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Physical Hydrology

Second Edition

S. Lawrence Dingman

Dingman’s goal throughout Physical Hydrology is to provide an understanding of the conceptual basis of the subject and introduce the quantitative relations involved in answering scientific and water-resources-management questions. The author supplies the basic physical principles necessary for developing a sound intuitive and quantitative sense of the way in which water moves through the land. He outlines the assumptions behind each conceptual approach but also identifies some of the limitations of each.

Rich in substance and written to fulfill the needs of future researchers and experts in the field, Dingman treats hydrology as a distinct geoscience that is continually expanding to deal with large-scale changes in land use and climate. The text is organized around four principal themes: the basic concepts underlying the science of hydrology; the global climate, the global hydrologic cycle, and the relation of hydrology to soils and vegetation; the land phase of the hydrologic cycle; and water-resource-management principles and the ways in which hydrologic analysis is applied in that context. Coverage includes approaches for determining regional evapotranspiration rates, the movement of ground water in rock fractures, and the relation of hydrologic regimes to past and future climates. It offers in-depth discussions of hydrologic modeling—model use, modeling terminology, and the process of model development; water-resource-management goals and processes; water supply and demand; water-quality issues; floods and flood-frequency analysis; and drought and low-flow analysis. Outstanding features that facilitate learning include: A tabulation of documented trends in global change of climatic and hydrologic quantities; information on methods for handling missing data; discussions of the BROOK90 model and how it can be used with the text; Internet links to hydrologic information; exercises designed for student exploration; and Excel spreadsheets on the accompanying CD.

$79.95 list, 646 pages

10-digit ISBN: 1-57766-561-9

13-digit ISBN: 978-1-57766-561-8

© 2002

Solutions Manual available

Table of Contents

1. Introduction to Hydrologic Science

Definition and Scope of Hydrology / Development of Scientific Hydrology / Approach and Scope of This Book

2. Basic Hydrologic Concepts

Physical Quantities and Laws / Hydrologic Systems / The Conservation Equations / The Watershed (Drainage Basin) / The Regional Water Balance / Spatial Variability / Temporal Variability / Storage, Storage Effects, and Residence Time / Hydrologic Modeling

3. Climate, the Hydrologic Cycle, Soils, and Vegetation: A Global Overview

Basic Aspects of Global Climate / The Global Hydrologic Cycle / Climate, Soils, and Vegetation

4. Precipitation

Meteorology of Precipitation / Measurement at a Point / Areal Estimation / Precipitation and Rainfall Climatology / Precipitation Quality

5. Snow and Snowmelt

Material Characteristics of Snow / Measurement of Snow and Snowmelt / Hydrologic Importance and Distribution of Snow / Snowmelt Processes / Snowmelt Modeling / Water-Quality Aspects

6. Water in Soils: Infiltration and Redistribution

Material Properties of Soil / Soil-Water Storage / Soil-Water Flow / Water Conditions in Natural Soils / Infiltration: Measurement and Qualitative Description / Quantitative Modeling of Infiltration at a Point / Redistribution

7. Evapotranspiration

Physics of Evaporation and Turbulent Energy Exchange / Classification of Evapotranspiration Processes / Free-Water, Lake, and Wetland Evaporation / Bare-Soil Evaporation / Transpiration / Interception and Interception Loss / Potential Evapotranspiration / Actual Evapotranspiration

8. Ground Water in the Hydrologic Cycle

Basic Principles of Ground-Water Flow / Regional Ground-Water Flow / Ground-Water–Surface-Water Reltions / Ground Water in the Regional Water Balance / Evaluation of Ground-Water-Balance Components / Impacts of Ground-Water Development on Basin Hydrology

9. Stream Response to Water-Input Events

Basic Aspects of Stream Response / Mechanisms Producing Event Response / Open-Channel Flow and Streamflow Routing / The Stream Network / Rainfall-Runoff Modeling / Rainfall-Runoff Models

10. Hydrology and Water-Resource Management

Water-Resource Management / Hydrologic Analysis: Water Supply and Demand / Hydrologic Analysis: Water Quality / Hydrologic Analysis: Floods / Hydrologic Analysis: Low Streamflows and Droughts / Current and Projected Water Use

Appendix A: Hydrologic Quantities

Appendix B: Water as a Substance

Appendix C: Statistical Concepts Useful in Hydrology

Appendix D: Water and Energy in the Atmosphere

Appendix E: Estimation of Daily Clear-Sky Solar Radiation on Sloping Surfaces

Appendix F: Stream-Gaging Methods for Short-Term Studies

Appendix G: Hydrological Websites