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On the role of hydrology in water resources management

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 The Basis of Civilization - Water Science? (Proceedings o f the
88 UNESCO/IAHS/IWHA symposium held in Rome, December 2003). IAHS Publ. 286, 2004

On the role of hydrology in water resources

management

OGNJEN BONACCI
Civil Engineering Faculty, University of Split, 21000 Split, Matice hrvatske 15, Croatia
obonacci(Sigradst,hr

Abstract The importance of hydrology is increasing because of the global

growth of water needs and the rise of water scarcity, which together cause
greater risk and unreliability in water resources management. The basic task of
hydrology, which is fundamental for water resources management, is the
accurate definition and control of the water balance for different space and
time increments. The water balance equation is simple, but until n o w there are
many unsolved problems surrounding it, such as: the definition of catchment
boundaries and areas, the accuracy of point precipitation measurement and the
assessment of areal precipitation, the accuracy of actual areal évapotranspira­
tion etc. Modern computer and numerically oriented hydrology tries to use
most new scientific approaches, methods and technologies. Due to the influ­
ence of university education and papers published in leading international
scientific journals, young scientists, in particular, believe that this is the sole
way to advance knowledge. Experienced and practically oriented hydrologists
do not always share their enthusiasm. Hydrology has to be loyal to its basic
principles and roots, in order to be able to answer the complex challenges of
water resources management which will come in the future. As water manage­
ment is an interdisciplinary task, hydrology should be more connected with
the other scientific disciplines and professions involved. Hydrology urgently
needs close co-operation with m a n y other human activities, especially those
concerned with environmental issues. Scientists and engineers have a respons­
ibility to answer the leading question: " H o w can hydrology be more efficient
and effective?" This paper tries to help in finding an answer.
Key words accuracy of precipitation measurement; ecohydrology; hydrological cycle;
hydrology; water balance; water resources management

INTRODUCTION

UNESCO and WMO (1992) give the following definitions of hydrology: (a) Science
that deals with waters above and bellow the land surface of the Earth, their occurrence,
circulation and distribution, both in time and space, their biological, chemical and
physical properties, their reaction with the environment, including their relation to
living beings; (b) Science that deals with the processes governing the depletion and
replenishment of water resources of the land areas of the Earth, and treats the various
phases of the hydrological cycle.
Scientists have their own definitions arising from their varied experiences.
Horton's (1931) definition of hydrology as a science was: "As a pure science,
hydrology deals with the natural occurrence, distribution and circulation of water on,
in and over the surface of the Earth. More specifically, the field of hydrology, treated
as a pure science, is to trace out and account for the phenomena of the hydrologie
 On the role of hydrology in water resources management 89

cycle. Both the scope and problems of hydrology are closely related to the various
branches of applied hydrology. The new problems arise and the science is extended.
Its scope is limited to considerably less than the entire field of water science". For
Bras (1990) hydrology is the study of water in all its forms and from all its origins to
all its destinations on the Earth. The hydrological umbrella would include water-
quality issues. Hydrology, the science of water, as one of the geosciences has a
natural place alongside geology, oceanography, meteorology etc. For Falkenmark &
Chapman (1989), hydrology in its modern sense is a young science, focusing on
various phenomena related to the hydrological cycle. The continuity of this cycle
adds new perspectives to the study of issues related to environment and development.
From the definitions and concepts it can be concluded that hydrology has a
dual role as a scientific discipline and as a basis for informed decision-making on
important practical problems (Dooge, 1997). It should be stressed that hydrology
has, at the same time, very deep scientific interests and tasks and an extremely
important role in practice. For hydrologists the main dilemma is how to develop a
true hydrological science and at the same time to provide a reliable basis for
decision making in water resources management. This is really an old and omni­
present dilemma between theory and practice.
Due to the shortage of water and its crucial importance for life on Earth, the gap
between theory and practice in hydrology is especially risky and should be overcome.
On the one hand hydrology has to develop theoretically and on the other it should react
promptly in practical terms. This is probably the reason why hydrology is so open to
many other sciences, new technologies, methods, models and initiatives. Hydrology
tries to solve numerous practical problems by forming different branches and/or
specialist fields such as: engineering hydrology, urban hydrology, snow hydrology,
karst hydrology, hillslope hydrology, surface water hydrology, regional hydrology,
comparative hydrology and in the last 10 years, ecohydrology.
Kundzewicz (2002) states that despite recent activity in the area of ecohydrology,
it does not necessarily have the same meaning to everyone. A number of competing
definitions raise sensitivities and controversies among scientists and practitioners. For
Zalewski (2000) ecohydrology is the study of the functional interrelation between
hydrology and biota at the catchment scale. According to Zalewski, ecohydrology is a
new approach to achieve sustainable management of water. Nuttle (2002) states that
this broadly accepted definition is controversial. Eagleson's (2002) perception of
ecohydrology is different. For him ecosystems are complex, evolving structures whose
characteristics and properties depend on many interrelated links between climate, soil
and vegetation. According to him ecohydrology examines in which way the physical
characteristics of trees and their forest communities are related at equilibrium with the
climate and soils in which they are found.
One of the main reasons for the unsatisfactory state of water management
issues is the complexity of the time and space scale of the processes involved in
the hydrological cycle. Hydrology can consist of very small and very fast
processes, whose causes may appear in limited areas over short periods, but the
consequences are felt in larger areas during prolonged periods. These small scale
processes exist alongside global long-lasting geological and other processes
which influence the local hydrological conditions.
90 Ognjen Bonacci

The enlarged scope of hydrology brings increased complexity and interactions

with allied sciences, which makes hydrology extremely dynamic and open to many
new and modern initiatives.
A critical difficulty for the future of water resources management is the integration
of different and individual approaches and solutions coming from different scientific
disciplines. Hydrology, with its scientific and engineering capabilities and experiences,
is the most appropriate for helping this process. Maybe hydrology is not a completely
detenninistic science (as some scientists think) but its leading role in water resources
management is beyond question. However, there are a number of problems which need
to be solved.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF HYDROLOGY

Water is at the core of many environmental and developmental problems today.

Falkenmark (1991) states that water functions are crucial: as a necessity of life on all
scales from the cell to the planet; as a solvent continuously moving above and below
the ground surface, and the water-wetting of the landscape due to partitioning disturb­
ances. Concern for water as a necessity of life and as a hazard has existed throughout
history. One question is: Is hydrology very old (one of the oldest of sciences) or is it a
new one? Biswas (1972) states that hydrology is one of the oldest sciences due to the
direct relationship between human beings and the development of civilization. In the
modern sense, hydrology is relatively young. The National Research Council (1991)
stated that over the past 60 years, the evolution of hydrological science has been in the
direction of ever-increasing space and time scales, from small catchments to large
basins and to the Earth system, and from storm events to seasonal cycles and to
climatic trend. There are many fundamental problems of hydrological science, which
have to be addressed in order to provide the ingredients for solving the sharpening
conflicts between humans and nature.
Modern computer and numerically oriented hydrology uses most of the new
scientific approaches, methods, and technologies such as: the systems approach,
artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic, chaos theory, fractals, geostatistical methods
etc. Klemes (1979) has concluded that during the past decade, the systems approach to
reservoir storage problems has been heralded as something of a jump from the stone
age of mass-curve analysis into the modern era of science. In reality, however, no such
jump ever occurred. This statement is completely acceptable for other new initiatives,
especially for use of numerical models in hydrology.
Harte (2002) finds that the main defect of new complex and sophisticated
physical models is their unfalsifiability. He suggests accepting Fermi's approach.
This means that models that capture the essence of the problem, but not all the
details, might progress science farther. Perfection is when there is no longer
anything to take away, not when there is no longer anything to add. Harte (2002)
as a physicist suggests a synthesis of the Newtonian and Darwinian worldviews as
a promising concept and he believes that this synthesis could expedite progress in
Earth system science. It seeks no less than a predictive understanding of the com­
plex system composing organisms, atmosphere, freshwater, oceans and human
society. It builds on the basic disciplines of physics, biology and chemistry,
 On the role of hydrology in water resources management 91

which provide the foundations of ecology, climatology, hydrology, oceanography,

geology and biogeochemistry.
Why are complex and unfalsiftable models so popular in hydrology, especially in
the development of Global Circulation Models? The responsibility rests with higher
education at universities and with leading scientific international journals, which
report, promote and advocate this approach. Young scientists often believe that this is
the only real and correct procedure. Experienced and practically oriented hydrologists,
well versed in water resources management process, do not always share their
enthusiasm.
The trouble with models is that human beings choose what to study and what to
ignore, what methods to use in their analyses and what criteria to apply in determining
the validity of the data gathered. In making such choices and assumptions, scientists
inevitably make value judgments. However, when such value-based assumptions
disappear into the background, they may come to be seen as "natural" and are
uncritically accepted, often without any conscious thought about either their presence
or their implications. This is especially the case when value-based assumptions are
translated into mathematical models (van Asselt et al, 1996). A definite conclusion is
that in the context of integrated assessment modelling, it is not always possible to
avoid uncertainty and subjectivity (von Asselt et al, 1996). A change in the direction
of post-modern modelling is very necessary.
Progress in hydrology and water resources management is limited by a lack of
data. Hydrological processes are highly variable in space and time, and this varia­
bility exists at all scales, from centimeters to continental scales, from minutes to
years. Data collection over such a range of scales is difficult and expensive,
therefore hydrological models usually conceptualize processes based on simple,
often homogeneous, models of nature. This forced oversimplification impedes
both scientific understanding and the management of resources (National
Research Council, 1991).
There is a growing tendency in hydrology to minimize fieldwork. Investors realize
that time is money and there is a no more time-consuming process than fieldwork. As a
result, hydrologists are asked to solve problems with computer models, remote
sensing, and legal manoeuvres rather than by direct field observation. The quality of
their work suffers enormously. Rodda (1996) states that it is something of a paradox
that, at this time when the global demand for water is rising faster than ever before,
knowledge of the world's water resources is waning.

CRITICAL TASKS OF HYDROLOGY

The hydrological cycle is a central concept of hydrology. Water within it is continually

flowing, but the problem is that the flux through the hydrological cycle is not
distributed evenly in time and space. This uneven distribution is one of the main
concerns of hydrology and of water resources management, linking one to the other
with strong bonds. The basic role of hydrology, which is fundamental for water
resources management, is the accurate definition and understanding of the water
balance for different space and time increments. The water balance equation is, of
course, simple. The problem is in its application, because it has a number of aspects
92 Ognjen Bonacci

which are not fully understood and because some basic variables and parameters are
poorly measured and/or not estimated accurately. The improvement of this situation is
a critical task for hydrologists and, at the same time, for water resources managers.
Three matters demand attention in particular .
The determination of the catchment boundaries and the catchment area is the
starting point in many hydrological analyses. These are among the essential data
which serve as a basis for many calculations for hydrological and water resources
management purposes (Bonacci, 1987). In many landscapes, for example in karst
and flatlands, this is a difficult and complex task, which is very often unsolved.
Without this information it is not possible, efficiently and exactly, to make a
water balance, to protect water from pollution, to manage the water resources, to
use hydrological models etc. Generally speaking, the catchment area defined from
surface morphology, i.e. the topographic catchment, rarely corresponds exactly to
the hydrological drainage basin. The differences between the topographic and
hydrological catchments in karst terrain, are, as a rule, so large that data about the
topographic catchment cannot be used without some explanation. A similar
situation exists for flatlands and for some mountain streams. It should be stressed
that human interventions, especially the construction of dams and reservoirs, can
introduce definite and hardly determined changes of catchment boundaries.
Natural and man-made processes cause changes of catchment area at different
time and space scales. The catchment area forms the best planning units for land,
water, and ecosystem management. Most catchment areas incorporate state and
local government boundaries, and these different administrative units make policy
forming for water resources management extremely difficult.
The starting point for most hydrological determinations related to the water
balance is knowledge of the amount and distribution of precipitation with respect
to time and space. Precipitation is routinely measured throughout the world, but
obtaining error-free knowledge of its spatial and temporal distribution is hamp­
ered by the diversity of observing standards and the erratic pattern of observing
networks (National Research Council, 1991). Sevruk (1986) stresses that for
physical reasons, current precipitation assessments are inadequate for the estima­
tion of the water balance, since they are subject to various sources of error. Most
important is the systematic error of point precipitation measurement and it is
astonishing that this systematic error is not taken into account by most meteoro­
logical services. For the purposes of the Hydrological Atlas of Switzerland,
precipitation depths were corrected across the country. On average precipitation
values were increased by up to 14%. The corrections range from 4% for flatlands,
to 30% for alpine areas with a significant amount of snow. Where water balances
are still computed with uncorrected precipitation values, neither évapotranspira­
tion nor groundwater volumes can be properly assessed (Sevruk, 1986).
Evapotranspiration is the combined consumptive-evaporative process by which
water is released to the atmosphere through vegetation, soil and from a free water
surface. It is the concurrent occurrence of evaporation and transpiration that
influences each other; e.g. soil evaporation is reduced by the occurrence of
transpiration. Actual évapotranspiration can be defined as the évapotranspiration
from a vegetative cover under natural or given conditions for the catchment or region
 On the role of hydrology in water resources management 93

when the supply of water to plants is limited by the availability of moisture.

Engineers and/or hydrologist are generally interested in the water-mass balance and
not in the consumption of an individual plant. As évapotranspiration is a complicated
process there are several approaches to its assessment. According to the sphere of
interest and the related discipline it can be analysed through: (a) Plant physiology
(transpiration ratios and pot tests); (b) Hydrology (water budget applied to
catchments or regions); (c) Climatology (use of atmometers and pans); (d) Physics
(energy budget); (e) Dynamic meteorology (mass transfer methods); and (f) Statistics
(empirical correlation with meteorological factors). Actual évapotranspiration can be
estimated from: (a) Soil moisture depletion studies on small plots; (b) Tanks and
lysimeter experiments; (c) Groundwater fluctuations and other mass balance
techniques; (d) By means of relationships to pan evaporation; (e) Soil moisture
budgets; and (f) Energy budgets. A number of évapotranspiration equations are
available for application. Some of them are developed for the potential évapotrans­
piration determination and they can not be used directly for the estimation of a
catchment or regional water balance. The determination of the exact values of the
potential and actual évapotranspiration is essential for the water balance calculation.
The different methods, approaches and equations give very different and, for
engineering practice, unreliable results. The problem is especially complex for the
flatland areas. There is general agreement that évapotranspiration is the most
unreliably assessed variable in determining the catchment and/or regional water
balance.

CONCLUSIONS

One may argue that the real question is: "Is hydrology in crisis?", and the
definitive answer is: "No, hydrology is in the process of turbulent development".
It is on the right tracks, but its route is full of surprising novelties. However
hydrology and hydrologists should not neglect the basic hydrological problems.
Hydrology has to come back to its roots in order to better understand the
ramifications of the hydrological cycle and to more accurately calculate the water
balance. At the same time hydrology should closely co-operate with other
sciences in order to be better placed to find answers to future challenges.
Hydrology had been and is one of the bases for the development of civilization,
but in future its role should be strengthened.
There are various ways of achieving this strengthening, but no-one understands
which is the most direct, correct and proper way. The concept of trial and error and
assiduous interdisciplinary work on the problems of water resources management
could be helpful. Water resources management has evolved into a holistic discipline
where hydrological, engineering, institutional, and environmental concerns are
inseparably intertwined. Hydrology needs all kinds of models and modelling, but they
are only a useful tool but not a panacea. The model provides bases upon which
participants may apply professional judgement and a methodology for comparing the
relative effects of different management decisions. As a fundamental science
hydrology can help to bridge the gap between the humanities, science, and society.
This is a very difficult and responsible mission.
94 Ognjen Bonacci

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