Mark scheme for Holiday’s Hw on Hydrology, SMSO.

Nov 06 (Maswanah bte Malau, block 1)

1. (a) Hydrological cycle is the process of continuous movement of water from
atmosphere to land, river and back to atmosphere as it continues again in a
river basin which input is by precipitation through the via flows and stores and
the output by evapotranspiration, river run-off & stores.

(b) (i) Groundwater storage-where the water is held in pores, and cervices and its
underlying bedrock below water table.
(ii) Surface storage-where the water that is not intercepted by vegetation held on the
ground surface and fill in small depression, for example lake, puddles and etc.

(c ) Throughflow- the flow of water through the soil. It occurs when the rate of water
falling on the ground surface infiltrate to the soil is greater for the process of
percolation which is for the water reaches downwards into the soil.

(d) Groundwater flow is water that has infiltrated and percolated into the underlying
bedrocks that then move laterally to the river channel.

June 07 (Nurul Qamra Izzati bte Othman, Block 1)

1 (a) A – surface run-off (b) Base flow. (2)

(b) Interception storage means first raindrops of a rainfall event that fall on
vegetation which shelters the underlying ground (water collect in leaves). (1)

(c ) Firstly, water from surface storage will enters the soil. This process is know as
infiltration. After that, the water undergoes the process of percolation where moves
further down the ground and tend to be more compact (slow movement) create
ground water storage. (3)

June 06. (Siti khalizah muhaimin)

6(a) (i) Interception –the first raindrops of a rainfall event that will fall on vegetation
and shelters the underlying grounds.

Stemflow: the water that reaches the ground when it flows down the trunk. (4)

(ii) Water balance is the state where both input and output in a drainage basin is
equal. Input (precipitation) and output (evaporation, transpiration and river run-off)
(2)

(b)
As we can see the land use in woodland have a gentle-slope type of graph. It is an
area where covered with vegetation. Vegetation may help to prevent flooding by
intercepting rainfall where storing the moisture on its leaves, before it evaporates
back into atmosphere that’s why it has longer lag time for the water to reach the
stream. It is also having low peak discharged while in the urbanisation area it has
steep slope type of graph. In urbanisation, it increased the flood risk as water cannot
infiltrate through tarmac and concrete, and gutters and drains carry water more
quickly to the nearest river. Small streams may be either canalised so that the water
flows away more quickly or culverted, which allows only limited amount water to pass
through at one time. It has short lagtime and having high peak discharge. (8)

Sitinor Majidah bte Mohd Yusof

(c) Abstraction occurs not only directly from channel flow (irrigation, water supplies
etc) but also from groundwater sources through wells, boreholes etc. The former will
affect discharge levels and later will affect water tables, base flow and mostly on
channel flow. Storage will be seen largely in terms of reservoirs. These increase
surface storage, regulate channel flow etc. It also deprives water from the lower
parts of catchment. Evapotranspiration rates may also increases as may
groundwater supplies in part of the catchment and decrease elsewhere.

June 08 ( Azwina Salim)

6 (a) Infiltration is the maximum rate at which water can pass through the soil. While
groundwater is where water which is held in pores and cervices and its underlying
rocks.

(ii) When the rainfall has high intensity, the ground will be saturated, infiltration will be
replaced by surface run-off or overland flow which this situation will lately form
flooding. which may lead to flooding the area.

For low intensity rainfall, such as drizzle rainfall much of the water will infiltrate into
the soil but less will overflow of the surface as surface run-off thus this area is less
likely to be flood.

(b) (i) Soil and geology:

Firstly, it will affected by the soil types, which there are two types of soil; sandy soil
and clayey. The sandy soils have large pore spaces which lead to rapid infiltration
and it do not encourage flooding, while the clay type of soil have much smaller pores
spaces and particles coagulate (stick together) which will reduce infiltration rate and
throughflow but encourages surface run-off and increases the risk of flooding. In
other words sandy soil area will have a lower discharge while clayey area will have a
high discharge and prone to flooding. Then this also will be affected by the geology
of the rock type, there are also two types of rock; permeable and impermeable. The
permeable rocks permit rapid infiltration, so there will be little surface run-off and
limited number of surface streams, while the impermeable rocks do not allow water
to pass through them or no infiltration so they produce more surface run-off and a
greater number of streams. So in other words permeable rocks area will have low
discharge while the impermeable rocks area will have high discharge even will cause
flooding.

Storm hydrograph by Kevin (good answer is to include diagrams and explaination)

Diagram to show storm hydrograph of different type of soil, geology and slope
steepness.

(ii) Slope (Mohd Afifi Ishak)

Steep slope will result in high discharge and shorter lag time because the water
flows very fast down the slope.
Gentle slope will result in low discharge and longer lag time because water flows
slower down the slope.

(c ) Human activities can affect channel flow:

Building roads, when heavy rain occur, water will be flow on the surface as surface
run off because roads is impermeable, only less water will enter the soil by
infiltration, much will become surface run-off, thus high amount of surface runoff that
will produces high discharge which can cause flooding.
Deforestation, cutting down trees in a large forest area will reduce the process of
interception by the trees, the precipitation will fall directly to the surface and will
cause high surface runoff and soil erosion, mud and sand carries to the stream by
surface run-off which might lead to flooding the area.

Building dam, it can control amount of water which distribute to river downstream.

*Answer scheme from CIE.

Human activities can affect channel flow directly within the channel or
more indirectly by activities within the catchment. Thus dams may
obstruct the channel and be used to control discharge (flood prevention).
Examples could be used from Colorado, Nile, Yangtze etc.
Changes can be made to the channel itself - scouring, deepening
concreting etc which will induce greater velocity. In the catchment
changes in land use will bring about changes in runoff, storage, base flow,
which will impact upon both discharge and velocity. Good responses
should cite examples and link human activities to channel flows and not
just catchment flows in general.