Content:

• Synthetic Unit Hydrograph

• Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph
• S Hydrograph (S-Curve)
Synthetic Unit Hydrograph
Need of Synthetic Unit Hydrograph
• Unit Hydrograph developed from rainfall and streamflow
data on a watershed apply only to that watershed and for
the point on the stream where the streamflow data were
measured.

• Synthetic Unit Hydrograph procedure are used to develop

UH’s for other location on the stream in the same
watershed or for nearby watershed of similar
characteristics.

• The term “synthetic” in synthetic unit hydrograph denotes

the unit hydrograph (UH) derived from watershed
characteristics rather than rainfall-runoff data
How do we generate SUH
These methods utilize a set of empirical equations relating the physical
characteristics of watershed to the few salient points of the hydrograph
such as
• peak flow rate (QP),
• time to peak (tP),
• time base (tB), and
• UH width at 0.5 QP and 0.75 QP i.e. W0.5 and W0.75, respectively
Types of SUH
There are three types of synthetic unit hydrographs:

1. Those relating hydrograph characteristics (e.g. time to peak, peak

flow, etc.) to watershed characteristics (Snyder, 1938; others);

2. Based on a dimensionless unit hydrograph (Soil Conservation

Service, 1972);

3. Based on distributions.
 Snyder’s Synthetic Unit Hydrograph
(Snyder FF. Synthetic unit hydrographs. Trans Am Geophysics Union 1938; 19: 447-54)

• The synthetic unit hydrograph of Snyder is based on relationships found for some
characteristics of a STANDARD UNIT HYDROGRAPH, which Snyder derived based
on a study of many watersheds located in the Appalachian highlands and varying
in size from 10 to 10,000 square miles.

Watershed Characteristics:
A = Area of the watershed (Sq. miles);
L = Length of main stream (miles);
Lc = The distance from the watershed
outlet to a point on the main stream nearest
to the center of the area of the watershed
(miles)
 Snyder’s Synthetic Unit Hydrograph
Watershed Characteristics: Parameters of UH:
A = Area of the watershed (Sq. miles); tp = basin lag (hr);
L = Length of main stream (miles);
Lc = The distance from the watershed outlet to a point Qp = peak discharge rate (ft3/s);
on the main stream nearest to the center of the area of tb = base time (hr)
the watershed (miles)

Ct and Cp = Constants depending upon the slope and other

catchment characteristics (are derived based on gauged
catchments in the same region)
 Snyder’s Synthetic Unit Hydrograph

Discharge

QP

Time
tP
tB
 Snyder’s Synthetic Unit Hydrograph
• Based on these three points, we can draw many UH’s with its specific
criteria, i.e. area under the SUH, to be unity.

Discharge

QP

Time
tP
tB
 Snyder’s Synthetic Unit Hydrograph
• To overcome with this ambiguity associated with the Snyder’s method, the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers developed empirical equations between widths of UH at 50% and 75% of Qp i.e. W50
and W75 respectively as a function of Qp per unit area (qp), expressible as

Discharge
QP
W75
Q75
W75 QP
Q50
W50

Time
tP
tB
Snyder’s Synthetic Unit Hydrograph
• One can sketch a smooth curve through seven points (tp, tb, Qp,
W50, and W75) relatively in an easier way with less degree of
ambiguity and to have the area under the SUH that equals to unity.

• However, this procedure is also tedius and involves great degree of

subjectivity and error due to manually fitting of the points and
simultaneous adjustments for the area under the SUH.
 Example - Myntdu-Leska catchment (Maghalaya, India)
Bhunya, P. K., Panda, S. N., & Goel, M. K. (2011). Synthetic unit hydrograph methods: a critical review.
The Open Hydrology Journal, 5(1).

• A comparison of flood hydrographs obtained using the observed one-

hour hydrograph (unit rainfall in inch) with those computed using the
Snyder’s Synthetic Unit Hydrograph.

The catchment characteristics are described as: For the Snyder method:
A = 350 km2 (= 135.135 mi2),
L = 51.8 km, W50 = 6.42 hr,
LCA = 16.15 km, W75 = 3.64 hr,

Observed tp = 6.2 hr,

tp = 5 hr, Qp = 12073 ft3/s.
Qp = 10603 ft3/s
Major inconsistencies associated with the method
are:
(Bhunya, P. K., Panda, S. N., & Goel, M. K. (2011). Synthetic unit hydrograph methods: a critical review. The Open
Hydrology Journal, 5(1).)

1. The manual fitting of the characteristic points needed great degree

of subjectivity and trial and error, and may involve error;

2. The constants Ct and Cp vary over wide range and from region to
region, and may not be equally suitable for all the regions;

3. The time base of Snyder’s method is always greater than three days,
which is reasonable for fairly large watersheds only.
Soil Conservation Service (SCS) Method
• The Soil Conservation Service method of U.S. Department of
agriculture (USDA), uses a specific average dimensionless unit
hydrograph.
• It is derived from the analysis of large number of natural UHs for the
watersheds of varying size and geographic locations, to synthesize the
UH.
• Here, discharge is expressed by the ratio of discharge (q) to peak
discharge (qp) and the time by the ratio of time (t) to the time of
ruse of unit hydrograph (Tp).
 Soil Conservation Service (SCS) Method

Check dimensions of
X and Y axis ?

X and Y axis are

presented as ratios.
 Soil Conservation Service (SCS) Method
To compute the value of Qp and Tp

The triangular unit hydrograph has same percentage of volume

on the rising side as the dimension less unit hydrograph. SCS Triangular Unit Hydrograph
(SCS)
 Example - Myntdu-Leska catchment
For the Snyder method:

W50 = 6.42 hr,

W75 = 3.64 hr,
The catchment characteristics are described as:
A = 350 km2 (= 135.135 mi2),
tp = 6.2 hr,
L = 51.8 km,
Qp = 12073 ft3/s.
LCA = 16.15 km,

Observed For the SCS method:

tp = 5 hr,
Qp = 10603 ft3/s Qp = 6246.47 ft3/s

tp = 5.4 hr
The inconsistencies associated with the method
are:
(Bhunya, P. K., Panda, S. N., & Goel, M. K. (2011). Synthetic unit hydrograph methods: a critical review. The Open Hydrology
Journal, 5(1).)

1. Since the SCS method fixes the ratio of time base to time to peak (tb/tp) for triangular UH
equal to 2.67 (or 8/3), ratios other than this may lead to the other shapes of the UH. In
particular, larger ratio implies greater catchment storage. Therefore, since the SCS method
fixes the ratio (tb/tp), it should be limited to midsize watersheds.

2. The SCS method is one of the popular methods for synthesizing the UH for only small
watersheds of less than 500 square miles.
Probability Distribution Function Based SUH
Methods
Four widely used PDFs:
1. two-parameter Gamma,
2. three-parameter Beta,
3. two-parameter Weibull, and
4. one-parameter Chi-square distribution
Inconsistencies associated with the method
are:
• SUH derivations require
determination of the pdf
parameters by the least square
approach, nondimentional
approach along with suitable
optimization techniques or any
other suitable error criteria.
• Use of different pdf also affect the
SUH.

Bhunya, P. K., Panda, S. N., & Goel, M. K. (2011). Synthetic unit

hydrograph methods: a critical review. The Open Hydrology
Journal, 5(1).
Instantaneous Unit
Hydrograph
Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph
• If the excess rainfall is of unit amount and its duration is infinitesimally small,
then the resulting unit hydrograph is called an Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph
(IUH).
• The excess rainfall is applied to the drainage area in zero time.
• This is a theoretical concept and cannot be realized in actual watersheds, but it is
useful because the IUH characterizes the watershed’s response to rainfall without
reference to the rainfall duration.
• It is an impulse response function.
• IUH can be related to watershed geomorphology.
The ideal shape of the IUH resembles that of a single peaked DRH, however, an IUH can have negative
And undulating ordinates.

(Chow et al., Applied Hydrology, 1988)

Determination of IUH
• There are several methods to determine an IUH from a given ERH and DRH.
• For an approximation, the IUH ordinate at time t is simple set equal to the slope at time t of an S-
hydrograph constructed for an excess rainfall intensity of unit depth per unit time.

• This method is based on the fact that the S-Hydrograph is an integral curve of IUH from 0 to t.
Other methods to determine IUH
• Orthogonal functions such as Fourier series or Laguerre functions

• Integral transforms such as the Laplace transform, Fourier transform

and Z transform.

• Mathematical modeling related to watershed geomorphology

S Hydrograph
Need
• The method of simple superposition is applicable only when other duration is
integral multiple of the available duration of the unit hydrograph.

• However, many a times it becomes necessary to generate a unit hydrograph of

other duration which is not integral multiple of the available duration.

• In such cases it becomes necessary to evolve a general method based on the

principle of superposition. Such a method has been evolved by hydrologists
which is called ‘S’ hydrograph method.
S Hydrograph
• A ‘S’ hydrograph is nothing but a
hydrograph generated by a continuous
effective rainfall occurring at an
uniform rate for an indefinite period.

• It is called ‘S’ hydrograph because the

shape of the hydrograph comes out like
alphabet ‘S’ though slightly deformed
S Hydrograph
• From the knowledge of rainfall-runoff process it can be visualized that since the rainfall is
occurring at an uniform rate indefinitely a stage will reach from when the direct runoff rate will
equal effective rainfall rate. Such a point is called a point of equilibrium. From the time of
equilibrium onwards the ordinate of hydrograph equals the rate of effective rainfall and the
hydrograph curve traces a horizontal line parallel to X-axis.

Use of ‘S’ Hydrograph:

• The ‘S’ hydrograph provides convenient method of deriving a unit hydrograph of any duration
from the available duration and it may be either long or short duration, integral or fractional
multiple of the available unit hydrograph duration.
Adopted from: http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/water/hydrograph-theory/s-hydrograph-construction-and-use-with-diagram/60568/
S curve hydrograph for UH