Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
1
HYDROLOGY AS A SCIENCE
Quite literally hydrology is 'the science or study of'
('logy' from Latin
logia
) 'water' ('hydro' from Greek
hudor
). However, contemporary hydrology does not
study all the properties of water. Modern hydrology
is concerned with the distribution of water on the
surface of the earth and its movement over and
beneath the surface, and through the atmosphere.
This wide-ranging definition suggests that all
water comes under the remit of a hydrologist, while
in reality it is the study of fresh water that is of
primary concern. The study of the saline water on
earth is carried out in oceanography.
When studying the distribution and movement
of water it is inevitable that the role of human inter-
action comes into play. Although human needs
for water are not the only motivating force in a
desire to understand hydrology, they are probably
the strongest. This topic attempts to integrate
the physical processes of hydrology with an under-
standing of human interaction with fresh water.
The human interaction can take the form of water
quantity problems (e.g. over-extraction of
ground-
water
) or water quality issues (e.g. disposal of
pollutants).
Water is among the most essential requisites that nature
provides to sustain life for plants, animals and humans.
The total quantity of fresh water on earth could satisfy
all the needs of the human population if it were evenly
distributed and accessible.
Although written over twenty years ago, the views
expressed by Stumm are still apt today. The real
point of Stumm's statement is that water on earth
is not evenly distributed and is not evenly accessible.
It is the purpose of hydrology as a pure science to
explore those disparities and try and explain them.
It is the aim of hydrology as an applied science
to take the knowledge of why any disparities exist
and try to lessen the impact of them. There is much
more to hydrology than just supplying water for
human needs (e.g. studying floods as natural
hazards; the investigation of lakes and rivers for eco-
logical habitats), but analysis of this quotation gives
good grounds for looking at different approaches
to the study of hydrology.
The two main pathways to the study of hydrology
come from engineering and geography, particularly
the earth science side of geography. The earth
science approach comes from the study of land-
forms (
geomorphology
) and is rooted in a history
of explaining the processes that lead to water
moving around the earth and to try to understand
spatial links between the processes. The engineer-
ing approach tends to be a little more practically
based and is looking towards finding solutions to
problems posed by water moving (or not moving)
around the earth. In reality there are huge areas of
overlap between the two and it is often difficult to
separate them, particularly when you enter into
(Stumm, 1986: p201)
