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Geog370Hdrlgy > Introduction > Flashcards

Introduction Flashcards

1
Q

Definition of Hydrology

A

The study of the distribution, movement, quantity, and quality of water throughout the Earth

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2
Q

What does they study of hydrology include?

A
  • Hydrologic cycle
  • Water phases
  • Watersheds
  • Water resources/management
  • Water quality
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3
Q

What are some of the possible disciplines of hydrology?

A

Hydrometeorology, Surface Hydrology, Glaciology, Snow Hydrology, Hydrogeology, Water Chemistry, Water Resource Engineering and managing.

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4
Q

Driving forces and ingredients for hydrology

A

Driving forces: Solar Radiation, Gravity, Friction

Ingredients: Water, Soil, Rock, Air, Vegetation

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5
Q

Spatial Scales of interest in Hydrology

A
  • Local (channel development, urban drainage, kettle lakes)
  • Regional (Rainshadow, watershed, rivers)
  • (Sub) Continental (El nino events, Great Lakes, Deserts/Arid Regions, Large-scale Dams)
  • Global (Thermohaline circulation, humidity)
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6
Q

Temporal Scales of interest in Hydrology

A
  • Seconds to Hours (Thunderstorms)
  • Days
  • Seasons
  • Years (Hydrographs)
  • Decades (Drought, dust bowl ‘30’s)
  • Centuries (subsurface ground water movement, salt water intrusion)
  • Millennia (sometimes GW recharge of ancient aquifers) (river channel erosion - Grand Canyon)
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7
Q

Ice Cores

A

Proxy for paleoclimate and atmospheric conditions

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8
Q

Where is the world’s water distributed?

A 
Saline 97%
Fresh 3%
- Ground Water 30.1%
- Ice & Glaciers 68.7%
- Other (Permafrost) 0.9%
- Surface Water 0.3%
---Rivers 2%
---Swamps 11%
---Lakes 87%
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9
Q

6 important facts about water

A
  • Abundant and covers 71% of Earth’s surface
  • Found in all 3 phases at Earth’s surface
  • High melting & boiling points
  • Universal solvent
  • Density decreases on freezing (Ice floats)
  • High specific heat & thermal conductivity (Climate regulation, takes lots of energy to bring heat up)
  • Internal cohesion & surface tension
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10
Q

What phase are clouds?

A

Clouds are all 3 phases

  • Water vapour condenses to liquid or solid around a nucleus.
  • Higher altitude = higher likelihood of solid/ice
  • Particles take different shapes at varying altitudes and topographies (ocean clouds can be pure liquid particles)
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11
Q

Why does ice float?

A
  • Density (mass/volume) changes with temperature
  • Expands by 9% volume when frozen
  • Hexagonal lattice structure of ice crystals pack together in a way that maximizes hydrogen bonds polarities (positive & negative poles attract and detract)
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12
Q

Why is it important that ice floats?

A
  • Allows freezing from top to bottom in fresh water (less dense ice floats on surface)
  • Thermal density effects cause circulation in lakes and oceans (denser water sinks, less dense rises)
  • Max density at +4 degrees C.
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13
Q

Generic Hydrological Cycle (Trenberth et al. 2007)

A
  • Generic numbers = uncertainty
  • Most of the water evaporated from the ocean reprecipitates into the ocean
  • Not much of the evaporated water from the ocean transfers to land to recharge surface & Groundwater
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14
Q

Reservoir

A

Place where water resides

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15
Q

Flux

A

Movement of water between reservoirs

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16
Q

Types of Water movement

A
  • Evaporation (liquid-gas)
  • Transpiration (evap from plants)
  • Convection (upward circulation)
  • Advection (horizontal circulation)
  • Precipitation (liquid/solid water that comes from atmosphere & reaches the ground)
  • Percolation & Diffusion
  • Runoff (natural & urban overland flow of water)
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17
Q

Verga

A

Precipitation that doesn’t reach the ground (returns directly to atmosphere before reaching the ground)

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18
Q

Energy sources & Forces:

Evaporation & Transpiration

A

Surface energy budget (Need energy to drive the process)

- Mostly solar radiation & Sensible Heat

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19
Q

Energy sources & Forces:

Convection

A

Mostly solar radiation

- Warm, moist, air rises: Buoyancy forces

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20
Q

Energy sources & Forces:

Advection

A

Winds carry the moisture

- Driven by pressure gradient force

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21
Q

Energy sources & Forces:

Precipitation

A

Cloud processes - condensation, nucleation, Bergeron (pressure gradient force), collision-coalescence
- Gravity

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22
Q

Energy sources & Forces:

Percolation & Diffusion

A

Soil, sediment, rock processes

  • Flow in porous media, fractures etc.
  • Gravity, capillary pressures, pressure gradient forces
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23
Q

Energy sources & Forces:

Runoff

A

River, soil, snowpack, processes

  • Gravity
  • Friction
24
Q

What does movement of water carry with it?

A
  • Energy (latent heat)
  • Solutes (salt, chlorides)
  • Solids (suspended sediment particles)
25
Q

How is water able to exchange Energy?

A

Via latent heat and kinetic motion

26
Q

How is water able to exchange Matter?

A

Via changes in state between the hydrosphere and atmosphere

27
Q

How is water able to exchange Force?

A

Via direct mechanical action or pressure caused by water flows or thermal expansion

28
Q

Residence time

A

Time required for water to move through a component of the hydrological cycle

29
Q

Residence time in the atmosphere

A

Days

- Sometimes longer

30
Q

Residence time of River discharge

A

Hours to Days

- sometimes longer

31
Q

Residence time of deep ocean, glaciers, groundwater

A

3000 to 10000 years

- Sooner if closer to the coast

32
Q

Why do some larger components have a longer residence time?

A

Glacial ice takes a long time to build, flow, melt, and re-enter ocean reservoirs

33
Q

Why are shorter residence time cycles important?

A

Shorter cycles are important for supply management, flooding (especially small scale)

34
Q

Why are longer residence time cycles important?

A

Longer cycles are important for long-term change and sustainability management

35
Q

Fundamental Laws:

Conservation of Mass

A

Mass cannot be created or destroyed

36
Q

Fundamental Laws:

Newton’s First

A

A body maintains its state of rest or uniform motion unless acted upon by an external unbalanced force

37
Q

Fundamental Laws:

Newton’s Second

A

F = ma

The net force on an object is equal to the mass of the object multiplied by its acceleration

38
Q

Fundamental Laws:

Second Law of Thermodynamics

A

Energy is neither created nor destroyed

39
Q

Fundamental Laws:

Fick’s Law of Diffusion

A

The flux of a material goes from regions of high concentration to regions of low concentration
- Applies to heat (thermal conduction), water or air (Pressure Gradient Forces), other chemicals (salt)

40
Q

Basic water balance equation

A

Flux in = Flux out + Storage

Qin = Qout + change in Storage

41
Q

Local Water budget equation

A

P = Qr + E + Change in Storage

  • P=Precipitation
  • E=Evaporation
  • Qr=River runoff
42
Q

How can the water balance be a useful tool for estimating the effects of Climate Change (i.e. increase winter temperatures)

A

Less storage, more flooding, less albedo, increase in energy

43
Q

How can the water balance be a useful tool for estimating the effects of water management?

A

Dams prevent floods & change downstream environment (nutrients etc), but increase storage for when water is needed.

44
Q

Drainage Basins

A
  • Water flows down hill….most of the time
  • Beneath the surface it is pressure that controls water flow
  • Water movement is intimately linked to the terrain, climate, and location
45
Q

Determining a Drainage Basin

A

A divide separates different river basins

- It is located along the highest elevations and no stream can cross it

46
Q

What is the world’s largest river?

A

Amazon River

  • discharges 180000 meters cubed per second
  • Large freshwater input into the atlantic
47
Q

Drainage Basin Shape

A
  • Define the aspect ratio Rb=L/W
  • Commonly Rb=3 - 5
  • Rb = 17 is a long narrow shape where water reaches the main river faster but final discharge much later because of aspect ratio
  • The lower Rb, the more evenly (spherically) distributed the shape is
48
Q

Global river drainage to the oceans

A
  • Atlantic receives most discharge at 47% largely due to the Amazon River Basin
  • Arctic 11%
  • Pacific 13%
  • Indian 13%
49
Q

Stemflow

A

Water lands on a building, tree or vegetation, and flows down to the ground to become part of the groundwater, surface flow, or evaporates

50
Q

Interception Loss

A

Doesn’t contribute to stem flow or to a plant, it ends up evaporating into the atmosphere
- evaporates before it reaches the ground after being intercepted by vegetation

51
Q

Throughfall

A

Precipitation that doesn’t touch a plant or structure and goes directly to the land surface.
Some can infiltrate or contribute to overland flow (urban throughfall often flows overland where concrete inhibits infiltration)

52
Q

Quantity

A

a measurable value or amount of something (size, shape, number, weight), useful to know numerical value but also need information on units & physical dimensions.

53
Q

Dimensions

A

expressed in term of mass, length, time, and temperature

54
Q

Units

A

a quantifiable convention of measurement

  • dimensions do not equal units, units are specific to a system of measurements (metric, etc)
  • speed can be expressed in m/s, km/hr/ knots, but always has dimensions of length/time
55
Q

Assumption that past is guide/key to future

A

Past is no longer a sufficient guide to the future because expected viability could be outside the range of observed variability (anthropogenic influences on climate & hydrological cycle)

56
Q

Recent changes in the Hydrological Cycle

A
  • Increase in cloud cover since 1990’s
  • Precipitation increase and more variability since 1900’s
  • 8% decline in snow cover in NA since 1970’s
  • Sea level rise of 2.4 mm/yr due to human intervention & glacial ice sheet melt
  • Increase in fall-spring stream flow (more flooding?)
  • 77% flow affected by diversions & reservoirs
  • Dams have increased 700% storage volume & tripled residence time
  • Sediment transport doubled (16% in reservoirs)
57
Q

Big water issues

A
  • availability
  • ecosystem health
  • important to understand water movement & behaviour for management

Geog370Hdrlgy (9 decks)

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