Review And Prospect On The Development Of Hydrological Sciences

Hydrology was defined as the knowledge concerned with the rules of water origin, existence, distribution, cycle and movement on the planet, as well as the application of these rules to serve the human kind. Hydrology is not only an important component of the geosciences, but also a technique basis of the water resource engineering science. Hydrological history is a sub-discipline to study the developing procedure of hydrology. However, no systematic research on this discipline was reported in the literatures. This thesis is an initiative research on the history of hydrology.In the long history, China has made great efforts and contributions to hydrology before 20 century. The Chinese ancestors had explored some basic hydrological rules with the booming of agriculture. The understanding and applications of their knowledge, such as the hydrological gauging, runoff description, water-sedimentation relation and hydro logical cycle etc., were extensively reported in ancient literatures. Supported by this knowledge, some empirical formulae and theory were proposed and formed a basis for the hydrology.In 20 century, a lot of marked progress had been made in the field of hydrology, such as the hydrological cycle, transportation, statistics, concerned technology etc. Due to the expanded demand on water resource projects, a lot of empirical formulae were proposed rapidly. And the theoretical system of hydrological science was built. Since the 1970s, mathematics had been widely, used to tackle hydrological problems with the rapid development of computer technology. There were increasing attentions on some challenges of hydrology. And hydrology was also questioned and argued whether it is science or technology.China has undergone difficult experiences in the field of hydrology in 20 century. Hydrological measure, gauging, forecasting and calculating technique etc. have been greatly developed and extended. And some effective exchange platforms and ways with the international hydrological community has been set up and extended. The hydrological cycle, hydrological model, reservoir operation, climate change, water problems etc. have achieved some advancement in recent years.The 21-century hydrology has shown a notable trend to regionalization and globalization. With the rapid development of society and economy, the sustainable utility of water resource, and the relations among the hydrosphere, biosphere, earth and atmosphere would be kept as development trend and research topics in the future.