Alberto Montanari

1
Advanced Hydrology and Water Resources
Management

• Alberto Montanari
• University of Bologna

2
Learning Objectives

• Water Resources Management is about solving
  problems to secure water for people, based on a
  sound scientific understanding of hydrologic and
  hydraulic processes. This includes protection
  from excess water and from water shortage, as
  well as providing sufficient water for a
  sustainable environment.
• At the end of this class you will
• be aware of water resources issues at local
  (state), national and global scale,
• be able to qualitatively and quantitatively
  describe the main processes in the hydrologic
  cycle, and
• be able to provide solutions for typical water
  resources problems found in practice.

3
Program

• Introduction definitions, quantification of the
  water cycle, practical problems.
• Illustration of a case study the Emilia-Romagna
  region, Italy.
• Assessment of water resources availability
  rainfall-runoff modelling.
• Assessment of water resources availability
  generation of synthetic hydrological variables.
• Water resources management decision theory and
  decision under uncertainty.
• Water resources management the impact of climate
  change.

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Some informations about myself

• I usually prefer not to indicate fixed receiving
  hours. I am usually working in my office and
  therefore I am willing to receive students any
  time. Appointments can be fixed by email.
• Email alberto.montanari_at_unibo.it
• Phone [phone] (93356 from internal
  phones)
• Web www.albertomontanari.it
• Details on the final examination
• Details on final year projects

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Suggested text book

• This textbook covers the first part of the
  course, which provides and introduction to
  hydrology.
• Additional textbooks and notes will be suggested
  during the following classes.

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What is Water Resources Engr./Manag.?
Figure 1.1.1 (p. 1)Ingredients of water
resources management (from Mays, 1996).
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What is Hydrology (1)?
From Wikipedia Hydrology is the study of the
movement, distribution, and quality of water
throughout the Earth, including the hydrologic
cycle, water resources and environmental
watershed sustainability. A practitioner of
hydrology is a hydrologist, working within the
fields of either earth or environmental science,
physical geography, geology or civil and
environmental engineering. Domains of hydrology
include hydrometeorology, 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. Hydrological research can inform
environmental engineering, policy and planning.
Water covers 70 of the Earth's surface (from
Wikipedia)
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What is Hydrology (2)?
From Usgs.gov Hydrology is the science that
encompasses the occurrence, distribution,
movement and properties of the waters of the
earth and their relationship with the environment
within each phase of the hydrologic cycle. The
water cycle, or hydrologic cycle, is a continuous
process by which water is purified by evaporation
and transported from the earth's surface
(including the oceans) to the atmosphere and back
to the land and oceans. All of the physical,
chemical and biological processes involving water
as it travels its various paths in the
atmosphere, over and beneath the earth's surface
and through growing plants, are of interest to
those who study the hydrologic cycle. There are
many pathways the water may take in its
continuous cycle of falling as rainfall or
snowfall and returning to the atmosphere. It may
be captured for millions of years in polar ice
caps. It may flow to rivers and finally to the
sea. It may soak into the soil to be evaporated
directly from the soil surface as it dries or be
transpired by growing plants. It may percolate
through the soil to ground water reservoirs
(aquifers) to be stored or it may flow to wells
or springs or back to streams by seepage. The
water cycle may be short, or it may take millions
of years. People tap the water cycle for their
own uses. Water is diverted temporarily from one
part of the cycle by pumping it from the ground
or drawing it from a river or lake. It is used
for a variety of activities such as households,
businesses and industries for irrigation of
farms and parklands and for production of
electric power. After use, water is returned to
another part of the cycle perhaps discharged
downstream or allowed to soak into the ground.
Used water normally is lower in quality, even
after treatment, which often poses a problem for
downstream users.
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What hydrologists do?
From Usgs.gov The hydrologist studies the
fundamental transport processes to be able to
describe the quantity and quality of water as it
moves through the cycle (evaporation,
precipitation, streamflow, infiltration, ground
water flow, and other components). The
engineering hydrologist, or water resources
engineer, is involved in the planning, analysis,
design, construction and operation of projects
for the control, utilization, and management of
water resources. Water resources problems are
also the concern of meteorologists,
oceanographers, geologists, chemists, physicists,
biologists, economists, political scientists,
specialists in applied mathematics and computer
science, and engineers in several fields.
Hydrologists apply scientific knowledge and
mathematical principles to solve water-related
problems in society problems of quantity,
quality and availability. They may be concerned
with finding water supplies for cities or
irrigated farms, or controlling river flooding or
soil erosion. Or, they may work in environmental
protection preventing or cleaning up pollution
or locating sites for safe disposal of hazardous
wastes. Persons trained in hydrology may have a
wide variety of job titles. Scientists and
engineers in hydrology may be involved in both
field investigations and office work. In the
field, they may collect basic data, oversee
testing of water quality, direct field crews and
work with equipment. Many jobs require travel,
some abroad. A hydrologist may spend considerable
time doing field work in remote and rugged
terrain. In the office, hydrologists do many
things such as interpreting hydrologic data and
performing analyses for determining possible
water supplies. The work of hydrologists is as
varied as the uses of water and may range from
planning multimillion dollar interstate water
projects to advising homeowners on drainage
problems.
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Ancient Hydrologic HistoryNile RiverThe
longest river in the world(6650 km)
Hydrology has been a subject of investigation and
engineering for millennia. For example, about
4000 B.C. the Nile was dammed to improve
agricultural productivity of previously barren
lands. Mesopotamian towns were protected from
flooding with high earthen walls. Aqueducts were
built by the Greeks and Ancient Romans, while the
History of China shows they built irrigation and
flood control works. The ancient Sinhalese used
hydrology to build complex irrigation Works in
Sri Lanka, also known for invention of the Valve
Pit which allowed construction of large
reservoirs, anicuts and canals which still
function.
Loucks and van Beek, 2006
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Ancient Hydrologic History
http//www.bibleplaces.com/aswan.htm
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Ancient Hydrologic History
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Disaster
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WATER SECURITY
Abundance
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NILOMETER READING IN ELLS 1 ELL 1.1m
Security
Happiness
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Suffering
Hunger
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But hydrology is a young science.
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After Eagleson et al., 1991, p.20
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Major Reservoirs of Water
does not add to 100 due to rounding, numbers
differ slightly depending on study used
14
Water Cycle
15
Water Cycle
From Chow et al., Applied Hydrology, page 6
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Oki, T. and Kanae, S. 2006. Global hydrological
cycles and world water resources. Science, 313,
1068-1072.
17
Floods
Damage survey in St. Genevieve, Missouri, during
the 1993 Midwest floods courtesy of FEMA.
Floods cause extensive damage during 1991-1995,
flood related damage totaled more than US200
billion (not inflation adjusted) globally,
representing close to 40 of all economic damage
attributed to natural disasters in the period --
(Pielke Jr. and Downton, 2000, citing IFRCRCS,
1997). In the United States, annual flood damage
runs in the billions of dollars (Pielke Jr. and
Downton, 2000). Improved prediction of floods
could reduce these costs substantially, in
addition to reducing flood-induced loss of life.
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Droughts
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Water Availability is Decreasing

• Water availability is decreasing for
• Climate change (need to be very careful)
• Overexploitation
• Pollution

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Water Availability is Decreasing
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Water Availability is Decreasing
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The Future?
By the year 2025 nearly 2 billion people will
live in regions or countries with absolute water
scarcity, even allowing for high levels of
irrigation efficiency.
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_resources
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Water Scarcity Index Rws
Oki, T. and Kanae, S. 2006. Global hydrological
cycles and world water resources. Science, 313,
1068-1072.
(Rws gt 0.4) Water Stress
Total Water Withdrawal Desalinated Water
Rws
Renewable Freshwater Resources
Rws
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Typical Domestic Water Use

• 100-600L/person/day (high-income countries)
• 50-100L/person/day (low-income)
• 10-40L/person/day (water scarce)

• Differences in domestic freshwater use
• Piped distribution or carried number/type of
  appliances and sanitation

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Human Usage
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Water Stress

• Based on human consumption and linked to
  population growth
• Domestic requirement
• 100L/person/day 40m3/person/year
• 600L/person/day 240m3/person/year
• Associated agricultural, industrial energy
  need
• 20 x 40m3/person/year 800m3/person/year
• Total need
• 840m3/person/year
• 1040m3/person/year

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Water Stress m3/person/year

• Water scarcity lt1000 m3 /person/year
• chronic and widespread freshwater problems
• Water stress lt1700 m3 /person/year
• intermittent, localised shortages of freshwater
• Relative sufficiency gt1700 m3 /person/year

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The Lake Aral disaster
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The Lake Aral disaster
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The Lake Aral disaster
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The Dublin Principles of 1992 as Guiding
Principles for Water Management
In commending this Dublin Statement to the world
leaders assembled at the United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED)
in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, the Conference
participants urge all governments to study
carefully the specific activities and means of
implementation recommended in the Conference
Report, and to translate those recommendations
into urgent action programmes for water and
sustainable development.
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Gender Issues E.g. Ethiopia
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What is the role of hydrology for water resources
management?

• Estimation of water resources availability
• Estimation and reduction of hydrological risks
• Development of hydrological scenarios
• Ensure proper information to decision makers