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ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF Hydrology & Water Resources for Environmental Scientists: practice questions

ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF (PhD) — Environmental Sciences (subject 71) and Agricultural Meteorology (subject 60) · India · National Testing Agency for ICAR

Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papers
10worked here, free
20written to this exam in this subject
12syllabus units

What this subject covers

The water cycle, surface and groundwater resources and the hydraulics that GATE ES Section 4 examines. Agricultural engineering already teaches watershed hydrology, groundwater and canal hydraulics to design level (subjects watershed-hydrology and groundwater-wells-pumps); this subject covers what an environmental scientist needs and the environmental framing: water balance, threats to water resources and channel and pipe flow basics.

In the exams: GATE ES Section 4 (a large numerical section); ICAR AIEEA-PG Water Science & Technology group; ICAR AICE subject 71 Unit 1 (watersheds)

Where the 20 questions fall

How our questions for ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF spread across the units of Hydrology & Water Resources for Environmental Scientists. Difficulty: 0 easy, 20 medium, 0 hard.

Precipitation, infiltration, evapotranspiration and runoff2
Hydrographs and the unit hydrograph2
Stage-discharge relationships and reservoir capacity2
Reservoir and channel routing2
Aquifers: confined, unconfined, porosity, transmissivity, storage2
Darcy's law and steady-state well hydraulics2
Fluid properties, hydrostatics, buoyancy2
Open-channel flow: specific energy, critical flow, hydraulic jump2
Global water resources: distribution, quality and threats1
The hydrological cycle and water balance1
Continuity, momentum and energy equations; pipe flow and pipe networks1
Flow measurement in pipes and channels1

10 practice questions, worked

Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.

1 · Global water resources: distribution, quality and threats · medium

Which store has the shortest average residence time of water?

  1. The atmosphere (days)
  2. Deep groundwater (millennia)
  3. Large lakes (decades)
  4. Ice sheets (millennia)
Answer and working

A. The atmosphere (days)

Atmospheric water is replaced in about a week or two; deep groundwater and ice persist for thousands of years.

2 · Precipitation, infiltration, evapotranspiration and runoff · medium

Horton's equation has f0 = 60 mm/h, fc = 10 mm/h and k = 2.0 per hour. What is the infiltration capacity after 1 hour?

  1. 8.1 mm/h
  2. 16.8 mm/h
  3. 28.4 mm/h
  4. 6.8 mm/h
Answer and working

B. 16.8 mm/h

f = 10 + (60 - 10) e^-2 = 10 + 50 x 0.135 = 16.8.

3 · Precipitation, infiltration, evapotranspiration and runoff · medium

Which method weights each rain gauge by the area closer to it than to any other gauge?

  1. Double mass curve
  2. Thiessen polygons
  3. Arithmetic mean
  4. Isohyetal method
Answer and working

B. Thiessen polygons

The double mass curve checks record consistency; isohyets weight by areas between rainfall contours.

4 · Hydrographs and the unit hydrograph · medium

Which two assumptions underlie unit hydrograph theory?

  1. Uniform flow and critical depth
  2. Linearity and time invariance
  3. Isotropy and homogeneity
  4. Steady state and laminar flow
Answer and working

B. Linearity and time invariance

Ordinates scale with effective rainfall, and the response is the same whenever the storm occurs.

5 · Stage-discharge relationships and reservoir capacity · medium

At what depth below the surface is a single current-meter reading taken to approximate mean velocity in a vertical?

  1. 0.2 of the depth
  2. At the bed
  3. At the surface
  4. 0.6 of the depth
Answer and working

D. 0.6 of the depth

0.6 depth from the surface; or average 0.2 and 0.8 depth readings.

6 · Reservoir and channel routing · medium

In an uncontrolled reservoir, when does the outflow peak occur?

  1. When inflow is at its highest peak
  2. After all inflow has stopped completely
  3. When outflow meets falling inflow
  4. At the very start of the inflow rise
Answer and working

C. When outflow meets falling inflow

Storage, and hence outflow, peaks when inflow and outflow are equal.

7 · Aquifers: confined, unconfined, porosity, transmissivity, storage · medium

A clay has porosity 0.4 and specific yield 0.05. What is its specific retention?

  1. 0.020
  2. 0.125
  3. 0.35
  4. 0.45
Answer and working

C. 0.35

n = Sy + Sr, so Sr = 0.4 - 0.05 = 0.35. Clays retain most of their pore water.

8 · Fluid properties, hydrostatics, buoyancy · medium

For the same gate (2 m wide, 3 m high, top at the surface), at what depth does the resultant force act?

  1. 1.00 m
  2. 1.50 m
  3. 2.00 m
  4. 3.00 m
Answer and working

C. 2.00 m

h_p = h_c + I_G/(A h_c) = 1.5 + 4.5/9 = 2.00 m (two-thirds of depth). The centroid depth is 1.5.

9 · Continuity, momentum and energy equations; pipe flow and pipe networks · medium

Water (nu = 1.0 x 10^-6 m2/s) flows at 1.0 m/s in a 0.05 m pipe. What is the flow regime?

  1. Laminar (Re = 50)
  2. Transitional (Re = 5,000)
  3. Laminar (Re = 50,000)
  4. Turbulent (Re = 50,000)
Answer and working

D. Turbulent (Re = 50,000)

Re = VD/nu = 1.0 x 0.05 / 10^-6 = 50,000 > 4,000: turbulent.

10 · Flow measurement in pipes and channels · medium

A Pitot tube shows a stagnation head difference of 0.2 m of water (C = 1). What is the point velocity?

  1. 1.40 m/s
  2. 0.63 m/s
  3. 3.92 m/s
  4. 1.98 m/s
Answer and working

D. 1.98 m/s

V = sqrt(2 g dh) = sqrt(2 x 9.81 x 0.2) = 1.98.

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Read the subject

Hydrology & Water Resources for Environmental ScientistsThe full study manual, free ICAR AICE-JRF/SRFFormat, sections and how it has changed

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Hydrology & Water Resources for Environmental Scientists for other exams

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