|
Hydrology is the science that treats all the
waters of the earth, their occurrence,
circulation and distribution, their chemical and physical
properties and their reaction with their environment. With such a definition
everything from designs for major water supply projects and assessment of
hydro-electric power generation schemes to small investigations such as the
sizing of water traps for a golf course and estimating the probability of a
certain intensity of rainfall being equaled or exceeded in a given year falls
within the ambit of hydrology. The Hydrology section of the Caribbean institute
for Meteorology and Hydrology, for example, deals with geophysical investigations, flood estimation,
regional analyses, hydro power assessment, location of sites for drilling water
wells, road drainage and water quantity and quality throughout the Caribbean.
The
basics of hydrology can be studied using the FUNDAMENTALS
OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY ONLINE TEXTBOOK at
the PhysicalGeography.net.
CHAPTER 8: Introduction to the Hydrosphere
deals with hydrology. The Study
Guide summarizes the chapter, provides a list of key terms, study
questions, problems and exercises. The Additional
Readings provides references to selected, mostly university-level
textbooks on hydrology.
The
basic right of our Caribbean peoples is to have easy access to clean water at an
affordable price. The failure to
recognize that water has an economic value has led to wasteful and damaging uses
of that resource. Owing to the
meteorology and geomorphology of Caribbean countries, there is a high variable
seasonal and spatial occurrence of adequate amounts of water for domestic,
agriculture and hydro-power needs.
Some of the larger countries are known to have adequate
reserves for some time in the future, but it is becoming clear that with the
increased demand being placed on the water utility services, for the provision
of adequate supplies of water by an increasing population and growing industrial
sector, that those countries will be stretched to the limit to provide good
services. Running short of useable
water in the future is quite possible, if prudent management of the quantity and
quality of Caribbean countries water resources is not started immediately.
With a high demand being placed now and in the future
on the water resources in the Caribbean, it is imperative that all the water
resources are conserved and managed and that the individual states rationalize
the use of water with competing interests.
The questions which need to be answered concern priorities in allocation
of water for various uses (1) domestic supply (2) irrigation water (3)
hydroelectric power generation and (4) industrial use.
Our people must be made aware of these facts, and really be
concerned about the nature of water resource.
Too often, at the present time in most Caribbean countries, the laws
concerning preservation of catchments are being flouted by the establishment of
unauthorized settlements and the encroachment of farming on lands declared as
“protected zones and restricted areas”.
The disgusting habit of illegal dumping of garbage in gullies, ghuts, and
streams continues and if this does not cease, sooner rather than later the water
supply will be polluted. We all must be “environment friendly”.
We only have one world in which to live.
The running short of
usable water will result from the overloading of the very fragile system by
people more than any future global warming and climate change.
Of that there is no doubt. It
is naive to think otherwise. There
has been change in the past (1, 2)
and there
will be change in the future. It
is wise to accept, however, that even though change of the environment is
inevitable, there has been a balance which was maintained.
This is what has prevented irretrievable damage to the environment.
All people have the responsibility to keep that balance now and sustain
it in the future.
In
the world of science, when conclusions are arrived at, they are stationary,
consistent and homogeneous. This is specifically so in engineering studies of water
resources development and management. In
the developed countries, great care is taken in maintaining hydrometric networks
and in some places in Europe 80 to 100 years of streamflow data are available.
In the Eastern Caribbean the longest data set for stream flow is fourteen
years (in 2004). There are still few more years to go to records
of observation which classical hydrology says ought to be 30 years in
lengths.
The challenge for the hydrologist will be how to provide the
hydrological designs, which will be demanded by planners and engineers from the
analyses of short data sets. The
second challenge will be, how to deal with governments who because of hard
economic times do not find it possible to place enough funds to the water
resources agencies to maintain the hydrological network and increase the
complement of needed staff. This
action will result in unreliable data being placed in data banks and this would
affect the results of hydrological studies.
The greatest challenge however which governments,
hydrologists and people in the Caribbean will face in the future will be the way
in which they will find the appropriate response strategies to the challenges in
availability of water resources as presented.
The
text has been adapted and updated from an article
by Mr. Frank Farnum.
|
yahoo.com with questions or comments
about this web site. Questions concerning material, copyright of which resides
outside of CIMH, should be directed to the institutions in question.