Hydrology and Hydrogeology

Water is a natural resource essential to life, and although it covers 71% of the earth's surface, only a small fraction of this water is directly usable. Worse, this fraction is distributed very unevenly over the earth's surface, and the ever-increasing demand for water renders its management ever more critical. The engineer has a central role to play in the control and management of water resources.

Hydrology is the science of the water cycle - the exchanges between the atmosphere, the earth's surface and the subsoil. More specifically, hydrogeology is the science of groundwater.

The objectives of this course are therefore to

• introduce and explain the hydrological cycle and its influence on the quality and quantity of available water;
• study the interaction between water and the environment;
• present the different approaches for modelling the exchange processes in the water cycle.

An additional objective is therefore to show how a complex system can be modelled, by breaking it down into elementary processes.

1. Introduction

   • the hydrological cycle
   • the distribution of water over the planet
   • a short history of water management and water treatment

2. The hydrological cycle

   • water in the atmosphere: moisture and precipitation
   • evapo-transpiration

3. Surface water

   • run-off and hydrographs,
   • rivers, lakes and wet zones

4. Groundwater

   • the structure of soils and rocks
   • flow in porous media