ABSTRACT
The history of the evolution of hydrology as a multi-disciplinary subject, dealing with the occurrence, circulation and distribution of the waters of the Earth, has been presented by Biswas (1970). Man’s need for water to sustain life and grow food crops was well appreciated throughout the world wherever early civilization developed. Detailed knowledge of the water management practices of the Sumarians and Egyptians in the Middle East, of the Chinese along the banks of the Hwang-Ho and of the Aztecs in South America continues to grow as archaeologists uncover and interpret the artefacts of such centres of cultural development. It was the Greek philosophers who were the first serious students of hydrology, and thereafter, scholars continued to advance the understanding of the separate phases of water in the natural environment. However, it was not until the seventeenth century that the work of the Frenchman, Perrault, provided convincing evidence of the form of the hydrological cycle which is currently accepted: measurements of rainfall and river flow in the catchment of the upper Seine published in 1694 (Dooge, 1959) proved that quantities of rainfall were sufficient to sustain river flow.
