REPRESENTATION OF THE RIVER COURSE

We need of some river representations:

 Plans
 Sections
 Profile of the river

Planimetric representation
It shows in plan the area of interest. The elements that have to appear are:
• Contour lines or heights of the main point of the area
• Scale (numerical and graphical) of the plans
• Site where the topographic sections of the river are measured

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PLANIMETRIC REPRESENTATION

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 TRANSVERSAL SECTION OF THE RIVER (1)

It gives information on the shape of riverbed and the

riverbanks.

Horizontal and vertical scale may be different

N.B.= The section changes with time, thus we have to consider only the relevant
geometric aspects

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 TRANSVERSAL SECTION OF THE RIVER (2)

We distinguish three kinds of riverbed:

1. Water level is always below ground

level. The river is «recessed».

2. Water level can overcome ground level

during the peak flow. «Dammed river»

3. Water level is always above ground

level. The river is «pensile»

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 LONGITUDINAL PROFILE (1)
We draw the longitudinal profile of the river by using the talweg of each section
to obtain the riverbed height along the distance. We do the same by using the
the top of riverbank (or in case the ground level) to obtain the profile of the
right and left riverbanks.

The draw must show:

• Reference system
• Length-scale of the profile
• Cumulative distance [m]
• Partial distances [m]

Note: the scale are

1:1 1:100 1:1000 1:10000 …

1:2 1:200 1:2000 1:20000 …
1:5 1:500 1:5000 1:50000 …

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LONGITUDINAL PROFILE (2)

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 SOME DEFINITIONS

Banks/embankment
Floodplain
Main channel

Characteristics to define depending

on floods that occurs in the river 
necessary to study the flood events!

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 TO STUDY THE FLOOD: CHRONOLOGICAL DIAGRAM
In several sections of the river
the water level and the stream
flow are daily measured. By
using these data, we can
reconstruct the chronological
diagram of the river in those
sections:

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 DURATION DIAGRAM
If we reorganize the stream flow as function of the number of days in which it is
obseved or exceeded during the year, we obtain the duration diagram.

The stream flow exceeded during the

entire year is the perennial flow.

It is useful to understand the stream flow

regime of a river.

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 AVERAGE YEAR STREAM FLOW
From a recorded series of data we can obtain important information through the
hydrological average year and the hydrological design year.

Hydrological average year. It represents the months mean value of the series recorded.

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1
𝑄𝑄�𝑖𝑖,𝑗𝑗 = � 𝑄𝑄𝑖𝑖,𝑗𝑗,𝑘𝑘 Mean stream flow on j-th month of i-th
31 year
𝑘𝑘=1

𝑁𝑁
1 Mean stream flow of the hydrological average
𝑄𝑄�𝑗𝑗 = � 𝑄𝑄�𝑖𝑖,𝑗𝑗
𝑁𝑁 year
𝑖𝑖=1

Note: Hydrological average year does not describe the actual flow regime of the river.

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 HYDROLOGICAL DESIGN YEAR
It is the recorded year, in which monthly stream flow are more similar to monthly
stream flow of average year.

Variance between mean stream flow on j-th

2
𝜎𝜎𝑖𝑖 2 = 𝑄𝑄�𝑗𝑗 − 𝑄𝑄�𝑖𝑖,𝑗𝑗 month of i-th year and the j-th month of
average year

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� 𝜎𝜎𝑖𝑖 2 = 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 Hydrological design year

𝑖𝑖=1

Note: Hydrological design year is adopted to plan and size preliminarily the hydraulic
construction along the river, especially the hydroelectric plan.

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 RIVER UTILIZATION CURVE (1)
It is important to evaluate the water intake from a river. We consider the
duration diagram of the hydrological design year. We define the intake volume
per year 𝑉𝑉𝑢𝑢 as:

365 𝑑𝑑

𝑉𝑉𝑢𝑢 = 𝑄𝑄𝑑𝑑 � 𝜏𝜏𝑑𝑑 + � 𝑄𝑄(𝑡𝑡) 𝑑𝑑𝑡𝑡 Qd is the max intake discharge

𝜏𝜏𝑑𝑑

𝑉𝑉𝑢𝑢
𝑄𝑄�𝑢𝑢 = Qu is the average discharge used
365 𝑑𝑑

Let us normalize 𝑄𝑄𝑑𝑑 and 𝑄𝑄�𝑢𝑢 by the average annual stream flow 𝑄𝑄�𝑎𝑎 defined as:

365 𝑑𝑑
1
𝑄𝑄�𝑎𝑎 = � 𝑄𝑄(𝑡𝑡) 𝑑𝑑𝑡𝑡
365 𝑑𝑑
0

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 RIVER UTILIZATION CURVE (2)

𝑟𝑟 = 𝑄𝑄𝑑𝑑/𝑄𝑄𝑎𝑎

𝜒𝜒 = 𝑄𝑄𝑢𝑢/𝑄𝑄𝑎𝑎

Note: When r > 1 large increment of r produces small increment of χ.

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