Catchment hydrology is the study of hydrology in drainage basins. Catchments are areas of land where runoff collects to a specific zone. This movement is caused by water moving from areas of high energy to low energy due to the influence of gravity. Catchments often do not last for long periods of time as the water evaporates, drains into the soil, or is consumed by animals.
Catchment zones collect water from various sources such as surface runoff from snow cover and glaciers, and subsurface flow from groundwater, precipitation, and aquifers. Deposition from fog and clouds is another source of water for catchment zones. These sources of water collect together in a catchment area; which could provide drinking water for a nearby population.
Precipitation in catchment areas is measured through rain gauges. A graduated ruler is used to measure the amount of snowfall. These measurements are taken in a specific location within the catchment and can be used to calculate water balance within the entire catchment area. The best studied catchments cover small areas because of the difficulty of these measurements. Water lost due to interception followed by evaporation represents a large portion of water loss. These measurements are used to obtain the change in water storage over time using the equation of continuity.
The surrounding topography of a catchment zone influences the flow vectors and direction that the water flows. Water flows from areas of high potential energy to low potential energy under the influence of gravity. The geometry of the slope leading to the catchment area influences the amount of water the catchment will contain.
There are many terms involved with and related to catchment hydrology. These basic ones are taken from the glossary of terms in Kendall and McDonnell, 1998:
aquifer
baseflow
catchment
drainage divide
evaporation
evapotranspiration
event water
groundwater flow
Horton flow
hydrograph
infiltration
intensity
interception
overland flow
pre-event water
subsurface runoff
subsurface stormflow
s
Cette page est générée automatiquement et peut contenir des informations qui ne sont pas correctes, complètes, à jour ou pertinentes par rapport à votre recherche. Il en va de même pour toutes les autres pages de ce site. Veillez à vérifier les informations auprès des sources officielles de l'EPFL.
This course aims at providing a solid methodological foundation for understanding the principles and applicabilities of geophysical techniques relevant for addressing hydrogeological and related envir
"Hydrology for Engineers" is an introduction to the study of floods, droughts and a fair distribution of water. The course will introduce basic hydrologic concepts and methods: probability and statist
L’étiage est, en hydrologie, le débit minimal d'un cours d'eau. Il correspond statistiquement, sur plusieurs années, à la période de l’année où le niveau d’un cours d'eau atteint son point le plus bas (basses eaux). Cette valeur est annuelle. Il intervient pendant une période de tarissement, due à une sécheresse forte et prolongée qui peut être fortement aggravée par des températures élevées favorisant l’évaporation et par les pompages agricoles à des fins d’irrigation.
vignette|upright=1.5|Le cycle de l'eau Lhydrologie (du grec , « eau », et , « étude ») est la science qui s'intéresse à tous les aspects du cycle de l'eau, et en particulier aux échanges entre la mer, l'atmosphère (océanographie, climatologie...), la surface terrestre (limnologie) et le sous-sol (hydrogéologie), sur terre (ou potentiellement sur d'autre planètes). L'hydrologue contribue à la connaissance et gestion des ressources en eau et à leur durabilité en rapport avec les bassins versants environnementaux.
Explore les réponses hydrologiques aux précipitations, en se concentrant sur le ruissellement de surface, la production d'écoulement et les études d'inondation.
Couvre la physique des neiges, l'hydrologie, la modélisation et l'impact climatique, en mettant l'accent sur l'auto-apprentissage et la compréhension pratique.
One of the primary causes of non-uniform snowfall deposition on the ground in mountainous regions is the preferential deposition of snow, which results from the interaction of near-surface winds with topography and snow particles. However, producing high-r ...
This study compares three imputation methods applied to the field observations of hydraulic head in subsurface hydrology. Hydrogeological studies that analyze the timeseries of groundwater elevations often face issues with missing data that may mislead bot ...
MDPI2023
Nitrate contamination of rivers from agricultural sources, is a challenging problem for water quality management. The relationship between solute concentrations and streamflow rates (C-Q) observed at catchment outlets provide useful information on hydrolog ...