Chapter Three

Rainfall-Runoff Analysis
• Linear System Theory and Rainfall-Runoff Analysis
• Unit hydrograph theory
• From Stream flow Data
• Synthetically
• “Fitted” Distributions
• Instantaneous unit hydrograph (IUH)
• IUH analysis methods:
• S-Hydrograph
• Conceptual model
• Fitting Harmonic analysis Fourier transforms
• Theoretically from Laplace transforms
• River and Reservoir Flood Routing
• Flood Routing
• Reservoir flood routing methods:
• Linear Muskingum method:
• Multiple reach Muskingum method
• Nonlinear Muskingum method:
 Unit Hydrograph Theory
• A mathematical concept
• Linear in nature
• Definition
The hydrograph that results from 1-unit of excess precipitation
(or runoff) spread uniformly in space and time over a watershed
for a given duration.
• The key points :
1-unit of EXCESS precipitation
Spread uniformly over space - evenly over the watershed
Uniformly in time - the excess rate is constant over the time
interval
There is a given duration
 The Basic Process
Necessary for a
single basin
Unit
Hydrographs

Excess Precip. Excess Precip.

Model

Basin “Routing” Runoff

Excess Precip. UHG Methods Hydrograph

Stream and/or Downstream

Runoff Reservoir Hydrograph
Hydrograph “Routing”
 Unit Hydrograph “Lingo”
• Duration
• Lag Time
• Time of Concentration
• Rising Limb
• Recession Limb (falling limb)
• Peak Flow
• Time to Peak (rise time)
• Recession Curve
• Separation
• Base flow
 Methods of Developing UHG’s
• From Stream flow Data
• Synthetically
– Snyder
– SCS
– Time-Area (Clark, 1945)
• “Fitted” Distributions
 Derived Unit Hydrograph
Rules of Thumb :
… the storm should be fairly uniform in nature and the
excess precipitation should be equally as uniform
throughout the basin. This may require the initial
conditions throughout the basin to be spatially similar.

… Second, the storm should be relatively constant in

time, meaning that there should be no breaks or periods of
no precipitation.

… Finally, the storm should produce at least an inch of

excess precipitation (the area under the hydrograph after
correcting for base-flow).
 Deriving a UHG from a Storm
• Separate the base flow from direct runoff,
• Determine the volume of direct runoff, and
• Divide the ordinate of the direct runoff hydrograph by
observed runoff depth.
 Determine Duration of UHG
• The duration of the derived unit hydrograph is found by examining
the precipitation for the event and determining that precipitation
which is in excess.

• This is generally accomplished by plotting the precipitation in

hyetograph form and drawing a horizontal line such that the
precipitation above this line is equal to the depth of excess
precipitation as previously determined.

• This horizontal line is generally referred to as the ɸ-index and is

based on the assumption of a constant or uniform infiltration rate.
Estimating Excess Precip.
Example
Given the following hydrograph of a given watershed having drainage
area of 104 km2 derive the unit hydrograph for the watershed
Date Hour Stream flow Base flow
16-Feb 06:00 11 8
08:00 170 8
10:00 260 6
12:00 266 6
14:00 226 8
16:00 188 9
18:00 157 11
20:00 130 12
22:00 108 14
24:00 91 16
17-Feb 02:00 76 17
04:00 64 19
06:00 54 21
08:00 46 22
10:00 38 24
12:00 32 26
14:00 27 27
 Synthetic UHG’s
• Snyder
• SCS
• Time-area
 Snyder
• Since peak flow and time of peak flow are two of the most
important parameters characterizing a unit hydrograph, the Snyder
method employs factors defining these parameters, which are then
used in the synthesis of the unit graph (Snyder, 1938).

• The parameters are Cp, (peak flow factor), and Ct, (lag factor).

• The basic assumption in this method is that basins which have

similar physiographic characteristics are located in the same
area will have similar values of Ct and Cp.

• Therefore, the method is prefer to develop UH for un-gaged basins,

which are near or similar to gaged basins for which these
coefficients can be determined.
 Snyder’s Method
• Study area: US highlands. 10 ~ 10,000 mi2 or (30 ~30,000 km2)

• Properties characterizes the response of watershed under various

rainfall inputs:
(a) Lag time (tL);
(b) Duration of rainfall excess (tr);
(c) Time base of UH (tb);
(d) Time to peak (tp);
(e) Peak discharge of UH (qp);
(f) Hydrograph time width at 50% and 75% (W50, W75) of peak flow

UH
 Snyder’s Method
Lag time (tp): time from the center of rainfall – excess to the UH
peak
tp = Ct (L Lc)0.3
Where tp = Time of lag [hrs];
Ct = Coefficient which is a function of watershed slope and
shape, (~ 1.35 – 1.60 , for steeper slope, Ct is smaller);
L = length of the main channel [km] or [mi];
Lc = length along the main channel to the point nearest to
the watershed centroid

UH
 Snyder’s Method
UH Duration (tr):
tr = tp / 5.5
where tr and tp are in [hrs].
If the duration of UH is other than tr, then the lag time needs to be
adjusted as
tnp = tp + 0.25 (tR - tr)
where tnp = adjusted lag time; tR = desired UH duration.

UH Peak Discharge (qp): 2.78 AC p

qp =
tp
where Cp = coefficient accounting for flood wave and storage
condition, 0.56 ~ 0.69 as miller; 0.23 - 0.67 clark;
qp =specific discharge, [m3/s]
 Snyder’s Method
Time Base (Tb): tb = (72+ 3tp) or Tb = 5(tnp + o.5 tr)

UH Widths:

where
W50, are in hours; Usually, 2/3 of the width after the peak of UH
W75 are in hours; Usually, 1/3 of the width is before UH peak
qpru = the peak discharge of the UH per unit drainage area (Qp/A)

The final shape of the Snyder

unit hydrograph is controlled
by the equations for width at
50% and 75% of the peak of
the UHG
 Example
Two catchments A and B are considered meteorologically similar . Their
catchment characteristics are given below
Catchment A Catchment B
L= 30km L= 45km
Lca = 15km Lca= 25km
A= 250km2 A= 400km2
For catchment A, a 2hr unit hydrograph was developed and was found
to have a peak discharge of 50m3/sec. The time to peak from the
beginning of the rainfall excess in this unit hydrograph was 9.0hr. Using
the Snyder’s method develop a unit hydrograph for catchment B.
 SCS Dimensionless UH
Time Ratios Discharge Ratios Mass Curve Ratios
(t/tp) (q/qp) (Qa/Q)
0 .000 .000
.1 .030 .001
.2 .100 .006
.3 .190 .012
.4 .310 .035
.5 .470 .065
.6 .660 .107
.7 .820 .163
.8 .930 .228
.9 .990 .300
1.0 1.000 .375
1.1 .990 .450
1.2 .930 .522
1.3 .860 .589
1.4 .780 .650
1.5 .680 .700
1.6 .560 .751
1.7 .460 .790
1.8 .390 .822
1.9 .330 .849
2.0 .280 .871
2.2 .207 .908
2.4 .147 .934
2.6 .107 .953
2.8 .077 .967
3.0 .055 .977
3.2 .040 .984
3.4 .029 .989
 Triangular Representation
Tb = 2.67 x Tp

Tr = Tb - Tp = 1.67 x Tp
qpT p qpT r qp
Q= + = (T p +T r )
2 2 2

2Q
qp=
T p +T r
The 645.33 is the conversion used for delivering 1-
654.33 x 2 x A x Q inch of runoff (the area under the unit hydrograph)
qp=
T p +T r from 1-square mile in 1-hour (3600 seconds).

484 A Q
qp=
Tp
 Triangular Representation
Comes from the initial assumption that 3/8 of the volume under the
UHG is under the rising limb and the remaining 5/8 is under the
recession limb.
General Description Peaking Factor Limb Ratio
(Recession to Rising)
Urban areas; steep slopes 575 1.25
Typical SCS 484 1.67
Mixed urban/rural 400 2.25
Rural, rolling hills 300 3.33
Rural, slight slopes 200 5.5
Rural, very flat 100 12.0

Duration and times

T p=
D
+L Tc + D = 1.7 T p
2 For estimation purposes :
D = 0.133 Tc
L = 0.6 * Tc D
+ 0.6 T c = T p
2
Time-Area
Time-Area
 Hypothetical Example
• A 190 mi2 watershed is divided into 8 isochrones of travel time.
• The linear reservoir routing coefficient, R, estimated as 5.5 hours.
• A time interval of 2.0 hours will be used for the computations.
Map Bounding Area Cumulative Cumulative
Area # Isochrones (mi2) Area (mi2) Time (hrs)

1 0-1 5 5 1.0
2 1-2 9 14 2.0
3 2-3 23 37 3.0
4 3-4 19 58 4.0
5 4-5 27 85 5.0
6 5-6 26 111 6.0
7 6-7 39 150 7.0
8 7-8 40 190 8.0
TOTAL 190 190 8.0

Rule of Thumb
R - The linear reservoir routing
coefficient can be estimated as
approximately 0.75 times the time
of concentration.
Incremental Area

TAi = 1.414Ti1.5 for (0 ≤ Ti ≤ 0.5)

1 − TAi = 1.414(1 − Ti )1.5 for (0.5 ≤ Ti ≤ 1.0)

Synthetic time-area curve -

The U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers (HEC 1990)
 General guiding Rule in synthetic UH
• The UH is better calculated from strong
and isolated storm events… Not many
of them happened in the last 120 days
• Verification:
– Find The watershed with the perfect
storms and storm information
– Create a synthetic Hydrograph from the
UH and test it for other stream gages in
the watershed
– Compare the peak flows from the UH and
the rationale method (C i A)
Fitting with Probability distribution
Fitting a Gamma Distribution
t a e −t b
f (t ; a, b) = a +1
b Γ(a + 1)
 Project in UH
• Take one river gauging station from the
country gauging stations dataset.
• Develop UH for the gauging station based
on gauged data
• Develop the catchment characteristics
• Develop UH synthetic UH for that
catchment
• Compare the peak of UH and give your
opinion on the results