The Rational equation (

) is the method used to determine peak discharge from

drainage basin runoff, and is the most common one used for sizing sewer systems.

The Rational equation requires the following units: Q (peak discharge), c (runoff coefficient), i (intensity of the rainfall, measured by inch per hour), A (drainage area, measured per acre).

In order to determine rainfall intensity (i), the formula that should be used is

where Tc

is the time of concentration (in minutes), and m and n are coefficients in dimensionless units, determined per location through monsoon rainfall indexes (MRI) spanning specified years.

The time of concentration, that is, the time required for the surface runoff for the most remote part of the basin to the point of interest or the sum of the individual travel times for each basin segment, is determined using:

The travel time for each of the basin segments, measured in minutes, is calculated using the following formula: where L is the length of the drainage basin (in feet or meters), K

is the ground cover coefficient (in meters or feet per minute), S is the average slope ( ; in meters or feet per minute), and H is the height of the drainage basin (in feet or meters).