmentwhere substantial areas consist of nearly imper-vious surfaces, and artificial land relief as a resultof urban developments including formation, circu-lation, and distribution of water, and techniques

of waste treatment and disposal, are discussedin Chapter 10. Also included in this chapter arenew approaches and technologies for sustainableurbanization.

Chapter 11 deals with the practice of rainwaterharvesting from domestic scale for drinking watersupply, to large catchments to support rain-fedagriculture and supplemental irrigation, and forgroundwater recharge. Rainwater harvestingtogether with groundwater recharge using and/orconserving the captured rainwater at or near theplace it occurs, offer great promise to improve orsustain water supplies in water-stressed regions.

Not to lose sight of the human dimension inwater resource development, major concerns havebeen described in the form of water ethics in Chap-ter 12. This chapter also includes a section on globalwater tele-connections and virtual water that quan-tifies the amount of water embedded in productionof goods and services. The concept of virtual wa-ter is very recent and may significantly influenceregional and global commodity trade and water al-location for competing demands.

Four case studies from three continents, withfield situations, covering regions of high waterstress and linking many of the aspects discussed inprevious chapters, are included in Chapter 13. Alsocovered are adaptation measures being employedin each region to mitigate the situation.

A wrap-up of the various chapters, concluding ina holistic manner, on how hydrologic investigationsand analyses enable hydrologists to study local, re-gional, and global water cycle and manipulate andmanage it with consideration for human welfareand sustainability, is presented in Chapter 14.

The various chapters are largely independent ofeach other. Cross references are given only to indi-cate the linkages between different lines of enquiry.Equations represent mathematical expressions ofphysical or chemical concepts and most of thesehave been derived using basic theorems of highschool mathematics and calculus. Examples andTutorials have been included in various chaptersto enable students to gain a feel for numbers, units,and dimensions.

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