HYDROLOGICAL ANALYSIS FOR A MULTI-PURPOSE WATER RESOURCES PROJECT -A CASE STUDY

Abstract

Many important water resources projects in the past have failed due to improper assessment of the hydrological conditions. Therefore, the hydrological analysis for a water resources project should of necessity precede structural and other detailed design studies. It involves the collection of relevant data and analysis of the data by applying the principles and theories of hydrology to seek solutions to practical problems. The probabilistic analysis of hydrology data is an important component of present day hydrological studies and enables the engineer to take suitable design decision consistent with economic and other criteria to be taken in a given project. In many hydrological studies, the average rainfall over a specified area due to a storm, or due to number of storms, is required. For determination of the average precipitation over an area, a large number of raingauges are installed. The rainfall data of various raingauges is used to estimate the Mean Areal Precipitation over a catchment area. It is well-known that streamflow varies over a water year. One of the popular methods of studying this strearnflow variability is through flow duration curve. Flow Duration Curves find considerable use in water resources planning and development activities. One of the important uses is evaluating various dependable flows in the planning of water resources engineering projects.