Surface Water Hydrology

This article discusses various problems related to surface water hydrology, including climate change, evapotranspiration, water quality, and unconfined aquifers.

Running head: Surface Water Hydrology 1
Surface Water Hydrology
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Surface Water Hydrology
PROBLEM 1
Since time in history especially after the Second World War II, Southern Australia has
never had a dry season like in June 2017. There were very warm temperatures during the day, the
driest weathers recorded for over 100 years during the month of June. There were also extremely
cold weather at night which continued into the month of July breaking records of the coldest
temperatures experienced in Victoria and New South Wales. The subtropical ridge which is a belt
of high pressure systems that circle the south hemisphere mid-latitudes, influenced the climate of
Australia in that it’s responsible for the blue skies and brings about dry weather. It migrates to the
north in winter allowing cold fronts and low pressures to move from the southern ocean so as to
bring rain to Australia (BOM, 2017).
However, in june2017, it wasn’t so due to the high pressures experienced thus causing the
dry weather. The lack of clouds means warm days and frosty mornings. The rainfall in Australia
is variable with the changes in climate, due to the El Nino – Southern Oscillations (ENSO),
Southern Annular Mode (SAM) and the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOP) interactions. Global warming
has influenced the subtropical ridge in southern Australia influencing cold fronts, low pressures
as when compared to the weather situation in mid-20th century. The cut off being a low pressure
system that has broken away from the low pressure belt on the southern side, affects seasonal
rainfall variability. It influences the growing season in Victoria in that high cut off causes longer
rain periods and vice versa applies as well (BOM, 2017).
PROBLEM 2
Evapotranspiration contributes to 10% of water released into the environment.
Temperature affects transpiration in the fact that as the temperature increases during growing

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season, the air becomes warmer due to the sunlight and air masses and that cases the stoma to
pen and water is released into the environment. In cold weather, the stoma closes. Relative
humidity causes the stoma to close when it rises and open when its low as water rises more in
dryer environments than saturated. Strong winds and increased air movement causes
transpiration to rise and fall when the reverse happens (Cai, 2013).
This is because slower air movement and less wind causes saturation which blocks the
stoma of leaves and thus raising humidity. Moisture availability in the soils will result to
transpiration in high quantities and low transpiration rates in low moisture condition due to the
fact that there is less water to get transpired. Similarly, the type of plant matters as the plants in
arid areas such as succulents conserve the water. In saturated areas, there is high transpiration in
wetter seasons than dry seasons as the soils dries faster in dry seasons. For plants whose roots
extend beyond the top soil to the water table, the plants can transpire throughout dry and wet/
rainy seasons. Being that their roots are in contact with water throughout the seasons (Cai, 2013).
PROBLEM 3
(Excel Sheet)
PROBLEM 4
Standards for measuring water quality include, Turbidity that checks for suspended
particles in water, water hardness that checks for minerals present in water, alkalinity that checks
for bases, acidity for acid content in water, pH that checks for the Alkaline or acidic levels of
water, Temperature, Dissolved oxygen that checks for organic content in water, color that checks
for contaminants in water and nutrients that check for presence of contaminants such as nitrogen
and phosphorus amongst others that exists in fertilizers. There are others like total coliform that
checks for fecal deposits in water and hard metal tests that checks for metals like lead, mercury,

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potassium and chromium amongst many others. It’s important to observe the approved standards
by the WHO and local drinking standards so as to protect the public’s health and avoid chronic
water bone and water related illnesses such as chorea, salmonella typhi and diarrhea amongst
others (FONDRIEST, 2017).
PROBLEM 5
An unconfined aquifer is described as an aquifer which water seeps from the ground
directly to it. Those enclosed in a rock layer are defined as confined aquifer as water is prevented
from seeping into it from the ground surface. Unconfined aquifers are important in sustainability
of the environment as they are the main rechargers of ground water as they are shallow, and easy
to reach by users. They also provide both natural and unnatural storage facilities for ground
water activities. There have steady inflow of water to the ground water tables due to their
location and the structure of soil. The pore spaces located between the particles in an unconfined
aquifers allows ease of water flow as opposed to confined aquifers which is surrounded by rock
and the pore spaces contribute to the slow flow of water within the aquifer. The coarse grained
sediments surrounding an unconfined aquifer like sand have high porosity than sediments like
clay are silt (Sen, 2015).

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References
BOM. (2017, July). Subtropical ridge leaves us high and dry this june. Australian Government
Bureau of Metereology (BOM), 1.
Cai, W. C. (2013). Southeast Australia Autumn Rainfall Reduction: A Climate-Change-Induced
Poleward Shift of Ocean–Atmosphere Circulation. CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric
Research, 1. Retrieved from 10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00035.1
FONDRIEST. (2017). Water Quality. Fundamentals of Environmental Measurements, 1.
Retrieved from
https://www.fondriest.com/environmental-measurements/parameters/water-quality/
Sen, Z. (2015). Unconfined Aquifiers. Science Direct, 1.