Editing Hydrology (section)

== History ==
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[[File:Caesarea_maritima_BW_3.JPG|thumb|upright=1.3|The Roman aqueduct at [[Caesarea Maritima]], bringing water from the wetter [[Mount Carmel|Carmel mountains]] to the settlement]]
Hydrology has been subject to investigation and engineering for millennia. [[Ancient Egypt]]ians were one of the first to employ hydrology in their engineering and agriculture, inventing a form of water management known as basin irrigation.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Postel |first1=Sandra |date=1999 |others=Excerpted from ''Pillar of Sand: Can the Irrigation Miracle Last?'' |title=Egypt's Nile Valley Basin Irrigation |url=http://www.waterhistory.org/histories/nile/nile.pdf |website=waterhistory.com |publisher=W.W. Norton}}</ref> [[Mesopotamia]]n towns were protected from flooding with high earthen walls. [[Aqueduct (watercourse)|Aqueducts]] were built by the [[Ancient Greece|Greeks]] and [[Ancient Romans|Romans]], while [[history of China|history]] shows that the Chinese built irrigation and flood control works. The ancient [[Sinhalese people|Sinhalese]] used hydrology to build complex irrigation works in [[Sri Lanka]], also known for the invention of the [[Valve Pit]] which allowed construction of large reservoirs, [[anicut]]s and canals which still function.

[[Vitruvius|Marcus Vitruvius]], in the first century BC, described a philosophical theory of the hydrologic cycle, in which precipitation falling in the mountains infiltrated the Earth's surface and led to streams and springs in the lowlands.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Gregory |first1=Kenneth J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lt3SAwAAQBAJ&q=marcus+vitruvius&pg=PT100 |title=The Basics of Geomorphology: Key Concepts |last2=Lewin |first2=John |date=2014 |publisher=SAGE |isbn=978-1-4739-0895-6 |language=en}}</ref> With the adoption of a more scientific approach, [[Leonardo da Vinci]] and [[Bernard Palissy]] independently reached an accurate representation of the hydrologic cycle. It was not until the 17th century that hydrologic variables began to be quantified.

Pioneers of the modern science of hydrology include [[Pierre Perrault (scientist)|Pierre Perrault]], [[Edme Mariotte]] and [[Edmund Halley]]. By measuring rainfall, runoff, and drainage area, Perrault showed that rainfall was sufficient to account for the flow of the Seine. Mariotte combined velocity and river cross-section measurements to obtain a discharge value, again in the Seine. Halley showed that the evaporation from the [[Mediterranean Sea]] was sufficient to account for the outflow of rivers flowing into the sea.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Biswat |first1=Asit K |title=Edmond Halley, F.S.R., Hydrologist Extraordinary |journal=Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London |volume=25 |pages=47–57 |publisher=Royal Society Publishing |doi=10.1098/rsnr.1970.0004 |year=1970 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

Advances in the 18th century included the [[Daniel Bernoulli|Bernoulli]] [[piezometer]] and [[Bernoulli's equation]], by [[Daniel Bernoulli]], and the [[Pitot tube]], by [[Henri Pitot]]. The 19th century saw development in groundwater hydrology, including [[Darcy's law]], the Dupuit-Thiem well formula, and [[Hagen–Poiseuille equation|Hagen-Poiseuille]]'s capillary flow equation.

Rational analyses began to replace empiricism in the 20th century, while governmental agencies began their own hydrological research programs. Of particular importance were Leroy Sherman's [[unit hydrograph]], the infiltration theory of [[Robert E. Horton]], and C.V. Theis' aquifer test/equation describing well hydraulics.

Since the 1950s, hydrology has been approached with a more theoretical basis than in the past, facilitated by advances in the physical understanding of hydrological processes and by the advent of computers and especially [[geographic information systems]] (GIS). (See also [[GIS and hydrology]])