Chapter 2

Hydrologic A na lys is

Typiool Rood Keno of T.S. Anison in Houslon, TeJ<Os.

(Photo coultesy of Oon Wolloeh.f

2.1 The walcrslu~d is [he bll~ic unil llscd in mos t hydrologic cllicu lations rela ti ng
WATERSHED to the wate r ha lancc or computa ti on of rll.in fnll-ru noff a nd o lht'T losses. The
CONaPTS watershed boundary defines a cont iguous area, such tha t the OC t rainfa ll or
runoff over th aI area wi!! contribu te water to the ou tle t (Fig. l- \9(b». Ra in
that falls outside the wate rshed boundary will gene rate runoff to sollle olhcr
oullcl. A wat ershed boundHY cn n be drawn from II topographic mnp by
defining the rid gc line to the omlel. a nd ru noff will generally \Tavel from
higher 10 lowe r eleval ion in a d irect ion perpe nd ic ular to the eleva tion con·
to urs (see Fig. 1-I 9(b».
Hydrol ogists arc most ofte n concerned with the amount of surface
runo ff generated wi lhin a walershed th aI becomes strea mflow for a given
input rainfflll p1Htem . The main w<tt crshed characte ristics Ihat affect hydro·
logic response include the size, shape. slope. soil Iype, fi nd slowge wi lhi n a
watershed area. Th ~ issues arc described in some detail in this chapler and
form the basis fo r more detailed ana lyses in later chap ters. 'Tlle hydrognaph.
as prese nted ea rlier. is a plot of flow nne vs. lime for a given location withi n
a stream and represe nt s the main hyd rologic re sponse function. Several

74
 "
example wate rsheds were depicted in Figu re 1- 19(a), and a typical water-
shed with subareas depicted is shown in Figure 1-22.
Wa tersheds a TC of len Ch l'lfach:rized by one main ch annel and by tribu -
taries Iha l drain in to a main chan nel aI one or more confluence points. Tile
subarea of II tribulflry can b\: de linea ted by starling :ll ihe con fl uence and
drawing a boundary (li ang the subarea ridgo:line. Large r watersheds !;an have
many subareas thaI contribu te runofr lo a single OUlle t. An impon nnl wa ter-
shed parameter is drainage area A. since it reflccB the volum!:) of wate r Ihnt
can be ge nerated from rainfall. WOler;;hcd length mca~u res are de picted for
s uba rcll E in Figure 1-22. Channd length L IS usuany measured (llong the
mai n channel from the ou tl el to the basin di\'ide. Length to cen troid L , is
measured Blong the mBin Ch1Ulnci to B point nea rest the c.::ntroid (center of
mass) of the watc rshed. These two length ~lrHmt'te rs hel p deter mi ne water-
shed ~hape and arc used ex tensively in unit hydrograph calculations dis-
cussed t:lter ($cction 2.3).
Anot her imponant physiographic parameter is ehllnnel slope S or
wlller~hed slope S •. which reflects the ratc of change of ckvatio n wi th di s-
tance along the main channel or wi thin Hli overland flow area. Both stope
measures are used in pcrfoTllli ug unil hydrograph. nood routing. and lime-
of-Ira\'cl calculations. Slope es tim ates arc used in scveral of the nni t hydro-
gra ph methods de!ltrihed laler in this chapt er. Fie ld su rvey s or topographic
maps. either paper or electronic. can be us.::L1 to mC,lsure elevation changes
so thaI wluershed or chan nel slopes can be determincd.
Soillypes in a watershed are critical. as they de term ine infil tralion
rales that can OCCll r for the art"I. Soil prnperties can vary significan tly across
a watershed area. and the USDA Nat urBI Resources Conse rvat ion Service
(NRCS) is responsible for developing soils maps to provide infomlntio n 00
soil type. soil texture. and hyd rologic soil groups. The three main soil classes
Bre chnractc riled by particle diameter d in mill. fur sa nd. sil t. and clay.
Typ ical va lues arc listed in T:,blc t\-2 in Chapte r 8. Soil text ure is im ponant
in delermining water-holding e:'lpaci ty and infiltmtion capacily of a soil
la)"er. Thus. sands generally infiltmte watcr at a gremer rme thBn do silts or
clays. Of course. there can be mixtures of $11.e5. which can complicate th e
oVCTBI1 soi l st ructure. The N ReS classified t housand~ of soils o n the ba~is
of runo ff pOlcn tial and gro uped the m into four hydrologic soil groups. A.
B. C. ,IIld D. T ype A infilt ra tes at the high es t rate. D :11 the lowest. The
relationship of soil t)'pe to in rihnn ion cap:lei!)' is presented in de tllil in Sec-
tions 2.8 !l nd 2.9.
LMnd use and hmd cover. in the foml of park ing lots and urban de"e lop-
ment. (".111 have profound effocts 00 watershed response. In fact. many of the
me thods dc!ltribcd later wt"'Te developed to address urba n devel opment
impacts in 11 wa tershed. For cxnmple. th e Rational Method [see Eq. (1-13)]
uses a coefficient C to r(' floct the runoff potential of a waters hed. T he value
of C for commercial (0.75) is gTeale r than rcsidential (0.3). which is greater
than forested (0.15). indicating thm mo re in tense de velopment generatcs
76 Chaptet 2

greater rates of runoff for the sam!: rainfall (see Sections 6.4 and 9.3). Urban
development is also characterized by the perce nt imper.'iousness, or paved
a rea. which can range from SO% 1090% for oolllll1ercial com pared to 20% to
40% (or residentia l areas (sec Ta ble 2-1), Several of the unit hydrograph
me thods (Sectio n 2.3) contain pa rameters thaI relale \0 urba n land use c«eels.

Tabl. 2MI Runoff C ~"'. Number! lor Selected AGncu/lurol, St.obutbon. ond I./rlxIn lond U.. l""locedent Moi...".,
Condition II; 10 • 0 251
lIydroiogic Soil

lalld IJH OeJCription

CullO oo'-<llond'
A
•"""" , C

Wilhoul con.."""tion lreaI.,.nt 72 81 88 91

W i'" (0<'U&rWl1iorl " ",,!men!
Po,lVre Of ror.g.lond
~OQI
" " " "
condirion
Good condition "
J9
" "
79
6J
SO
80
"""""-
Good ~ondiOon
Wood '" for ••lland
Thin .land, poe< cover, no mvlch
" " " "
Good",."
()pet. lpOCIO>, !trwn>, porh, golf CIOU....., c... _ .... etc.
" " 7. n
25
66 77 83

Good oondi l:on: g' on ~ov.r on 75~...- mort of me o,eo J9

" 8.6J
foi , condilion: 9'011 co .... ' on SO'X.-75'" 01 the 0'''''
" " " "" 79

""
COII'_m...:ioI end bu.;ne .. 0,,,,,.]85'" imp-rvooulj 92
IndU$lIio1 di~ids 172% impeMooII
R... idenlioP
88
" 9J

A•• r"ll_IoI I'U Awroge % impe",ioIJ.~

1/8 oc or Ie .. 8S n 90

"" "
85
1/ 4 0( J8 81 75 B7
1/3 0( 3.
1/2 ac
, ~
2S
2.
"" 7. 72
80
"
86

POYed porl<iroglol>. ,oofs, drivewoyo, et<.l

SIr... and roodl
"" "'" " 79

""
Poot'd "';!h curbs ond $Iorrn --..l
Gro.eI " " " ""
" "
70 85
Dif!

'FOfo_ ....lod doocripIianol~ bncI .... cwo.--'-'. _"'~E''II"_ i•.,Hao « " SodI"" 4, "H)dn>Iogy,"
72 87
"
C""",,", 9, Aus 1972 .
'Good..,...,." ",,,,,",,red ~"'" 9",,,1"11, ""d lit!.r otId bn.,h c..- ....
>c..._ .... mb.. "'" _pule<:! o .... ming tho! ... nJnoII &_ ..... """" IIf><I d.........~ I, ~~ t>wotd .......... ...It." mlnlm"m 01
,oJ _ direaed to Igw" ...;... odd-.ol ;"MorOlioo c~ o=N
'n. -""9 peroIcM Of_ fbwoII_ ~ '" b. I~ vood """"'0 ~ "" ' - CUJ'4 ..........
1~ ........... _ d, .... 01"'-"""""",. ° CVI"<e """,bot 0195......, bo vsed.
 Hydrologic Analysis n
Main chan nel and lrih ulliry chan,cl eriSl i~ can ;,ffect stremnflow
response ill a variety of ways. As presented in Chapters 4 and 7. open-channe l
now factors such as slope. cross-sectional area. Manning's roughness cod·
ficieni ll. presence of obstruclioos. meander pallern. and channel condilion
can all contri bUIC. Effects of challnel geomorphology on now patterns 3re
cove red in more detai l in tex tbooks on geology and flu id mechanics. Flood·
plni n anu lysis an d floodplai n mapping. presented in Chapters 7. 10. alld 12.
are based la rgcl)' on an undcrslandingofthc nature of channel geomorphology
as it relates 10 O\'erland now processes. which produces runoff that must be
moved downstream by the channel. ·Tlte shape. slope. and character of a
floodplain will de t!;:rm ine Ihe vo lume and now rate of water th~t c;m be
snfel y hand led during e,;cessivc cvellls. The pict ure on th e ,,~,;tbook cover
shuWl> the effects of a major out o f bank flooding in I [ouston. TX. d uring
Tropical Siorm Allison in 2001. Rood problems occur in a watershed when
either too lIIuch water is general ed from a rainfall even t or the channel is
inadeq ua te or not properly maintai ned 10 hand le excessive overland flows.
Physiogra phic characteristics freque ntly used in hydrologic studies
have been com piled for the USGS-EPA Nlilional Urban Studies Program
(USGS. 1980) and are summarized below. La nd use characteristics should
be updated during the eour.oc of a hydro logic slUdy 10 ueeount for cha nges
occurring in Hwatershed. Such physiogrnphic i n for m~ tilJn eM be developed
from maps describing land use. soils. topogrAphy. and StOrm dra inage liS well
AS from acrial photograph y. Fonu na lcly. many advances in recent years in
the area of geographic i'lforma tion syslems (GIS). with the linkage of elec·
tronic maps and dala bases. havc allowed this process to be grea tly imp roved
in time req uiremenb and ovcrall accuracy. as dcscribctl in Chapter 10. A
selected list of para meters follows below:
I. Total dminage area. in squa re miles
2. Impervious arca in po::rccmage of drainage area
3. Average basin slope determined and main conveyance slope at
points 10% and 85% along the slTcum from th.: oUllet to the divide
4. Hydraulic conductivity of Ihe A hori7.olt of tit.: soil profile. in inehe~
per hour
S. Hydrologic soil group and wa lcr capacity for soils (A. B. C. or DJ
according to NRCS met hodology
6. Land us.c of the basins as a perccntage of drainnge Hrea. incl uding
(a) Rural an d pastu re
(b) Agricultural
(c) Low-de nsity res identi al (0.5 10 2 acres per dwctl ing)
(d) Mo.:diu m· dellsity rcsidc lllial (3 to 8 dwellings per acre)
(e) High·density residential (9 or more dwe llings per acre)
(f) Commercial
78 Chapter 2

(g) Induslri nl
(h) Under cOnst ruction (bare surfacc)
(i) Idle or ... ac~nll a (1 d
U) Wetland
(k ) Parkland
7. Detention ~ l orage , in ae-ft of 5torage, and detention storage in lit-ttl
Hcre of basin
8. I'c rcelll of wlI lershed ups tream from de ten tion storage
9. Pen.:cll l of area drained by a SlOrm sewer system

2.2 Sherman ( 1932) originally advanced the theory or the unit hydrograph (UlI).
....IT de fined 35 "basin o utn ow reSUl ting from 1.0 inch (1.0 mm) of direct runoff
HYOIIOGRAPH ge nera ted un iformly over the drainage: area at a uniform rainfa ll rAte during
niEORY II. specified period of rai nfall du ration." An import an t point here is that UH

is comp<>licd of 1.0 inch of di rect runoff, which is equi\'alenl to 1.0 ioch of net
ra infa ll for a gh'e n d uration, D. and therefore all los5t!s to inriltraliOIl must
be subtracted before computat ions, Scvcralnss umptions inherent in th e uni t
hydrosra ph approoch tend to limi t ils applic;llion for any give n watershed
(Johnstone and Cross, 1949):
1. Ra infall e ltceues o f eq ua l du ra tiou are ass um e d to produce
hydrogra phs with equivalent t illlc ba~es rega rd less of the inte ns it y
o f the rain,
2, Direct ronoff ordinates for a 5torlll of gi\'en duration arc assumed
di rec tly proportional to rainfa ll excess volumes, Th us, twice the ra in-
fall prod uces a doubling of hyd rogrol)h ordi nates,
J. The timc distributio n of d irect run off is assu med independent of
anteceden t precipitation.
4. Rain fall dist ri bution is assumed 10 be the same for all storms of equal
durat ion. bot h sp~ljally and temporully.
The classic statement of unit hydrograph theory Cll n be su mmarized
briefly: The hydrologic sys tem i5 linea r and time im'ariant ( Ooogc. 1973).
The linear assu mption implies th at complcl[ storm hyd rographs ca n be pro-
duced by ad ding up individual unit hydrographs. adj usted for rai nfall vol·
urnes and addcd and lagged in time. For example. a 2-inch r.linlall in X flou rs
will produce double the response of I inch falling in X hou rs o\'er a giwn
watershed. While th e as.<;umptions of linear ity li nd time invariance are not
strictly correct for every wa tershed. we adopt them as long as th ey are useful.
Nonlinea r cl[amplll$ el[ist in ope n-channel flow, laborutory runoff models.
and actual wa tersheds.
 Hydrologic Analysis

o.mation of Unit Hydrogl'\:lpM: Goged Watenheds

"
A typical storm hydrograpb and rain fall hyclograph fo r 3 drai n ~ ge basin
ar c shown in Figure 2- 1(8). Th e tOlal stonn hydrograph is a simple plot of
flow or disc harge (d s or cms) vs. lime. The hydrograph is characterized hy

figure 2- 1
~ ," Rsinfalllo5ks
Unit hydrograph de-
termina tion. lallolol
!, <S
RaIn fall eJ(Cft$
slOrm hydrogropf..
I--I,"~
Ib) Hyd rog ra ph
' 60 ', -1 m in u~ boseAow,

""'" roinfall minUI Iosse l,

Ie) Hydragroph
:g ''''
80
Dirt<:1r unoff adjusted 10 be 0 2·h.

..
" '" --------------- lIa ~ 11..,...
t n n ~Ct
point
unit hydrogroph.

'"" , , 3 , , , , 6 8 10 11 12 13
Tome ( hf J
,.)
"..,
•
.5
",., Vol rainfoll - 2 ,n
1-<1' _ 4 h r ~

.
..:: '"

2.0 in.
Q,. - tOO d,

i '" "irec' runoff

" "I , ,
'. (hr) '"1 "
6 8

Tome

.~
")
__________________--,
onQo-'_

i",;§ O.~" Vol rainfHIt - 1.0 in.

>
..
"" ., -
~ 1 ;". d"c<.1
funolr
",f-C--- l',--'--~I
2 ~ 6 H 10 12
I'

,.,
Tim<: (hf!
80 Chapter 2

a risi ng limb. a CTes t segmenl. and a recession curve (see Fig. 1-26). T iming
para meter.; such a~ dllration D of rainfall exccss and lime to peak. Ip, arc
also illustrated. The main tim ing aspects of the hydrograph can be cha rac-
terized by the following para meters:
J . !)uratlon of rai nfall excess (D): the ti me from start to fini sh of rain-
fall Cl.cess.
2. Lug tim e (Ip): the time from the ce nter of mass of ra infa ll excess to
I he pe ak of the hydrogmph.
3. Time 01 TiS(' (TH): the lime from Ihe slarl of rai nfall excess 10 Ihe
peak of Ihe hydrograph.
4. Time ufconcenlration (Ie): the lime for II wave (of wa ter) to propa-
gale from the mo~ l diMan! point in the walcn.hcd 10 the oU llel. O ne
estimate is the lime from the end of net rainfall 10 Ihe inflection point
of the hydrograph.
5. Ti me base (Tb): the 10lal duration of the O RO hydrograph.
If rain rall~runorf lIata exist. it is use ful to devel op uni t hyllrographs
from measured ra infa ll even ts and streamnow (rom gages in a deri ned wate r-
shed. The following general ru les should be observed in developing uni t
hydrogra llhs from gauged watersheds:
1. Storms should be selected with a si mple struc ture wit h relatively
uniform spatial an d temporal distribu tions.
2. Wa tershed si7.es should ge nerall y fall betwee n 1.0 and 100 mi2 in
modern watershed ana lysis.
3. Direct runoff should range from 0.5 to 2.0 in.
4. Dura tion of ra infall excess D should be approximately 25% \0 30%
of lag time II'"
5. A numbe r of SlomlS of similar duration should be anal)'7.ed to ob tain
an ave rage uni t hydrograp h for thai du ration.
6. Step 5 should be repeated for st,'e ml rainfalls of differen t d umlion.
The following arc th e esse ntial ~teps for developing II unit hydrogrllp h from
single storm hydrogra ph (see Fig. 2~ 1 and Example 2-1):
It

l. Anal}"Le the h)'drograph ~nd separate base Oow.

2. Measure the total volum e of DRO unde r the hydrogril llh and oon-
vert this to inches (mm) ove r the waters hed.
3. Convert total rainfall to rai nfa ll ex(.'CSS through infiltra tion methods.
such Ihat ra infall excess so ORO. and eval uate dura tion D of the
rai nfa ll excess tha t prod uce d the ORO hydrograph.
4. Divide Ihe o rdin&tes of the ORO hydrograph (Fig. 2~I (b » by the
volume in inc hes (mm) and pIal these results as the unit hydrograph
 81

(or th e basi n (Fig. 2-1 (c». The time base Tb is assumed oonstant for
Storrru; o f equal durat ion a nd thus it will no t change.
5. Check the volume of the unit hydrograph 10 make sure 11\;11 it is 1.0
in. (1 .0 mm). and graphically adjust ordinate s as required.

DETERMINATION Of UNIT HYDROGRAPH EXAMPlf 2-\

Convert the direct runofr hydrograph shown in Figure E2-J II int(l II 2-hr
UH. (The UH is labeled with ils duration.) Note that the duration ornel
rainfall is 2 hL The total rainfall hyetograph is given in the figure, and
the infiltration loss for the storm was 0.5 in.lhT as II conSlant value. TIle
base flow in the channel was 100 cfs (conSlllot). What are tp and Tb for
the storm?

<
C"Q:g
.$
~
1.11
-;: OS
rl{jure E2-lo
l1unoff hydrogrcph
with ooseHow ond
rainfall
I 1 3 4
TII"~ (Ilr)

,..,

"C+=2~:3!=~.ii!i·,!lIi:i·,~:,;::,l=:'!=~'~O:::J"
Time Ih.)

First we find the net rainfall. After subtracting the infiltration. we plot SOLUTION
the raillfllil C)[CCSS hyetograph shown in Figure E2-1b. This represents
2.0 in. of rainfall, or I in J hr for 2 hr. Then we subtract base from nO"
all the now values. Finally, the hydrograph must tJ.e converted to 1 in. of
dirt:ct runoff over the watershed. or 0.5 in.lhr of rain for 2 hr. To do so,

figl.n f2-1 b
F on ~rlr;;:;;.,;::::::;---] Relultong
.~ 0.5 -lL_'._T,-+---i hyetogroph.
2 3 •
T""" (h.)
" (hopler 2

we I:lke each ordioMe minus its base flow and divide iI by 2. This en tire
proced ure is tabulated as follows.

r. ..... lhtj Q"', "''' •""

2·hrUH, Q

• ••
'00
I
2
100
300 200
• '00

,,
3 700 000 300
1000
800
900
700
".
35.
0 000 '00 25.
7 ' 00 300 ".
,.
8
9
300
200
'00
100
200
100
••
100

'"•
•
"
The 2-h r U H g r<l phs as shown in Figure E2- 1c. T/;. the lime base o f the
staml. h q hT. and the lime 10 pc:,k,,. nlcas urcd from the celllcr o f mass
of rainfa ll is 2 hr.

Figure E2-1 c
2.nr UH. . ,
~
2-h r unit hydrO@.faph

"
..
.~

SOO

i '"' 200
" 100

, , , o , • 9 10
1 •
'.TIme{hr)

Beca use of assumptions of lineari ty inhere nt in the U H de velopme nt,

ca re must be used in applying UHs und e r conditi o ns Ihal te nd to viola te
linea ri ty. If inte nsit y \'ari alio ns are la rge ove r the long-duration sto rm,
assumptions ofli nearilY may be \'1 0IaI00, Also. if storage crrecl~ in the water-
shed are import ant. assu m p'ion~ may be viola ted. For large watefllheds
(above 100-500 mi2), it is us uall y advisabl e to divide the watershed into a
number of suba reas so thaI individual UHs ca n be deve loped (o r each. Typ·
ically, U H should no[ exceed areas of 5 to 10 ~ mi.
 Hydrologic Anolysil 83

A moun t of runo ff ll nd llr~a l distribution of ru uoff can cause Y[t ri ations

in the shllpc of the hydrograph. For large basins. il is usullll y bcst lOdevelop
UHs for suba reas and then add and lag. or convolute. them logethe r to ge n-
craie an ove rall hyd rograph. " en ks of UHs de rived from ve ry small eve nls
tire often lower thalt those derived [rom larger Slorms because of differences
in int erflow and chan nel flow limcs. Assumplions of line:lrity can usually be
\'crilied by comparing hydrographs from storms of various 1II1IgnilUdes. If
nonlinearity does exist, then derive d UHs sho ul d be used only for ge nerating
even ts of simi l1H m:lgnitude. and ca ution should be exe rcised in using unit
hyd rographs to extrapolate to ex treme events. Despite these limitations.
when unit hydrogTllp hs ha \'e bee n used in conjunct ion with modern flood
rOUling methods, res ul ti ng flood predictio n for small ~nd large basins is quite
aceu rnh:. Detai led applica tions of the unit h yd l"ogr~ph are prese nt ed lat cr
in this chtlpter and in Chapters 5 and 9.

S<urve Method
A U H for a pa rtic ula r watershed is defined for a specific duration D of
rain fall excess (RF"",), T he li nea r prope rt y of the UII can be used to ge n·
craIe a UH of la rge r o r smalle r durati on. For example. gh'en a I· hr UH
for a particu lar watershed, a UH resulting from a 2-hr un it storm can be
dcvel opcd by add ing two t-It r UI-ls. th e second one lagged by I It r, addin g
together th e ordin at es. and dividing the resu lt by 2.l n this .... ay.t he I in.
of ra infa ll in 1 hr has been dist rib uted uniform ly on'r 2 hr in deri ving thc
2· hr UH (Fig. 2- 2), This laggi ng procedure is restricted to in teger multi-
ples of the origina l duratio n. In thc sa me w ~ y , the 3·hr UH results from
addi ng and laggi ng th ree logether and dividing Ihe ordi nates by 3 (see
Exa mple 2-3).
-' be S-curve met bod allows construction of a UH of any durati on.
Assume th at a UH of du ration IJ is known and Ihil t we wish to genera te a
UH for the same wutcrshcd wit h du rat ion D'. The Ii"st Stcp is to ge ne rate
the S·curve hydrograph by ad ding a series of UI-Is of duration D, each
lagged by time period D. This corresponds to the runoffhydrograph result-
ing from a co ntinuous rainfall excess inte nsity of l ID in.lhr. wherc D is
measured in ho urs. Note th at an equi librium hydrograp h (S-cur\'c) res utts

l · hr Uit Figure 2-2

Grophiool repre-
2· h. UII loCnlotton 01 unit
hydrogroptl logging
[Irom a t.or UH to 0
2·hr UH).
. Chapti!r 2

R F 0<' for d uration ()'

1.
liD '
I
R.i nf.lI cxCe.. for new hydrograph
+-
'/----D.- j

Figure 2-3
Graphical repffw:mlalion of !he 5curve hydrogmph method.

from this addition of many U Hs, each Jagged by D hr (see Fig. 2-3), lind is
eq uivalent 10 a continuous rain fall int ensity falling un til inflow a nd o ut flo w
are equ al.
By shifting th e S·c urve in li me by I) ' hr and SUbU3 c ling o rdinates
be tween the Iwo S-CUTVCS. the; resulting hyd rograph ( Fig. 2-3. c urve b)
must be d ue to rainfa ll of l I D in.lhr thll l occ urs for 0 ' hr. T hus. 10 con-
vert curve b 10 II UH , we must mul tipl y all thc hyd rograp h ordill Ples by
0 / 0 ' resulting in the U H of duration D ' . A homework problem explores
these calculations in detail. T he procedure is ideally suited for an Elcel
sp read shee t.

Unit HycIn.grgpt. Convolution

The real importa nce of the Vi"! app roach is de monstrated in the develo p-
me nt of storm hyd rographs d ue to a n actu al rain fn ll evc nt over II wat e rshed .
V I·I ordinat es Vi are mult iplied by rai nfa ll excess p~ and lidded and lagged
in a seque nce to produce a res ult ing storm hydrograph. which ideally ca n
be done using availab le Excel spreadsheets. Hydrograph co nvolut ion. the
proced ure o f de riving a storm hydrograp h fro m a muhipcriod rainfall
excess. is ill ustrated in Example 2-2. Fo r IIct ual watersheds. these calcula-
tio ns lire /llmos t al way~ done in a hyd ro logic model such as HEC- HMS (see
Chapter 5).
Each uni t hyd rograph is added at th e time corresponding to Ihe rain-
fa ll spike that prod uced a response.. Bllse no w can be added 10 prod ucc a
 Hydrologic Aoo lysis as
re alistic storm hydrograph if base now va lues are available fo r the wate r·
shed under st udy. Care should be take n in this calc ul ation to ensure t h~t
the time incre me nts of ra infall excess co rrespond eJw ctl y to the dur ation of
the UH. For example. J· hr time incfI:mcn ts should be used wit h the J· hr
UH . The governing eq uation for the storm hydrograph in discrete form is
called the convolution equaU on:
•
,.,
Q" = ,kPjU,,-H I' (2- 1)

Q .. = P~Ul + P~ - l U2 + P,,- 2U) + ... + rlu,.

whe re Q" is the storm hydrogra ph ordinate. Pj is rai nfall excess. and
Uf t} '" /I - i + I ) is the uni t hydrograph ordinat e. Pe riod s of no rain fa ll
can also be included. as shown in Exam ple 2- 2.

STORM HYOROGAAPH FROM THE UNIT HYOII:OGIW'H EXAMPtf >-2

Given the rainfall e'lccss hyetOj!.ra ph and the I·hr U H below. derive the
storm hydrograp h for the watershed using hyd rogrnph convolution (add
and lag). Co mpute the re~ul ting storm hydrogra ph and assume uo losses
to infil tration or evapotranspiration.

Equatio n (2- 1) states SOLunON

Q" '" P"U, + P~-IU2 + P,, -l UJ + ... + PIU,.
Here ne t rainfall is provided.
"" '" [0.5. 1.0. LS. 0.0, 0.5J in..
from Ihe rainfa ll hyetograph. Using intenliis of I hr. wc havc unit hyd ro·
gra ph ordinates
U" ..., iO, 100,320. 4SO. 370. lSO. 160.90.40.01cfs
from the un it hydrograph. By Ell. (2- 1).
Qo = (0.5)(0) ., O.
Qt = (\.0)(0) • (0.5)(100) = SOcfs.
Q2 - (\.5)(0) + (1.0)(100) + (0.5)(320) - 260dN ..
The value deril'cd (rom these cakulallons~ n be tabulated as in Table E2-2.
Q~ is equal to the sum across the row for time I!. Thc resulting storm
hydrograph. Qn. is shown in Tahle E2-2. Spreadsheets are availab le on
the tex tbook website and A ppendix E and should be used 10 solve many
of the homework problems in Cha pte r 2.
. Coopler 2

Tab&. E2-2
r.... (Iv) PrU. ~U. ~U. p.U. P$U. Q.

0 0 0
I

'"'""
SO 0
2 100 100 0

,,,
3 225 320 ISO 0
IS' "0 '"0 0 0 1115
125
'"370 0
" ""
100 ""
80
'"2" 0

,,
100 0 225 'OS
7
", J75

10
11
20

" ,
00

0
" 0
135
00
0
0
0
'"'25
80 .,
'"
300

"13
0
0 "20
0
"'",

The reverse procedu re using matri)[ met hods allows us to de te rmine

a UB from a direct storm hydrogra ph produced by a rnultiperiod rainfall
excess. For a four-period rainfa ll (Fig. 2-4), the foll owing equations result:
QI = FIUj.
Q2 = PIU I + PI U2.
Q3'" PlU t + P1U2 + PIUl .
Q4 = p.U j + PJU! + P2U) + P IU.,
Q~:::: P4 UZ + FJU) + P2 U~+ PIUS, (2-2)
Q, - p.UJ + Pl U. + P2US + PIU,.
Q7 - P4U.'" PlUS'" P2U, + PI U?,
Qs = P4US + P3U6 + PzU"
Q9 "" p.U, + P3U"
Ql 0 = P. U,.
The rel ationship bt:tween th e number of storm hydrograph periods 'I .
th e UH ordinates j, a nd the ra infall C)( ct:SS periods i is
11=/+; - 1.
The ge ne ra l equiltion [Eq. (2-2)] can be ex pressed in a ma re compressed
form as
[Q] ~ Ipllu), (2-3)
where IP] is a matrix tha t clln be solvcd for Ill), Such a solution requires
the inve rse ma trix (pJ- L, which must be a squa re matrix with a nOnl'. erO
 HydrologiC Analysis 87

Fi1fure 2-4
Grophital repre-
scnlalian of a unit
flydrOSroph Ie< a
multipoeriod ste<m

la)

u, u,
u,
u,
u,
u.
U,
02345678

Q,

Q"
o , >0

(,'

dc term innnl. T he motrix [PI dues not meet this condition, but by using the
transpose matrix (pT], a square symmet rical matrix (pTpJ can be ge ner-
ated. The ma trix [pTPI can then be used 10 obtain
( 2-4)
This equat ion ge nerales simultaneous nor mal equa tions for a least-squares
solution. Eq uation (2-4) Call be solved explkitly for rVI using
(2-5)
Equation (2-3) can be solved us ing the Gauss eliminatio n method of solv-
ing simultaneous eq uations o r Excel's mat rix solver tools. As with any nu-
merical procedure, unde r certain conditions the error in the values of I UJ
. ehople, 2

ca n gro w rapidly. and unrClllistic or oscill ating values can res ult . cspeci:tlly
fo r latcr o rdinates of the U H. Note that Ihe decomposition proccdLlrc is
rardy used. and it is usually beHeT to develo p UHs from si mple SlOrms,
if possible.

EXAMI'lE 2- 3 UNIT HYOROGItAPH EXAMf'LE

Conver! the I -hT uni t hydrograph ( UI-I) given belo w to a 3· hr U H and
find the arca of the wntershed.

r .... (hr) UH llhrI

0 0
1 25
2 SO
3 100

,• 80
60

,,
6
"
20
0

SOLUTION Fir$!, we graph Ihe l- hT un it hydrograph.

T o tran sform a l-hT UH 10 a ) ·hr U H. we must firsl]a& lhe l-hr UII
twice. (hus produdng three l -h T unit hydrugr aphs over 3 hr.

r_ ... UH l1-htI ...

Logge<ll-h. I.cgged I·h,
UH
0 0 0 0
1 25 0 0
2 SO 25 0
100
3

,• 80
60
"
100
80
25

"
100

,, " 60
6
2.
"
20
"
60

9
0
0 0 "
20
10
• 0
•
Art er we have lagged t he U I-I, we must add the thr ee un it hydro-
gnlphs toget her a nd divide by 3 ill ou r case to adjust to 1.0 in. of direct
runoff.
 Hydrologil; Aoolysis .
.... "' .
l"'.UH
....UH
1(adOId 3 I-hr UHl/3J
0 0
25 '.3

.""
25.0
58.3
230 76.7
240 80.0
,"0 00.
'20 400
00 20.0
2. 67
• •
The new peak now is 80 cfs at I '"" 5 hr. To find the area o f the water-
shed. which is usuall y known, add up Ihe ordinates for each hou r of the
hydrograph and muhiply by the incremental hour.
In our case, the total flow is 375 ds ( I hr).
To find the area: (note I aere·inch "" 1.008 ds-hr)
375 cfs (I hr) = 372 acre-inch

A number of cquations have been developed o\'e r the years to predict many 2.3
oft hc above uni t hydrograph pa rameters liS n function of measurable wale r- SYNTHETIC UNIT
shed charactcristics. and seve ral of the more popular ,Lpproaehes arc pre- HYDROGRAPH
se nll;:d in this section. With the increasing use of computer models in DEVl:LOPMENT
hydrology and GIS met hods, the synthetic methods have generally replaced
the gauged-based mct hod for most watershed~. especinll y since many wa ter-
sheds a re not g~gcd.
Me thods for derll'ing UH for ungaged watersheds have evolved based
on theoretical or empirical formulas relating hydrograph peak now and tim -
ing to watershed cha racterist ics. These are usually referred to as synthetic
unit hydro;raplas (UH) nnd offer the hydrolog ist or engi ncer a mul titude of
mcthods for de\'c1oping a UH for a particular hasin. Mos\ UH met hods were
de\'eloped in the period from 1932 to 1970. and they still provide onc of the
most useful lmd accurate approaches for hydrologic prediction for a gh'en
f<.L infa ll event.
Synthet ic UHs. once dn'c1opcd for a watershed arCH. can be used I'o'; lh
historical or design rain falls (see ElI:anlple 2-2) to produce SlOrm hydro-
graphs lLt Ihe outlet of the watershed. As the waters hed changes ovc r time,
the UH ClLn be updAted to be ller represent land use and channel ~I terat ions.
Synthetic UHs deve loped along two main lines of Ihought: onc ass umed Ihat
each watershed had a unique UH related to specific watershed characteris-
tics, and the second assumed Ihal all Ul-b (ould be represen ted by a single
. Chapter 2

fam ily of curves o r a single equation. However, the fo rmulas all have ~nain
limi ting assu mptions and should be applied 10 new areas wil h ext reme ~au­
lion. Some calibra tion \0 adjace n t wa tersheds whe re sl re am n o w gages e xist
shou ld be 1I1tcmplcd, if possible.
The first linc of dC\'elopment was based on th e rational melbod mod i-
fi ed to include the travel time 10 the o ut le t for a particular wu te rshe d. Oark
(1 945) ass ume d Ih al wate rs hed rC!;ponse wo u ld be given by ro ut ing the lim e-
a rea relaliol1 ship through an element of linear storage (sec Eq. 2- 23), which
tends \0 attenuate and lime-lag the bydrograph. T he Oark unit hydrograph
is contained in H EC -HM S and is prese nted in de tai l la le r in this stttion and
in Table S-1O, The second approach 10 U H developmen t ass um ed mat he-
mal ical repre sentations fo r the shape of thc U H. A use ful a pproach was
ad vanced by thc Soil Conse rvation SCT\"ice (SCS. 1964. 1986), bruied o n mea-
sure men ts from tlio uSlI nds of small watcrshed areas. which re presen ted a
dime nsio nl ess U H of discharge \IS. li me by a gam ma funct ion (discussed
late r). Since volum c is fixed, only o ne parameter is requ ired 10 det ermine
the e ntire U I-I. ci thcr the lp o r the peak flow rate, Qp.
In the late 195(Js, both approaches bega n 10 conve rge after the inl po r-
tan l contribut iollS of O' Kelly ( 1955) and Nash ( 1958. 1959). O' Kell y's work
was based on replacing the time-are a cu rve by a U H in the shape of an
isosceles tria ngle. E mpi rical cxprCSl;ions ..... ere neccssary to transfo rm the
mct hods of Clark (1945) into u~a bl e U I-I techniq ues for nct ua l basins. Jo hn-
stone and Cross (1 949) proposed one of the fi rst rela tio nshi ps for Ie- the time
o( concentration in ho urs, de fincd earl ie r in th e chap te r.
(2-6)
a nd fo r 5101"1\l8C delay lime. K. in hours_
K = 1.5 + 9O(A I LR), (2-7)
where L is the le ngth of the mai n sne am in mi, A is the area in mil, S is Ihe
slope in ftlm i, and R is an overl and slo pe factor.
Hydrologists ha ve realized that 11 number of pa ramete rs are important
in determ iniug the shape and liming of Ihe UH for a watcrshcd. T he lag o r
time to peak Ip and the time of concen tr ation I" arc o ft e n used (Fig. 2-1(a».
The time o f rise TN measured from time 1.ero to th e hydrog.ra ph pea k is
some times used. T he tim e base "fb of the hydro&ra ph is included to define
the duration of di rect ru noff. These ti ming para mete rs must be statis tically
or theore tically related to waters hed char acte ristics in developing II syn-
thetic U H.
The discharge pa ramc ter most ofte n tilled is the pea k disch<uge Q p. A
rouling pal"llmeter K is sometimes incl uded whe n the hydrograph has been
routed thro ug h a linear rese rvoir wi th storage delay lime K . This te nds to
delay and atte nuate the input hyd rograph. W at e r~ h ed parallleters of mos t
co ncern include area A . main channel lenglh L , length 10 wa tershed a:n trnid
L". and slope of main channel S (see Section 2.1 and Fig. 1-22).
 Hydrologi<; Analysis

Assumptions and Madifyirtg Factors

"
Must synthetic U I I methods assum e th at the U H of a bilsin re prese nt~ th e
integrated effect of size. s l o~ . shape. and stomgc .::hara.::tcristics. As long as
th esc factors are constant be tween two basi ns and do not vary wilh tim e. th e
un it response will be identica l fo r the two basi ns. For two basins of the sa me
size. if the slope of one is greater or if the basin shape of one is more .::on-
centfat ed (if th e length/width rati o is lower). th e sha pe of the hydrograph
will shift. as showll by the shi ft from (j to b in Figure 2- 5. Stor nge characte r-
iS Ii.;s of the basin relate to slope. soill ype. topography. channe l resista nce.
and shape. If upst rea m rese rvo ir storage is combined with downstream chan-
nelization. the UH may shift 10 cur"e b due to a ma rc rapid rise time from
concrete channels and less infilt rat ion loss from urba n developmenL Finall y.
if an elongat ed basin we re full y dcveloped. one might expect a shift to cu rve
l" whl;: rc time of rise is mueh shon cr an d peak flow is mu ch greatcr than in
th e original UH, II. Such 11 case is shown in Figure 2--6 for a full y de veloped
watershed. Brays Bayou in Housto n. Texas. Original synthetic hydrograph
me thods generally do not consider urbanization effe.::ts. but more mode rn
empi rical form utas us ua lly account for urbHn channels. percenl im pervious
(p~ved ) area. or pe rcent SlOrm-5e\\,ered are a.

q,-- ---

" Q.

'. '.
P. rhally dc"clopod Fully !lt,..,1oped

(b) (e)
"J
Figu,. 2-5
Modifying Ioclon on unil hydrogrophl. (0) Nolurol watershed development, rep!".
sented by (Uf\'(! a in the bonom pori of the fig....-e. (b) Porliol development, repr.
so",ted by curve b. (c) Fully developed waten hed, represented by curve e.
92 Choprer 2

Figure 2-6
Changes in Iood u$8
(OUM! chong •• in 'f'll~

shope 01 the Brays

Boyov UH.
Ultima.c

IO.<XX>

1959

o , 10
"
Tin, e( h' l

Most orthe methods for synthetic UHs re late lag time l p or time of r isc
Til of the hydrogrn ph to measur es of the length of the main challnt\] and
shape of the basin. Some met hods also re late ti ming to th e ilillerse of the
slope oC the mai n cha nnel or land. Thus, the longer the basin and the SIl1~l l1c r
the slope, the greater the lime of rise of the hyd rograph. as expected. Fig-
ure 1- 19(a) (Chapler 1) shows the general effect o f watershed shape and
land use (i.e .. elongated liS. concentrated) on U H respo nse.
A second rela tion is usually prese nted be' we en peak flow Qp and area
of basi n. and be twee n Qp and the inverse of the lp or Til of lhe hydrograph.
thus ind icating Iha l large r area s produce higher Qp. From continu ity, the
highe r the pea k now. the smaller Ip must be to keep the volume of the unit
 Hydrologic Analysis 93

hydrogrll ph const;mt with 1.0 in. of direct runoff. This is ellsily seen by refer-
ring to Figure 2-5. where cu rves II. b. and (' nrc all unit hydrographs. Thc
following sediOll5 describe a few of the more popular sy nt hc tic unit hydro-
graph methods. Specific areas o f the Uni ted States have deye loped their own
empirical mcthods th nt are similar to the standard methods. but based on
IOCll1 wlltersht-d data.

Snyder'1 Method
Snydcr (1938) was the first 10 develop II synthe tic UH based on a study of
watersheds in the Appalach ia n High lands. In basins rangi ng from 10 to
10.000 mil. Snyder's relations are
(2-8)
where
= basin lag (h T).
Ip
L = length of the main st ream from the outlet to the divide (mi).
L~ = length along the main stream to a point nea rest the water,;hed
centroid (mi).
C, = coeffi ci crl1 usually ran ging from 1.8 to 2.2 (C, has been fou nd
to vary from (),4 in mountainous areas to 8.0 al ong the Gulf of
Mcxico).
(2-9)
where
Qr> = peak discharge of the unit hydrograph (cis).
A - dra inage arCll (mi 2).
Git = storage coefficient ra nging from 0.4 to O.8. where larger \'alucs of
Cp arc associated wit h smalle r values o f C,.
(2- 10)
where T~ is the time ba~e orlh e hydrograph, in daY!'_ Fo r small wa lC rslreds.
Equllt ion (2-10) should be replaced by multiplying II' by II val ue that varies
from 3 \0 5 as a be tt cr cst i m~te of T". Equntions (2-8), (2-9), <lnd (2-10)
define points for iI un it hydrograph produced by an excess rainfal l of dura-
tion f) c tp / S.5. For ot her rain fa ll excess duratio ns D'. nn adj usuxl formula
for Ip becomes
'i, = Ip + 0.25(/>' - Dj, (2-11)
where I; is th e adjusted log tim e (hr) for d uration D ' (hr). O nce the three
qu an tities Ip. Q p. and T" are known. the UH can be skctched so th aI the
area under the <:u rvc re presents 1.0 in. of direc t runoff from the watershed.
Snyder's method Ili a popular method because of its simplicity. CaUlion
should be used in applying Snyder's met hod 10 a new area ",ithout first dcriving
 Cfogpler 2
"
coefficie nts for gaged streams in the gene ral vicinity of the proble m basin. T ht:
cocCficienlS C, and Cp have been found to vary considerably from o ne region
\0 anothe r. E'{ample 2-4 illustrates Snyder"s method. Width equations a\ 50%
and 75% of Q" arc presented in Example 2-4 \0 help sketch the Snyder UH.

SNYDER'S METHOD
Use Snyder's method to del'clop:I UH for the area of 100 mi 2 dCliCribcd
below. Sketch the appruximate sha pe. What dur.. tion rainfflll does this
correspond IO?
C, '= L8. L = 18mi,
C" = 0.6, Lc = IOmi

Th e U H is sketched in Figure E2-4. Note th at wid th ctjuations for W5U

and W75 nrc given th ere 10 help shape the UI-I.
By Eq ua tion (2-8).
I" = Cl..l..Lc)OJ,
'I' = L8(18 ' IO)OJ hr,
I" = 8.6 hr.
By Equa tion (2-9).
Qp = 640(Cp)(A)/ tp.
= 640(0.6)(100) / 8.6,
Qp = 4465 cfs.
figure El--oi Wn _ .wo ( Q~IA) I .
Typicol Snyder unit IV~ .. 7W( Q,IA )" I ....
hydrogroph with '. ,I ( W"llh. are dlSlribuled
special relatiQn ~hi p l " Q, I f3 before Q~ ond 213 nfler.)

-""'""
indicated .
~Vn
jl
" ..
,

"""
9 12 15 18 21 24 27 W 33 36
nine ( hr)
3-1.4 hr
Area d .... "'n to
rcprtl/'nl I In. of rudolf
over tho ...·al.Bh<...J
 Hydrologic Anolylil .s
Since this is 8 $111811 wll(cn.hed,
Tb ... 41,. = 4(R.6) hr,
Tb = 34.4 hr.
And the duration of rainfa ll
D = t,.iS.5 hr,
= 8.6/5.5 hr.
D = 1.6 hr.
FinalJ). the h)"d rogrnp h should be ~ lI1oot hed to represent 1.0 in. of di rect
runoff.

SCS Methocb
The methods deve l o~d by the Soil Conservation $cn 'ke (SCS. 1957. 1964)
arc b;1~d on a dimensionless h)'dtugrapb, developed from a large number of
UHs from gaged watel"5heds ranging in size li nd geograph k locaTion (Fig. 2-7).
The SCS is now called the Nll lural Resouf(:es Co nservation Service (NRCS).
More dcta ils and examph:s on SCS methods can be found in McCue n (2005).
T he C;lrl ieSI method assumed a hydrognl ph represenTed as a simple tri angle
(Fig. 2- 7). wit h rainfa ll du mlion D (hr). tim.:: of rise T R (hr), time of fall B (hr).
and pea k flow Q,. (d s). The "olume of direct run off is
QpTH QpB
Vo l = - - +- (2- 12)
2 2
0'
2Vol
Q,. = TN , B' (2- 13)

From a review of a large number of hydrngraphs, it was found Ih aT

B ~ 1.67Tf/, . (2- 14)
The refore. Equatio n (2- 12) becomes. for 1.0 in. of rainfu ll excess.
Q = 0.75 Vol
, T.
(0.75)(640) A( I.OO8)
o (2- 15)
T.
- 484
--.
T,
A
(2- 16)

where
A = area of basi n (sq mil ,
Tf/, - lime of rise (hr).
.
Fig.... 2- 7
Chopre. 2

(0) SCS lI'iaogulof

unit hydrosraph.
(b) SCS dime nsio ....
Ie" unll hydrogroph
(SCS 19641.

Q,
I

B
(. )

'O' -"- -L-=-""

0.'

0.8 {--V. W
0.'
~ 0.6
"IS U.5
~
(S. 0.4

OJ

"
0.'

o :2) " 5

'''.
I')

Capece c\ al. ( 1984) foun d 1hal It fltCto r as lo w as 10-50 holds fo r flat, high-
w:lter-Iable watersheds ra lhe r than the val ue 484 present ed he re. Me C ue n
ind ica tes a possible ra nge from 300 10 600.
From Fig ure 2-7 i1 can be sho wn tha t

(2- 17)
wh e re
o= ra infall du ra tion (h, ),
I" = Jag time from ce ntroid of rainfall 10 Q" (hr).
Lag time Ip is eslimated from anyone of seve ral empirical e<lualio ns used
by the SCS. and thc one tha t is often reported is (note that un its must be
carefull y followed in the SCS melhod)
L o'~(S + Il,·7
Ip:: 1900Vy (2- 18)
where
Ip s lag time (hr).
L - length to divide (fl).
)' :: avcrage watershed slope (in percent).
S :: I{OO/CN - 10 (in.). (2-19)
CN - eur~ e number for various soi l/land usc (see Table 2- 1).
The SCS dimensionl ess UH can be used 10 dc~elop a curved hydrogra ph,
using the same Ip an d Qp as the triangular hydrograph in Figurc 2-7 (see
EJtample 2-6). The SCS also found that time of concen","ion ft: was equal
101.67 limes Ihe lag ti me above.
SCS (1964) runoff estimates IIssume a relationship betwee n accumu-
lated total storm rainfall P. ru noff Q. and infi lt rat ion plus init ial ~h!;tT3c tion
(F + ,~), Based 011 SCS wa tcrshed st udies

'" == 0.25. (2-20)

It is also assumed thM

FIS - QIP,. (2-2 1)

where Fis infiltra tion OCI;urring after ru noff begi ns.S is potentialltbstnKIioD.
Q is direct runoff (i nches). and p~ is cffcct i~e storm runoff (P - Ju )' G ive n
F = ( P~ - 0) and P, = ( P - fa) ". (P - n.2S) based on data from small
watersheds. (Jne Clln show
(P - 0.25)2
Q= /' ~ O.8S' (2-22)

The SCS me thod uses thc ru noff cu rvc number CN. rela ted to pote ntial
abs traction 5 by CN = 100'1/ (5 + 10). or S (i n.) = (IOO) / CN - 10. Fig-
ure 2-8 prese nts SCS Eq uation (2- 22) in a gra phical form for a range of
CN va lues and rain falls.
Runoff eurve numbers for sekctcli land uses are presen ted in Ta ble 2-1.
where hydro logic soil group A is sa nd y and well drai ned. group 11 is sandy
loam. group C is clay loam or shallow s:mdy loom. and group 0 has a poo rl y
dnlined. he:lvy plastic clay tha t swells when wet. Group A has the highest
infilt ralion capaeit)' and Gro up 0 the lowest. The CN values in Figurc 2--8
assume norma l an tecedent moisture condition II. and ot her antecede nt
moist ure co ndi tio ns and effects of urbanizat ion can be deve loped using the
SCS report . Urbtlll Hy(/rology for Smnf/ Wmcrs/tn/l' (SCS. 1986). For a
98 Chapter 2

Figvre 2-8
Graphical iQllllion of loinlalkunoff eqoorion.

watershed made up of several soil lYpes and land uses, a composi te eN ca n

be calculated ( Example 2- 5). The TR -20 and TR-55 computer programs
are the adaptations of th e SCS methods for nonurban and LlTb.. " arcas,
respectivel y. McC uen (2005 ) provides morc delailed coverage with exam-
ples on SCS methods.

SC5 CURVE-NUM8ER METHOD

A watershed is 40% wooded (good condition) and 60% residen ti.. , (lf4-ac
lots). The wate rshed has 50% soil gro up Band 50% soil group C. Dete r-
min e the runoff volu me if the rainfull is 7 in. Assume an t«edent mobture
condition nu mber [1 Crable 2-1).

SOLUTION
""""~
woodod
"" """"
,
frocIion of Ar ... CN

C
,
0"'[0.5) ~O.2
0.4(0.5] -02 "
70
R...d.nt,ol
C
0 .6(O.5J - 0.3
0.6(0.5} .. 0.3 "
BJ
 HydrologiC AnOlY1iJ ..
The weighted CN is
CN = 0.2(55) + 0.2(70) + 0.3(75) + 0.3(83) or
CN = 11 14 22.5 24.9 = 12.4
o r. using CN = 72. runoff volume is 3.9 in for the given rainfall (Fig. 2-8).

W hilc SCS mcthods are used e~ l cns ive l y in cngi nccring pract ice, ;! nd a
PC version for lI rbll n wa t ersh cd~ (TR-55) is availab le (SCS. 1986). th e
methods have some wca k nes.~es. as ])oim cd out by Capece et al. (1984).
II is difficu lt to mat ch measurcd hydrog raphs in areas with hig h water
tables. and the va rio us antecedent conditions (I. 1£. and [If) cannot han dle
the proble m accurat ely. The Strength of the SCS method is Ihe enormous
da tabase of soils in forma tio n. soils maps. and si te-spccifi(: rain fall- runoff
studies. M(:Cue n (2005) provides more details on SC:S assumpti ons and
design criteria. as compared 10 ot hcr opera tio nal comp uter models in hy-
drulogy. Ex ample 2-6 ill ustrates the SCS uni t hydrograph me thod. based
on using Eq uation (2- \8) for lag time.

SCS TRIANGUlAR UNIT HYDROGAAi'H EXAMPLE 2~

Use th e SCS method to develop a UH for the area of 10 mil described

below. Use rainfall duration of I) = 2.0 hr. Sketch the approxim;ue shape
of the triangular UH.
I. = 5 miles
L< 2 miles
The watershed consists of meadow~ in good condition wi th w il group D.
The average slope in the walershed is 100 ftlmi. Sketch the ref,ulting SCS
tri1lngul3r hydrograph.

Equlltion (2-18 ) gives the following rc\atio n:;hip for Ip: SOLUTION
LO.8(5 + It·]
J91X1v'Y
From Table 2-1, the SCS cur.·e number is found 10 be 78. Therefore.
S = lOOO;C\ - 10
- 1000/18 - 10.
S'" 2.82 in.
Con~erting L = 5 mi. or
L .." (5 mi)(52HO ftlmi) = 26.400 ft
100 Chapter 2

The slope is 100 rt{mL so conve rt [0 percent for Ihe equa tion
y = <100 ftlmi)(l mil5280 fl)(I00)
= 1.9

,,'
, ~ [ (26,400)0.8(2.82 + 1)0.;]
p 1900 Vl9
= 3.36 1Ir.
From Eq uation (2- 17) and wilh rai nfall du ration 0 = 2.0 hr,
TJ(= D/ 2 + II'

- ( 2/2) + 3.36 hr,

1it = 4.36 hL the rise li me of the hyd rograp h,
and Equa tion (2-16) gives for A = 10 m il
484 A
Qp =-:r;-
41)4( 10)
- 4.36 cfs.
[Qp"" J.lJOcfs.J
To cornplete the graph. it is a lso necess;Iry \0 know the lime of fall B, T he
volum!: is known 10 be I in. of direct ru noff ove r the watershed. so

Vol = (IOmil)(52~ft)'( " ,)(1 in.) ... 64OOac·i n.

illt 43,560 n·
From Equ:ll ion (2-12),
QpTR QpD
Vol,.. - , - + -,- = 64OOac-in = Moods-hr,

(ll 10 cfs X 4.36hr) (11 IOcfs)(Hhr)

6400 cfs·hr = 2 + 2 '

'0
B - 7.17 hr.
The trianguln r unit hydrogra ph is silo" 'n in Figure E2-6: not e Ihe lime
base of [IS hr. The ne),:' example demonstrates the usc of the dimcn-
siOlllcss SCS U H; for thi s example. T"blc E2-61ists the resul ting shaped
SCS hyd rograph.
 Hydrologic Analysis 101

TabiaE2-6 T,~4.36h'$ondQ" 1110ds

liT, o./Q, VJV 'M 0,""

0 0 0 0 0
0.2 0.1 0006 0.87 III
0.3
O.
0.19
0.31
0,012
0.035
1.3
1.74 ,..
211

0.5 0.47 0.065 2.18 "2

00 066 0,107 2.62 7JJ
07 0.82 0.163 3.0.5 910
0. 093 0,228 3.49 1032
0.9 0.3
1.0
1.2
0"
1.0
0,93
0.375
0.522
3.92
4.36
5.23
""
1110
1032
U 0.78 0.65 6,10 866
1.0 0.56 0.75 698 622
La 0.39 0,822 7.85 .oJ
20 0.28 0.871 8.72 311
2.2 0,207 0,908 9.59 230
0147 0934 10.46 163
"20 0,107 0953 11.36 119

.
0 ,077 0967
"
JO 0055 0.977
0,989
12.21
13.1
14.B2
85
61

"
50
0029
0011
0
0.997
1.0
17.<14
2L8
J2
12
0

FiglJre E2-6
Center of mass ol raiDfall (I.o hr) Tfiongular unit
hyd'09rtlph for
D 2.0 ru- Example E2-6.

o , , o • "
Time (hr)

dan.. UH MeIhod
The Clark (1945) UH is based on the U5C of a watershed and is modeled n.~ a
linear channd in seril'S wi th a linear reservoi r 10 account for tra nslation lind
HHenuation. respectively. This conce ptual model defim:s the outflow from
the lincar clHt llne l as inflow Oi) to the lincar reservoi r. and the outflow
102 Chapter 2

(OJ) from the linea r re!ic rvoir as the instantaneous un it hyd rogrOll'h (IU H).
The linear channd uses an area-time relationship (i.e .. isochroncs of travel
lime 10 Ihc o utl et of watershed). and il is used 10 estimate the lime di stribu-
tion of ru noff [ro m th e basin. T ime of concentration is rcpn:sc nted by thc
time of runoff from the most remo tc part of the basin \0 t hc ou tlet. The
Jine ar reservoir signifies the co mbining effecls ofsloragc and resistance from
Ihc basin. Hoggan (\997) described the Clark method in details using Ihc
concept o f thc instantaneous unit hydrograph. D erivation sta rts ",ilh the
rela tionsh ip bet ..... een Ihe reservoi r outflow and the storage is ex pressed as
s, = ROj , (2-23)
where
51 '"' storage at en d of ~ri od i,
OJ = outflow d uring period i,
R - storolge coefficient.
The conti nuit y equa tio n can be modified as
_ Oj~ 1 + OJ Sj - SI~1
Ij - , =
A, (2-24)

whe re
1; '"
average inflow in period i , determined from the :lrea-t ime
met hod.
OJ - uutflo w during pe riod i.
Sj - slo rnge III Ihe end of pe ri od i .
Subslilllti ng Eq uati o n (2~23) into Eq uat ion (2- 24) yiel ds
T. _ Ol - t + 0 1 = ROj - ROj~1
(2~25)
! 2 tJ.1

A te rm C is defin ed as in Eq ua lion (2- 26):

C -
,.,
",,'-;''c: (2- 26)
2R + il t
T he outflow (0;) from the line ar rese rvoir can be ob taine d with Ih e flow
rates li nd d ura ti o n ( 6. t) by co mbining Equa tio ns (2-25 ) a nd (2- 26) as
fo ll o ws:
OJ = cT; + (I - C)Oj-l (2-27)
Nume rical solutio n) of Equation (2-27) can be used 10 plotl he insta nta-
neous un it hydrograph (IUH).
Two majo r parameters of the Oa rk uni t hyd rograph are Ihe time of oon-
centratio n T~ and Ihe SlOrage oocfficiell\ R. which is the slo pe of the sto rage-
outflowcutve for the linear reservoir. T~ and R values can usually be obtained
 Hydrologic Analysis 103

from observed hydrogr.a phs for gllged basins: T~ is eslim3h:d 3S Ihe lime from
the end of a bo ["!;1 rdinfall excess 10 the inflec1 ion point on lhe receding limb; R
is estimaled by diyKJing the dirCCI-nmoff discharge at the inflection (X'lint by
the slop<: ofthecun"c althal point, The inOectioo point mcans where inflow 10
the li nea r reservoir is lcro. Atthc inO cctio n point. the oontinuilY eq uat ion can
be expressed as

(2-28)

By substitu ting Equation (2- 23). n new equa tion for R is der ived:
(OJ-! + 0;)/ 2
(2-29)
(0, 0, _1)/ 6 ,'
Equmi on (2-29) theo ret ically produces [he value of R as the mt io between
Ihe ave rage discharge al th e inflcctio n (X'lin l and the negative slope of the
hyd rograph allhis point (which is negative).
For ungaged basins. Tc- is usuall y de te rmi ned from 3n analysis of tra\'cl
limc in the basin or from regression relat io nshi ps that havc been dcvclo ped
(or the region. Even though the storage oocfficienl (R ) can not be obtai ned
fro m measurable wate n>hed character istics directly. many regress ion elj ua -
li ons h.we bee n de vel oped from so mc rcgio n~. Be,ause T,. an d Rare in te r-
dcpcnd e nl. lhe ,ombi ni ng va ri ables, Tc + Ra nd R/(T. + R) (ITC " Iwa ys
u ~ed in un il hyd rogra ph cornput mions. Thus. the C lark me thod is now e:l ll ed
the TC a nd R me thod. and is rout inely used in HEC-HMS models. as shown
in Table 5-10.

O nce a VB of give n d um tion based on kn own Siorms or synt hetic lII et hods 2.'
has beell developed for a part ic ular ha si n unde r a given set of ph ysiO- APPUCATIONS
gra phic ,onditions, it can th en be ut il ized for a num ber of hydrolog ic cal - OF UNIT
cul ation s (Fig_ 2-9), S uch hydrograp hs can be d~veloped for :llmost a ny HYDROGRAPHS
area ..... here VH methods hnve Deen d eveloped or by app lyi ng ge neral
me thods such as SCS's or Snyde r' s. In pa rticular. for a single h;lsin area.
the U H can be used ..... ith a given stor m eve nt 10 delermine th e storm
hydrog rap h through th e ad d· and -Iag proo:.:ed ure. For com ple,," watersheds
of Se \'eral subbasins:
I. Design storm hydrograph s for selected recu rrcncc-in ten'al sto rm s
( IO-yr.25-yr, IOO-yr) elln be de ... elopcd Ihrough convo lut io n (addi ng
and laggi ng) procedures for a givcn wate~h ed area (Fig. 2- 9(a».
2. Effects of la nd use changes, channel modificalio ns, storagt: additions,
a nd ol he r variables can be tcste d to determi ne chan ges in th e VII
(Fig. 2- 9).
104 Chepler 2

2-9
F"tg Ur1!
Unil hydrogmph •.,•
0 •;!•
0 Storm lIydrograph
opplicotions.
(oJ Development "
of c design storm
hydrog roph .
(bl De--",Iopmenl
of (] watershed ~ ~
hydrogroph.
,~
'nmc
Unit h)'drOlr. pl> Unit hydrogr~ph coovolU!1on

'"
•
•
'1
•.••,
" "
"
I
•I

'"
,,
A ,,
, c
.... -" -..... _."","'';--
, --:--;;=-:~
i
~
~ ..-s,~~
, '
De>"" oprncnt ,/

'"
3. Storm hyd rographs for each subbasi n can be simul ated by adding,
laggi ng, and ro uting the flows prod uced by unit hydrog ra phs
through channel reaches (Chapte r 4). Effects of vario us rainfall pal-
te rns and hind use distri butions I;s n be tested o n ove rall hydrologic
response of the large watershed (Fig. 2-9(b», as demonstrated in
Example 2-7.
4. Storage rouling methods (Chapler 4) ca n be used [0 translate inflow
Viis thro ugh a rescn'oir or detention basin of particular s;7.e to
aue nunte peak fl ow or lag lime to Ihe pcllk of the hydrograph. This
is used fur analysis of flood control options.
 HydrologiC: Analysis IDS

HYDROORAPH CONVOLlJTK)N EXAMPlE 2-7

Given UI-I 1 and UI 12 for two subareas of a watershed that meet at conflu-
ence point A; usc the lO-yr 6-hr design rainfall for Houston (Fig. I IS)
to find the rcsu lClIlg storm hydrograph ilt the point of conftuenee. Use
hydrograph .::on\'olution (add and lag). Assume infiltration losses arc
0.15 in. for the fi~t hour and 0.1 inJh r thereafter. Estimate the area of
subarea I. Figure E2-7 sho"'-s the y,at.::rshed.

~':mo=--,O'--,~__c"'-__CJ,-__C''-__~''-___ '=-__C' 8
•
UH, 0 100 300 450 350 250 150 100 50 0
UH2 0 tOO 4BO 720 560 400 240 160 BO 0

Figu... E2-7
. Suoorea 2 Suooroas I and 2 •
lde • .,topod) Subgre(l I is deveI-
aped, while subarea
.~uha..,a 1
2 i. und_1oped
(IInde"eloped)

By definition, the area under the U H curve (volume of direct runoff) SOUl11ON
divided hy !he area of the wate~I".:d equals one inch of ne! rainfall.
SUUl of UI [I ordinates = 175Ods-hr-1750ae-in. Sillcc this results in one
inch of ne! rainfllii. !he subHea I is 17.50 ae. (Note: I acre 0.00[5 sq mil
1750 ac = 2.73 sq mi.
Find the Io-yr dC!>ign stonn volumes for the 6-hr durallon and olher usc-
ful durations going down 10 I-hr from Figure I-IS. For a 6-)T Siorm. hav-
ing Ihe storm vo lumes for 1.2. and 3 hr will give a clear definition of the 3
hr of highest rainfall. After Ihat, the 6-)'r storm volume will do, as Ihere is
no need to be more specific thall to divide up the remuining low rainfall.

"h<j i flll./h,1 Roinlol 0...1

•J
,""
0.9

, ,"
" "
106 Cnoplef 2

Convert design rai nfall 10 a design l1et hye tograph (in J hr) by plnci ng
the highest rai nfa ll (t he I-h r val ue) al t hl: <:cn terof the Storm (inle n -al
2- 3 or 3-4). In this case, we will usc the in terva l J-4. The 2· hr I'n lne is
4.U, so 0.9 in . (4.0 in. - 3. 1 in.) fell between the pcnk I hr and the next
hi ghest hour (the earl ier in lcrv,ll of 2-3). The 3-hr va lue is 4.8. so 0.8
in. (4.8 in. - 3.1 in. -0.9 in.) fell from (-- 4-5 hr. This is the int e rval
direct ly aflc r the peak. so now the peak of the hyclograpb is lIcfincd.
Divide the rema in ing 0.6 in. of rai n ove r the remaining 3 hr. assum-
ing equal intensit y. a nd then subtrac ll hc infiltration losses each hour.
which yie lds.

, ; I ;.
11.,) [In. / hr) ~n'/hrI lin./hrl
0-1 02 0.15 0.05
1-2 02 0.1 0.'
2-3 09 0.' 0.8
3-. 3.1 0.1 3.0
"-5 0.8 o, 07
'-6 0.2
Toto l_ $.4 inc het
0.1 0 .1

Usc hydrogrnp h convolu tion (E~ccl spreadsheet) for each subarea. and
then combi ne the two storm hrdrogra ph~ to obtain the final sto rm hy-
drograph. Subarea I is shol\ n on the following page.

T_ Q

0' PIU. ~u. ~u. jeh)

,
0
,
0
0 ,o
2
" 10 0
"
,,
3
"" JO 80 0 133
603
13 "
35
2<0
'60
300
900
0
70 0 1378
6

,
7 ,
8
"" 280 1350 210 10
JO
1883
1615

,
200 '050
'" 1173
9
3
0
10 120
80
"0
"0 '"'" "
35
'"
0 0
0
<0
0
300
150
10'
70 "
15
"0

'"",
0 35
0 ,
10

0 o
 Hyd,oIogic Analysis 107

Subarea Z is shown bC'low.

..,
r_
PIU. ~U. ~U. p.U. psU. p,U.
0

, "'" ,
,,
0 0 0
0

3 " " 0
"
•
J6

" " '"

72 3a.
0
..0 0 '"
'"
,
5

,,
7
20

", "" U,'"

"", '"
J20
1440
2>80
1680
'"
358
50< .."
0 220<1
3012
2584
•0
0 ..
'" 0
'200
720
.80

'"
'"
'80
'"
'"
72

""
"
1876
1192

'"
378
0
" 0 ", 72
,
0 0
'1 he resu ltmg storm now IS calculated hy addmg thc flows together fr()m
sub~reas 1 and 2. Finnl peak now is 4895 ds at hour 6. ns ~hown below
in the shaded oolumn.

,-
.., . ,...,
0,
''''Q
' ' ', , '''
,,
0 0 0 0

., ,.,"
3
•5
,
'"" ,'"
803
1376
.. 1567
3582
85

1883 '"''
3012
."
4895
,,
7 16t5
1173
2~84
1676 3049
7" 1192 1937
10
'" '" 1222

""
235 J78

, '"'"
.." " 5
0
72

0 "0
The above computations show the final peak of 4895 ds 81 hour 6. They
can be easily done in Excel sprelldshccb. but for more complex wf\ ler-
$heds and more oomplcx rainfalls. where flood TOu li ng in slrclIms might
t>e needed. it is usually neCCs.~;lry to U!)C computer models such as IhO!le
presented in Chaplen; 5 and 6.
108 Chopte< 2

2.5 Inllronkmeous Unil Hydrog«lph.

....... EARAND
Nash suggested Iha t the two-parame te r gamma d istribution gave the general
KlNfMATIC WAVE
shape of an instan taneous unil hydrugl'1lp b (IUH), produced from a unit
MOilELS
rainfall falting for time D as D approaches zero. The IUH was shown to be
equ ivale nt 10 th e OUlIltII from a cascade of linear rese rvo irs. (A linea r rese r-
~oir is a reservoir with oUlno", lhll l is linea rly propoflional 10 the siorage
volume.) Gray ( 1962) lale r based a popular Uli method on the same gammu
distribUl ion (sec Chapter 3).
A useful mathema ti cal c.~l cnsion of VHs of finite duration can be
develo ped if the d ura tion of rain fall excess f) approaches zt ro while the
qua nt ity (uni l dept h) remains constant. The runoff produced by lhis "jnstao-
ia neous rainfall" is called the instllnlaneous unil hydrograph. The IU H is a
response function for a particular watershed to a un it impulsc of rainfall
excess. By summin g up the out putS due to all instUlIta neous inpuL~ through
time, one arrives at Q(t). the oulput hydrogra ph.
The 1UH is assu med to be a unique fu nction fo r a waters hed. indepen-
dent of time or an tecedent conditions. The output function Q(t). or total
storm discha rge. is prod uced by summing th e OOlputs due to all inst anta -
neo uS in puts ;(/). If th e inpOl is a 5Ul"Cession of inp uts o f volume ;(r)lir, then
eac h adds its contrib ut io n ;(r )u(1 - r)dT to the rate of out pu t Q al li me I.
Sta ted 1ll8lhemnticnll y. the runoff rate at any fixed tim e / is

Q(I) "'" l ';(J)U«( - T) IIr. (2- 30)

wh ere ;(T) is the rainfall e x~-c~s nt t ime r (Fig. 2- 10) and 1/(/ - T) elm be
viewed as a weighting functi on given to minfnll in te nsities th at lXcurred /It
lime (I - T) before. The int egml, kn own as the col1\'ol ution integral. gives
th e o ut put runoff ns a continuous function of lime f. Equa tion (2-1) from
Sectio n 2.2 is th e diSl;re tc form of Equation (2- 30).
The real usefulness of the lU H as a m~thentntica l concept can be see n
in relntion 10 the S-curve prese nted in Secti on 2.2. Considcr li n S-curve
formed by a con ti nuous Jainfall of uni t intensity. wh ich ca n be an infi nite
series of very smalltime un its, each sepa rated by T. Sumllli ng all the indi·
vidua l UHs of duration 1'. the S-cll rvc ord inatc5 become
SCI) "" 1'IU(l) + utI - r ) + u«( - 21') + .. . J (2-3 1)
since r also equals the depth for a ullit intensi ty. Then. as r ..... O in Ihe limi t
for the lUI-I,

S(I) = l 'U(I)dl. (2- 32)

Therefore. the S-curve is the integral of the lU H. and the IUH is the fi rst
deriva tive of the S-cur\·c. The slope o f the S-cu rve. ({Sl dl. is proportional to
th e ordinate of the rUH.
 Hydrologic Ar.alysh 109

Figw. 2- 10
T Gropflkol r.prese,...
lotion 01how 10 .... se
on IUH 10 gencrote 0
-
'\
hydrogroph,
,(",IT

,
-"- t
,

'"

Q, -I,' ;(rl,,(I- .),1.

-I' i(, - ' )"(' )'/T

L. _ _

T he [UB has been widely use d. although it sufrc: rs the sanle disadvan-
tage as the UH in that rain fall- ru no ff respo nses mll y be nonlillcar and
de penden t on ante(:eden t conditions. Nonl inea r mode ls for the uni t h)'d ro-
graph hal'e bee n developed in the ge llenll literawre nnd nrc reviewed by
Chow ( 1964) and Raudkil'i (1979).
Nas h ( 1959) pre~nled a li m:llr UH mode l based on " re!;t: rvo ir,; in
series to represe nt a watershed. each wi t h a linear storage relo tion S - KQ.
that resu lted in II gllmm~ distributio n for shape. Figure 2- 11 ~ hoW5 various
shapes that resu lt for selecting Iwo pammcter,;11 and K in the model.

KinematM: W_ Melllods for Overland Flow

Hcnderwn and Wooding (1964) and Wooding (1965) developed a unique
Iheory for overland Oow and the siream h)'d rograph based on the concept of
Ihe kinemlltK: Wlll'e. wh ich assumes lhat the weight or gnwily force of flowing
11.
V~ r;OU I U II', for N.,I! line R' mood for n re$<1'\'{\''''

",. 0-' - - Q I: k _ 2." . 3

/' " Q.- .l:(.. : I)!(t) t '" - - - Q2: k 2 ... . 4
5

- - - -- Q3: A",2." "S

" - Q~:k.2. " .. 6

"8 ,, ,/
! ,,,
" , ,,, ••••
• ,, : :
, ,,. .J ,/

, ,-- .',
'0 • • " Tome (II,) " w

Figure 2-11
V<",ioos UH, 1><,,00 on rl. e Nosh lineor model.

water is simply balanced by the resistive forces of bed friction. A ll flows arc
assumed to obey the cqumion5 of contin uity and momentum (e.g.• Manning's
eq uation) as shown in Section 4,6. A complete de rivatio n of th e concept of
the kinematic ....8\'tl is prese nt ed there, and it is lI1 ent ioned here because the
kinematic wave mtlhod is a physics.based a pproach simi lar to Ih e unit hyd ro-
graph for ..... atershed areas. Modern distributed models solve these equations
nume rically over a fi nite grid that is used 10 rep resen t the va riation of eleva-
ti on and chan ne l configuration for 11 basin area (Chapte r II).
Solulion mel hods to a bove eq ull tions for th e ki n~ma tic wave using Ihe
meth od of characte ris ti cs are described in dClllil by Lighlh il1 and Whi tham
( 1955), Eagleson (1970). Ovenon and Meadows (1976). Ra udkivi (1979),
Ste phensou a nd Meadows (1986), and Singh ( 1996). Most pmetical applica-
t io ns of kinema tic wave met hods req uire the usc of nume rical methods
beca use of no nunifonn rainfall and va riable basi n charac teris tics and are
prese nted in Chapter 4 al ong wi th o the r num erical flood routi ng proced ures.
Modern distrib uted models arc based OIl th ese equa ti ons, and a n exam ple
model an d ap plica tion are presented in Chapte r 11.
Kinematic ( KW) wave routing can be used to deri ve overland flow
hydrographs, which C,IO be added to produce collecto r or chan nel hydro-
graphs and , event ually. can be flood ro uted as channel o r stream hyd rographs.
In the carly 1980s, the kinematic wave me thod was forma lly added to several
ava ilable compu ter models, such as the HEC HMS fro m the U.S. A rmy
Corps of E ngine ers (H ydrologic E ngineering Cente r, 2010). Figure 2- 12
 Hydrologic Aool~i5 III

Overland Oow ~lcmcnl1 Fig.Irw 2-12

(,".:riand Oowmips) Conceptual model 01
Ihe kinematic wove.

1"10»1 fron. m'crland

I1uw d"n,cnl~
/

Q.
S~bbuin innow

------------------
, ,,
,, ,
,
, ,
,,
,, ,
,
L..
..
~<·-·~~-:::::c,...(~'I:no..S from
Main " coIle"I"" chan .... 1
----,, t ban .... 1
,,,
,
"

,,
,, , ,
,,
,
,, ,
,
,,

Q-
Sui>OOsin oUlfl;"..

shoWl! the kinematic wave concep t. which uses 11 nu mtler of interconnected

eleme nls. incl ud ing ove rland flow elemen ts. colltttor chann els or pipes. and
main channcts. IO describe an overall watershed. Explicit nu merical methods
(Section 4.6) arc empl oyed to sol."e eq ua l ions for each e lcm~ n t. an d ove r-
land flow becomes inpu t to the collcclOr system. wh ich evc nlUli ll y forms the
late nll input hydrogra ph to a mai n channel. Chapter 4 presents kinematic
112 Chapler 2

wave flood routi ng in detai l, and Chapler 5 presen ts som~ applica tio ns for
the HEC· HMS models. The KW method also is a mai n drive r of the Storm
Water Manage ment Model. desc ri bed in C hap le r 6, lind th e d istributed
mode l VFlo. presented in C hupter 11 . Stephenson and Meadows (1986),
Singh (19%), and Vieux (2002) provide excellent relliews of kine mat ic wave
mod eli ng methods.

2.' Introduction )0 Evoporotion

HYDROlOGlC
Evaporation is Ihe process b)' which water in its liqu id or solid SlalC is trans-
LOSS-
formed into water " lIpor. which as a gas mix es wilh the atmosphe re. Evapo-
EVAPORATION
transpiration ( E'I) is co nsidered separately as the combined loss of waler
ANDEl
"apor from the surface of plants (transpirat ion) and the evaporation ofmois-
lure from soil. Knowledge of evaporation processes ts importan t in predict·
ing wat er losses to evaporation from a lake or reservoir. On aV~fage,
approxima tely 70% of th e m e~n annulIl rai nfall in the United States is
retu rned to the atmosphere as eva poration or Iran~pi rat ion. Howe~'er, vari-
at ions in el'aporat ion across the con tin ent can be ve ry large du e to effects of
solar input, loca tion of mountains, and proximity to oceans. O n an annual
basis, evaporation n. tes can exceed mean annual rai nfn ll, especially in arid
regions of the sout hwest. For cxam ph:, arid areas in Texas. Arizona, New
Mcxico, Ne\'ada, and southern Californ ia can exceed 70 in. per year. com-
pared to about 30 to 40 in. pe r year for much of the rest of the country,
For the case of evaporation from a lake surface, water loss is a function
of solar radia tion , lempe ralure of the wat er ,md air. differe nce in vnpor pres·
sure be tween water and the ove rl yi ng air, and wind speed across the lake.
As evaporation proceeds in a dosed-<:on ta iner sys tem at a conSlant tem-
perature, pressure in the air space increases because o f an increase in partial
pressu re of watc r vapor. Evaporation conti nues unt il vn por press ure of the
overlying air eq uals the surface vapor pressure; al this point. Ihe air space is
said 10 be saturaled at chac temperature, and funhe r evaporation ceases,
Th is stat e of equilibrium wo uld nOI be reached if th e container we re opcn
to the atmosphere. in which case all water would cvt nHl ully cva porate. Ther-
mal energy is requi red to increase the free energy of wa ter mo lecules to
allow escape ac rClSS the liquid-gas inte rfacc_The amount of heal required to
convert wat er to I'H por at constan t temperatu re (597 clI l'g at O"C) is called
the !atent hea l of eV;lporation, as give n in Equalion (1- 5),
As vaporiza tion contin ues over a fI:l t free-wa ter surfa cc. lin accumula-
tion of vapor moleeules causes:m im:rease in th e va por pressure I! in the air
JUSt above the wate r surface, unt il e\'en tually condensa tion begins. The air
is saturated when the rate of co ndensa tion equals Ihe rale of v:lporiza tion
nnd c equals the sa turation va por pressurc. However, various convective
transport processes operate to transpon the vapor (by wind-drivcn currents)
and prevent eq ui librium from occurring,
 Hydrologic Analysis 113

Evapornti on is imponant in the long-term water balan~'e and is usually of

concern for large-scal e water resources planning and wa ter supply st udi ~. Dur-
ing typical storm periods. wit h inte nsities of 0.5 in./hr. evaporat ion is 011 the
order of 0.01 in.Jhr and is nOfmally neglected for flood flow studies and urblm
dl1linage design applications. Evaporation has heen extensive ly studied in the
Uni ted Stales since the 1950s. beginning with the comprehensive Lake Hefne r
eva pora tion research project by Man.iano and Harbeck (1954 ). Three primary
melhods are used loestimate c\'llporslioo from a lake surfac:c: the water hudget
method. Ihe mnss transfcr met hod. and the encrgy budgct met hod. These ;ore
diSUlsscd ill more detail in the seC1ions Ihat follow. and Brulsaen (1982) and
Dingman (2(J02) prese nt a more detai led review of eva poT1ltion mechnnisms.

Werter BucIg.t Method For Detennining fvaporation

T he wale r budget method for lnke evaporation is based on the contin uity
equalion. Assu mi ng Ihat change in storage IlS. ~u rface in now I. surface OUl -
flow O. subs urface seepage to gro und \V,lIer now CW. fi nd prel:ipita tion P
cll n be measured. evaporation E can be computed as
E = -llS + I + P - 0 - CW. (2-33)
'ille ilpproac h is si mple in theory. bOI el'a tunting seepage terms ca n
mak e the mCl hod quit e di rfic ult to im plcme nt. The obvio us pro blems result
from errors in measuring precipitation. innow. OlU n OW. e h ~ nge in 510ra8e.
and suhsurface seepage. Good estimates using Ihe me thod we re ob tained
for Lake Hefner. near O klahoma City. wil h S% 10 10% error. It should be
e l1l p h as i ~ed that Lake Hefner was seiccted from more than one hundred
I:ikes lln d reservo irs as one or three or four th at best me t wa ter budge t
rcq uireml: nts and had minimlll seepage losses to the subs urface.

Mass transfer techn iques <I re based pri mar il y 0 11 the COll t"Cpt of tur bule nt
transfer of wate r vapor from a woter surface to the atmosphe re. Numerous
em pirical fann ulas ha\"(: been derived taexpressevaporation rale as a function
ofvnpor-prcssure differences and wind spt:ed above a lake or reservoir. Mall)'
such equations ca n be wrillcn in the fonn of a diffosive flux of water vapor.
whose conccpt da les back to Dalton's original theories (I3ru tsaen. 1982):
(2-34)
where
'5 = sal ura tion vapor pressu re at the T, of Ihe wate r surface.
c" = vapor pressure til some fi xed level above the wlltcr sur faee. the
prutl uct of relat ive hum idity limes sa tura tion vapo r pressure at
T~ of the air.
II - wi nd speed.
II. b = empi rical constanlS.
 Chapter 2
'" An obstacle to comparing diffe rent evaporati on formu las is lhe vaTi·
ability in measurement heights for " and e". Reducing £l it form ulas \0 the
same measurement level of 2 m (6.5 (1) for wind speed and vapor pressure
and (liking in to acco unl lhc 30% difference between rese rlloir and pan evap-
ora tion. the scalie r be tween th e common formulas is considerably reduced.
The formula wi lh the best datubase is the Lake Hefner formula given by
Marcia no and H arbeck (1954), which also performed well al La ke Mead
(H arbeck , 1958). Some form ulas use a 7.ero val ue: of the CQnstant a in Eq ua -
tion (2- 34), due prob.1bly to sl11l1l1lo<:al air movemc llIS with velocities ins uf-
ficie nt \0 remove excess vapo r rrom above a pan surface. Harbeck and
Meyers ( 1970) presenl the formula
(2- 35)
where
£ ,. c\<l (JO ratiQn (em/day).
b = 0.012 for Lake Hdncr, O.01 18 for L.ake Mead
(em-d ay- J -m - J -s· m, ) ' ) .
~. - vapor pressure al wat er surface (mo).
~2 ; vapor pressure 2 m above water surface ( mb).
112 '" wind siJ(:ed 2 m above the water surfaee (mrs).

Energy Budget Method

The mOSt aa;urate and comp lex method for detenn ining evaporation uses
the e nergy budge t of n lake (Fig. 2- 13). The overall energy budge t fo r II la ke
can be wriuen in lan gh:yslda y. where l lungleys (Ly) - 1 ealfem 2:
QN - QA - Q, = Q~ - Q,~ (2- 36)

figure 2- 13 Q.
A lo ~e's _gy
budgct.

Q.

'" Q.

Q8 - (Q, - Q,- Qb)

"'M il' Q, - , horl" " ,'C SO"', I'lI dlali<)n
Q. - rdlttlCd ~n"'1>Vt nod iJWO"
Q b - Ion~"""'c r1I<lialion back 10 . lmoopl><" c
 Hydrologk Ano lysis 115

whe re
QN = net radia tion absorbed by t ll~ watcr body.
Qh - sensible heat tran sfer (conduction a nd oonv~ ction to the
atmosphere).
Q~ = energy used for cva)lQration .
Q6 = increase in energy stored in the water body.
Qy:O: advected energy of inflow and ou tflow.
Le tting L~ representlhe late nt hea t of va)lQri1.ation (Ctl.Vg) and R the ratio o f
lIeat Joss by conduction 10 heat loss by e\·aporation. Equa tion (2-36) becomes
QN + Q" - Q~
£ = pL~(1 + R) . (2- 37)

where £ is th e evapora tion (cm/day) and p is the dc nsity of wilier (glcm\

The Bowcn ratio (R ) is used as a meAs urc of sensible heat tra n~fe r and cn n
be compu ted by

R :: 0 66
. (T, - T.)(-1000P)T
e, e.
' --'"
- T,
- - >-:-::-:- t, ta'
(2-38)

where
P "" at mosp heric press ure (mb).
T. - ai r tempe rature ("C).
T, = wate r surface tempe ratu re (QC),
e~ ... vapor pressure oC tile air (mb),
e, s sa tu rdtion vapor pressure al surface wa ter tc mpcrdture (mb),
"y = the psychometric consta nt O.66P/ looo (mbrC).

Applica tion of the energy budgct method requires measure ments of

tota l incoming or net rlIdinlion. Tlte Bowen ralio was ronceivcd beca use sen-
sible heattrn nsfcr cannot be read ily comput l'd. The method was applied to
Lake Hefner and La ke Mead ;md was used to evaluat~ empiricnl coefficients
for the maS'S transfer met hod and 10 int erpret pan C\'jlpordlion dala at L., ke
Hefne r. The energy budget metbod is theore tically Ihe most accurate. but it
req ui res the collection of large amounts of deta iled atmospheric data. which
arc sometimes not availa ble. To gel around this problem. other methods such
as pan cvapor1ltion me thods have been de vc loped to esti mate shallow-lake
eVllporation. which is used at man y 5tat ions across the United States.

Pan EYClporation
Evaporat iQn ca n 00 measured from a sta ndard Weather Bureau class Aplin.
an open ga lvanized iron tank 4 rl in di ameter and 10 in. d;:ep mount ed 12 in.
above the gro und (~ee f ig. 1- 29). To estinHlte evaporation. the pan is fil led
t(l a depth or 8 in. and must be refilled when the dep th has fallen to 7 in. The
waler surface level is measured daily. and evaporatio n is computed as the
116 Chapler 2

difference between observed Io::\'cls. adjusted for llny precipitation nx:asured in

a standard ra in gage. Al ternatively, wa ter is added each d:ty to bri ng the level
up 10 a fixed point. Pan evaporation r.llCS 8rc highe r than octuallake evapora·
tion ilnd must be adjusted to IICCOUnt for Illdialion and heat-exchange effeclS.
The adjustm en t factor is caned the pall coefficient. which ranges from 0.64 10
0.81 and ave rages 0.70 for the Unit ed Slales. However. the pan coefficient var·
ies wilh season, ex!X'Surc, a nd climatic conditions and shou ld be used only for
ro ugh estimates of lake evaporation. Pall evaporation dal a lire an;:hh"cd by the
National Oimalic Data Cenler and are availabh: 01 a number of stat ions in the
United Siaies (Farnsworth and Thompson. 1982; Dingman. 2{X)2).

Combined Methods
Pen mlm (1948) first used the best fea tures of t he mass tran sfer an d ene rgy
budge t met hods 10 derive a wat e r surface evapoT<1 tio n rel ation tha t is fairly
easy to .;:ompute. The Penman eq uatio n is

(2- 39)

wh e re
Ell = flllX of la ten t he al due to evaporlllion (e ne rgy/area-time)
'" pL~E wit h E in units o f LIT,
L . :z lIu ent he at of va poriJl;atio tl [Eq. (1-5)1, .;:u~ toma rily eval uated al
the tempera ture tlf the air (e ne rgy/ma ss).
d - slope of e,-vs.- T c urve, which is shown as ~ fy vs. T in Van Savel
(1966).
It is c us tomary to evaluate Ilfy or j ust d al the tem pe rlllUre of the ai r, no t
the te mperatu re of the waler surface. Alternati,·cly. since to re presents the
slope of sa turated vapor pres.~ure vs. temperature. it ca n be o btained by dif·
fe rentiating Equa tion ( 1-4), thus

de, 2.7489 X 10" X 4278.6 ( 4278.6)

• _ - 31 cxp - (2-40)
(IT (7" + 242.79i T + 242.79
with units for to of mb/"C, and Ti n 0c.
Q,v = net radiatio n abso rbed in Equat ion (2-36) (energy/a rea.time)
y = psychome tric consta nt from Equ ation (2- 38) (m bt'C)
E" represen ts the ~ dryi ng power~ of tile air (Brutsncrt, 1982) and is given by
(2-4 1)
where
EQ ha5 uni lJ; of energy fl ux (e ne rgy/a rca·time).
a + bll "" e mpirical transfe r constanlJ; from Equa tion (2-34) or (2- 35)
(Uf) per unit of pressure,
 Hydrologic AnoIYli$ 117

e.... = saturation "apor press ure 81 tcmpe ralure of the air,

e~ - aclual vapor pressure in air RH - e, •.
RH .. rela tive humidit}' (fraclion).
The I'enman equa tion lias the advantage that the wate r or soil sorratc
tem perat ure neo::d not be kn own. It has thus been fou nd ve ry useful for
el'apo tra nspifllt io n studies. in which it i ~ difficul t to dete rmi nc the surface
temperature of vege tation (Jense n et al.. 19'Xl). When the surfacc tempe r;l-
lure of the water can be read ily measured. the energy budget- Bowen rat io
appro~,ch discussed previously is probably bellcr because it avoids the need
to use un empirical tra nsfer coefficient (II + hll).
T he Penman equation is the basis for the graphical regress ion pr~ ­
dure sho .... n in Figure 2- 14 (Kohler et at. 1955): this ro::gression is illustrated
in Example 2-8. 'The usc of th e Pe nm an eq uatio n itself [Eq. (2-39 )1 is shown
in Exa mple 2- 9.

Figu,. 2-14
Shallow Ia~" eY'Opo!'ation as (I lun<;rion of soIOI rodiorion, oi. lempcrolure, dew point, ond wind moY.,.
menl (Adopllld from Kgb).,. cr 01., 1995).
118 Chopt&r 2

OfTB!M~ING EVAPORAnON USING GRAPHICAl. REGRESSION

For a given shallow lake, th e mean da ily nir tempe rature T" is 70"F. The
solar mdiation is mc~surcd as 650 Iyfdny. Th~ mea n dail y dew poin t tern-
per,il ure is 5crF, li nd the \\Cind movement al 6 in.lIbovc the pn n rim is 40
mil day. Using the nomograph for shallow-lake eva poration shown in
Figure 2- 14. determin e the dai ly lake eva pora tion in inch es.

SOWTlON r oin! 1 on Figure 2- 14 shows th e point whe re T" = 70"F an d the solar
radiatio n is 650 ly/d ay. Point 2 is drawn II I the intersecti on o f th e curve
o f T, = 5(fF and T~ = 70"F. A "crticallinc is drawn from poin l 2 10 the
c urve representing wind mo vement e qual 10 40 milday. 11lis is point 3.
Point 4 is fou nd at th e inte rsection of II horizontal line projec ted from
poin t 3 a nd n vertical li ne projected from point L The da ily la ke eva pora-
tion is then read from the graph as
E = 0.22 in.

EXAMPlE 2-9 EVAPORATION USING THE PENMAN EQUATION

An exam ple of Equation (2-34) is givcn by Meyer (1944) for Minnesota
lakes:
£ = 0.0 106(1 + U.I II )(e,
- cu)
with £ in in.lday. II in mph. and vapor pressures in mb. For an air tem-
perature of 9O"F (32.rC). wind speed of 20 mph, relati\'c humidit y of
30%. and net radiut ion flux of 400 Iyfday, cstim nle the evuporalion rate
using th e Penman equation. AS/lu me at mospheric pressure .. 1000 mh.
so the psychomelrie constant -y = 0.66 mbt'c.

SOlLmON We eval ua te t. rrOIl1 Equation (2--40) >It the ai r te rnperature of 32.2°C;

6 _ drs = 2.7489 X loS x 4278.6 ex ( 4278.6 )
dT (32.2 + 242.79)2 p 32.2 + 242.79
= 2.72 mbf C.
For Eq uation (2- 39), IVC need the satura tion \'apor pressure at 32.rc.
From Equatioll (1-6), we thell havc
es~ = 2.7489 X j(j!expl -4278.6/ (32.2 + 242.79)J = 48.1 mb.
Thus.e" = c'" = 0.3(48. 1) = 14.4 m b. The lu tent heat of vaporiza tion a t
the ai r temperature or 32.Zoc is
L, = 597.3 - 0.57(32.2) = 579 cal/g.
 Hydrologic Aoo!ysis 119

T he density of wa te r will be taken as 1 gfcml. We include a cha nge in

units from inJday to cm/day whi le evaluating E.,
Eo = 0.0 106( 1 + O.l· 20)(i n.lday.mb) 2.54 (cmlia.) I (glc1ll 1)
x 579(cal/g)(48. 1 - 14.4)(mb)
- 1590cal/cm2-da y ~ 15901 ylday.
The Penman evapo ration ene rgy fl ux is th u ~ (Eq. 2-39)
£It = 2.n/(2.n + 0.66) ' 400 + 0.66/(2.72 0.66) · 1590
= 632Iy fday.

111is can be conve n ed to depth/day by dividing by pL~:

£ 632/1(579) = l.09cm/day = 0.43 inJday of evapora tio n.

Evapotron$pirotion
For II water budget o\'er the whole wate rshed. one is U$oally concerned wit h
the total evapora tion from all free-wa ter surfaces. plus transpiration, the l os~
of vapor th rough sma ll ope nings (stomat a) in plant tiss ue (e.g., lenves). For
most plmu s. transpira tion occurs only du ring daylight hoors du ring photo-
synthesis, wh ich ca n Icad to di urna l varia tions in the shallow ground wate r
ta ble in he avily vege tat ed arcas. The combi ned evaporation and transpira-
tio n loss is called evapotranspiration (ET) lind is a max imum if tile wat er
~u pp ly 10 bolh the pla nt lInd soil surface is unli mited. The max im um possible
loss is limi ted by mcteorologieal condi tions and is cnlled potential ET
(Thornthwaite. 1(48): potential ET is apprO)(i matcly eq ual to the evapora-
tion from II largc. free-wate r su rface such as a lak~ . Th us. methOlls discussed
in thc prcvious section for cvaporation ca n be used to predict pote nt ial ET.
Large surface area and high temperat ure of leaves ca n easily create
transpiration rates that eq ual o r e"en exceed potential ET. Exceeda ncc is
possible in ins tances of an ··oasis" of well-watered vegetation. such as a
crop or gu lf !;ourse. loca ted in a larger area in which actual ET is l es~ tha n
the potenti al. Ac tu al transpi ration an d. hence. actual ET arc usuall y li m-
ited by moisture supply to the plants. Ob\'ioIl5Iy the effect of li mited mois-
ture wi ll de pe nd on plant characteristics such as root depth and the abi lit y
of the $oil to tran sport water to th e roots. These effects have led to various
e mpirical factors that may be applied to potential ET. computed usi ng one
of the enpo ration methods discussed previously. For exa mple. Penman
(1950) dete rmined that ET from a vcgelilled land surface in Great Britain
was 60% to 80% of pote ntial ET computed using his met hod: Shih e t al.
( 1983) used n va lue of 70% for crops in southe rn Florida. On th e o ther
hand, Priestly and Taylo r ( 1972) multiplied Penma n equa tion c\'aporation
by 1.26 for well-watered crops 10 compu te ET. Ot her em pi rica l form ulas
120 Chapler 2

Pan C..lffident R____

51. Aue""i ... 9' "'' 0.77 WfKJver ond S~hen'1190 31

S.N .,.PI*' 0.85-1O.t
Gto.. and <;love.. 080 B<ursc"" [1982, p . 25 31
Col;'!i'" ~Otwood l (eow Tex(3,) L20 Engkmd ( 1977)
W~\.wc lertd 9"'" turf Shih . toI.I1 983)
tigh!....;nd, hido reIaIiv. humidiry 0."
SIroo!g "";1Id, low rela!i ... hvmidioy 0.35
Everg lo d" ogrK: u'lurol 0'.01 0 .65
Irrigated ara.. pool",. 0 .76 Ho'9"."ye... ..d Somenl
[cerural Co~ro."iot (1982)

thll l incorpo rate radiat ion, ai r Ic mpcralUre. an d precipi ta tion are gi ven by
Thornth wlli tc ( 1948). Tu rt (1954). an d liamon ( 1961). and in agri cultu ral
practice the Blaney-Criddle meth od is widely used (Blaney and Crid dle,
1950: C riddle. 1958).
O nce again, pan evaporation can be used 10 eslimale ET if coefficie nts
are kn own for th e speci fi c vege tation. T here is II wide range of pan coe ffi -
cien t va lues, a s ind ic ate d in T nble 2- 2. Cautio n sho uld ~ used with nny pa n
coefficie n t mel hod for p re dict ion o f ET, si nce (he method is wea k to begin
with ( B rutsae rl , 1982) and coeffi ci e nts will e xperie nce a s trong seasona l
variat ion thu l follo ws vegetat ive growth [J3I1e rn s.
The comp lex II.lln ua l rela tio nship am ong potent ial ET , ra in fa ll, li nd soi l
moisture is illustra ted in Fig ure 2-15 fo r p la n ts with th ree d iffere n t rOOI
de pths. T he (ield OIpa city o f the so il is the mois tu re con tefllllbove wh ich
wal er will be d rai llcd b}' gravi ty. Th e willing poinl o f Ihe so il is the moist u!"e
content be low which pla nts can no t eXlrac! further water. As Ihe soil mois-
tu re conte nt is red uced below field capacity. act ua l ET becomes len th a n
po te ntia l ET. If th e soil wat e r con te nt is rcdu ced below the wilt ing poi nt, the
plan t mil y die. T hi s complica ted proeess dep e nds o n the plan t, soil type .
me teorOlogy. a nd seaSOn. A fu ll d iscussio n is beyond the scope o f this \e )[l;
fu rther dc tuils may be fo und in Brutsaen ( 1982). H illel (1 982). Salisb ury an d
Ross ( 1969). ASC E ( 2005), a nd Dingma n (2002 ).

Tabuialed E¥opoh"onspirution Estimates

Most ET estimatcs tOO 3y an~ base d a ll 11 modificat io n of the Pe nm3n equ atio n
for specific a ss umpt ions abo ut transfe r coefficie nts IEq . (2-4 \») and vegela-
tive sur(act. 'Ille Pc nm an-Mon le ith <!(j unlion (ASCE . 2005) is o ne e X3111plc.
in whi ch the Penma n eq ualio n is appli ed to d iffe re at crops on th e basis o f
the ir ro ughn ess. he ight , an d Slolll llta l res ista nce to tra nSpi rH lion. The Kim -
be rly- Pen man eq ua tio n. developed by the U.S. De pa n mc nt o f A gric ult ure
at Kimbt:r ly. ld a ho. "'"35 de veloped using da ta to re fine transfe r coefficie nts
 Hydrologic Ano!ysis 121

F'ogure 2-15
Idealized onr.o.ool
~il moIslufe cycle
'i.I'ET >'i.R
for three vegetotion
types.
< PET
PET !'ET
Winler

I
,6
< /'It T AUlumn Spring PET
< 1'0 '
< PET I'ET < PET

:f.1'ET> 'i.R'L.::-'------'
Sum ..... '
W FiclJ capacil)' PET . t'olcnlial ."gpo lr~n,pita lion

D Soit m..,;"l ure di:ficil R . Rainfatt

for re ference crops of .llfalfa and wcU-clipp..:d f~scue grass (ASCE. 2005).
ASCE (2(X)5) recommends a standardized fonn of such an equation as the
basis fOf' ET estima tes from man y different vegetative surfaocs. 'f1le methods
work by com pu ting a reference ET es timate based on loeltl meteorology. and
then mult iplyi ng by crop coefficients th at incorporate crop-spe<:ific stomatal
resistance and surface roughness to convert the refe rence estima tes to ET
estimates for each crop. The crop coefficients vary by location. season. and
growt h sta ge of the crop. Rekrcnce ET is updated dai ly on the basis of local
meteorology.
An exa mple of dissemination of these very use ful data (e.g.. for irriga.
tion estima tes) is the: AgriMet seT"ice of the: Bureau of Reclama tion in the
U.S. Pacific No rth west and no rthe rn California and Nevada (hllp:/lwww.
u§br.govlpn/llgrilllt:t/gcne ral.html ). Daily rdere nce ET estima tes an:: com-
pu ted us ing the Ki mberly-Pemnan eq uation for II refere nce crop of a lfalfa
fo r more tha n 70 weather stations in the region. Crop coefficie nts li re site
specific and availa ble for almost all crops gro ....'Il in II locality. Real·time lind
'22 Chapter 2

historic weat her dal a may also be ex tracted {rom the weat her sta tions, mak -
ing AgriMct a val uable da ta resource for more than just ET estimates.
Application of rd erellce ET toward ET e~ti m atcs for "mlura l vegetation
(e.g .. forests. grasslands) depends nOi only on obvious location and vege ta-
tion-specifIC parameters but also on (lVailable moisture conte nt. However.
such esti ma tes can be att emp ted with additional information. 8S explained
by ASCE (1996). The adva ntage of applyi ng rd eTence ET estimates [0 nat-
lI ral watersheds is Lhe use of real -li me, si te-specific weat her dala for the
refe rence ET comput ation, wh ich arc much morc available than lire pan
measurements.

Some rai nfnll on vegetatio n is tra pped on leaves and ol her vege tative sur-
faces and subseq uently lost to the aHn05phere through evaporati on, The
trapped wnter, or inlerception, does nOI reach the ground surface and is a
loss of wate r Ihat might otherwise potenti311y run off from the catchment.
Rainfalli hat drops thl'Ough the vegetation is known as through.falL Intercep-
tion is an examp le of depression storage or ini tial abstraction I.h al is sub-
tracted from rain fall d uring the ini tial stage of a storm (Cha pte r.;; 2 and 6).
Because the ul timate fate of such "".Iter is evaporati on, inte rception is some-
times lumped wi th ove rall basin ET. However, estimates arc ava ilable as a
function of plant type. loclll ion. and season. acarly. leafy deciduous trees
may intercept conside rabl e water in the summ er an d aim05 t non e in the
wi nter. O n an annua l basis, Dingman (2002) repo rts annual interce ption as
a pe rcen t of annual preci pi tation on th e order of 24%-35% for Pacific
Northwest conifers and on the order of 10% for North Ca rolina hardwoods.
O n a storm eve nt basis, Shuttleworth (1993) repo rts canopy int erce ption on
the order of 1.2 mm for conife rous fo rCl!ts and 0.8 mm for broodleaf canopies
in full leaf. Interception capaci ty is recove red during in{ereve nt dry periods
as a funct ion of evaporation ra tes.

2.7 The process of infilt ra tion has bee n widely stud ied and represe nts an impor-
HYDROLOGIC tant mechanism for the movement of wat er int o the soil under grav ity and
lOSS- capilla rity forces. Infihration ,·olume is subtracted from a precipitation c"elll
INFILTRATION in order to determine the ne t volu me of ra infall, or rainfall excess, which is
equivalent 10 {he direct runoff from a w(ltershed area. Horton (1933) showed
tha t when Ihe rai nfall rat e i exceeds the infiltration rate f, water infi ltra tes
the su rface soils a! a rate tha t generall y decreases ..... ith lime. These rates are
usually re ported in inches per hour. For any gi ve n soil, II li mit ing curve
defines the max imUIl1 possi ble rates of infilt rat ion \'5, time. The ra te of infil -
tra tion depe nds in a complex wayan rai nfall intensity, soil type, surface
condition. and vegetal co,'e r.
 123

/ lniliall,,", to ,h,roge Figure 2-16

Horlon', infillrolion
- " , 0'(15' p. ccipitallon cOl'ICepi.
",' o'il
Vol,. .... or
ru nofr

For excess rates of ra infall, the aclu,ti in fillnH;On Tule wi ll fo ll ow th e

limiting curve shown in Figure 2-16, ca lled lh e Horton inftlff.lion capillity
curve of Ihe soil. The capacity decre ases with time and ultimately reaches n
COllsto nl rate. caused by filling of soil pores with water. which reduces capil-
lary suction. For examp le. il has been shown through con trolled tests Ihat
Ihe decline is more rapid an d the filia l constant rate;s much lower for clay
soils I h ~n for sandy soils. Thus. sand will ge nerally infiltra te more vo lume 81
a hi ghe r rale th an clay soi ls.

Simple Equgtions for Wiltration late

The hyd rologic conce pt or infi ltTlllion capacity is empirically based on
obse rvations at th e ground surface. Horton ( 1940) sugges ted the fo llow.
ing form of the infi!trn lion equation, where rai nfall in l e n ~ity i > f a l all
ti mes:
(2-4 2)
where
I = infiltration eltpacity (in,/hr),
10 =initial infi ltra tion capacity (in.lhr),
!. -final capacily (in.lhr),
k = empirical conSI:ln t (hr- I).
Rub in and coworkers ( 1%3, 1964) showed lhal Horton's observed curves
can be theoretically pl·edicted, give n the rllillfall intensity, the ini ti al soil
moiSlure co nditions, and a sel of unsalurated characteristic cur ves for the
soil. T hey ~ howed Ihatlhe fina l infil trn tioll ralc is num erically equ ivale nt
10 the saturate d hydrau lic conductivity of the soi l. Furl henn ore. Rubin
showed that ponding at lhe surface will occur if rainfall duratio n is greater
than Ihe lime requ ired for soil 10 become satura ted :11 fhe surface. Hor·
ton's eq uation is depicted graphicall y in Figure 2-16. and E",ample 2- 10
illustrates its ust'.
114 Chopter 2

EXAMPlE 2-10 HORTON'S INFilTRATION EQUATION

The initial infillrlllion capacity l oof a l>iaten.hed is estimmed as 1.5 in.l1lr,
and th e lime constan t is tak en to be 0.35 ht- I. The eq uilibrium capacit)'
fe is 0.2 in.lhr. Use I-I orton's equali on to find (a) tht: "':.lues offat l = 10
min, 30 mi n. I hr, 2 hr, an d 6 hr. and (b) the lotal vo lume of infil tration
over the 6-h r pe riod.

' O,"OON Horton's Equation [Eq. (2--42)] is

I "" Ie + (fo - f~)e-Iu.
Subst ituting th e valuelj for /i)J<, and k gives
f- 0.2 inih r + l.J(e-i>.35I) inJht.
Solving for each value of I giyes Ihe following table:

' ., flin'/M

,,"'
1.43
," '"
, '"
0"'
0 .36

The Yo lumc (in inches o\'er Ihe watershed) Co1n be found by plotting the
curve given by the table of va lues and Ihen finding the area under the curve
bounded by I = 0 and I = 6 hr. The plot i~ shown in Figure E2-1O. The
curve is given by Ihe ('qualion below, and 10 find F, the ,·olume of infiltra-
tion and the area under the F curve. we mus t integrate Horton·s equa tion.

P' = r + (fo - Ic)e- 41

J'" k ·
O
f "'" 0.2in Jhr + l.J(e- .35i) in J hr.

!';gu... E2-10
HOffOn infillrorion
wr-----------------------------,
curve. The Oleo
shod...:! undel Ihe
CUI"! Jepre~nts the
totol W)lume 01
inlilbation 0\'8/ (]
{).hI period.
 Hydrolog ic Ano~is 125

Integraling over the in tervalt = 0 to I .. 6 hr gives

Vol- fldl
.. fo.2 l.3(r~dl
= [021 + (1.3 035~-()J5tj~
= 4.46 in, over the watershed.

Horton'S equation in the form of Equ ation (2-42) suffers from Ih~
fa ct Ihal infilt ration capacity d~crcas.es as a function of time: rcgard lcss
of Ihe aC lual amounl of water available for infiltration. Thai is. th e equa-
tion f1SS Um I;;S ponding on the surface lind II reduction of infiltration capac-
ity. regardless of whether or nul th e rainfa ll in tensity i cxce~ds th e
co mpu te d va lue of infiltTfltion capacity 10' Fur example. it is C(J mmon th at
t he infiltration capacity of sa nd y soils greatl y exceeds most rainfall inten·
sities. with values of 10 up to 23 in J hr (Table 2-3). Even inte nse rai nfall
pulses 8re seldom this high. wilh the co nseq uence tha t all rainfall may
in(i lmlte: that is. I;. i. T he infiltration cap~l city should be reduced in
proportion 10 the cum ulative infiltration vo lume. not in proportion to
time .
The cumula ti v~ infilt ration \'Olume is giv~n by the in tegral of Equa-
lion (2-42).

,.t,) = I,J + [II! ; f~ ](1 _ t'-b). (2-43)

To find the infiltril ti on capacity at a ny time, Equation (2- 42) ma y be

solved iteratively for a time Ip as a (unction of F. T he li me tp is used
to es tablish Ihe approp ria te infilt Tll tion ca pacity for the nex t time in-
lerval. This procedure is used. for exampl~. in the SWMM (Huber an d
Dick inso n. 1988). and d etai ls ca n be foull d the re and in Viess man and
Lewis ( 1996).

Alpllolpho Ioomy $(lAd 1.40 "00 38.29

Co' oeg·. $(lndy loom 177 14.77 1964
CoIn.... Ioomy $(lAd 2_63 3_47 1.40
fvqooy ~ Ioomy $(lne! 2..42
lMl,-'d \ooMy $(lne! 1.13 '"
11.34
".70
7.70
TOOUP $(lne!
AIle< RowI ... aI • 1983
". 23.01 32.71
"6 ChapleT 2

Horton para mete rs for nat ural soils (e. g., Table 2-3) arc ge nerally nol
appl icable to dis turbed soils fou nd everywhere in and nCllr constructed
(de\'cloped) areas. Pin el al. (1999, 2001) provide some da ta and guidance
o n infiltration parameters as a functio n of commonly measured soil compac-
tion paraffi cters. T his also ill ustrates th e importa nce of local infillromc\c r
measure me nts wherever possible.
O lher equations have been ueveloped uliJiTjng analyt ical ~o[utions to
the unsat urated flo w eq ulllio n [rom soil physics (see Section 2.8). Ph ili p
(1957), in a dassil.: sc t of pape rs , de \'cloped two equations of the fo rm

f - (O.5)Sr- l/2 + K. (2-44)

F = Srl /2 + Kr, (2-45)
wh ere
f - infil tration capacity (in./hr),
F = cumu lative infiltra tion volu me (i n.),
5 "" sorptivily, a consta nt re lated to soil suction potential (i n.!hr lf2 ).
K "" soil hydraulic conductivity (inJ hr).
Wit hout detailed measureme n\j of actual loss rales and because urban wa-
h:: rsheds have hi gh im per\"iousncs..~. empirical approaches usually give qu ite
sa ti Mnetory results. Many urban d rainage and flood con trol studies rely on
either th e HOr1on equa tio n or simple r met hods to predict ave rage losses
du ring storm passage.
The <I> inde. is the simplest infiltration me thod and is calculated by
finding the loss di fference betwee n grao;s precipitation and obse rved surface
runon measured as II h)'d rograph. T he 4> index met hod assumes tha t the loss
is uniformly distribmed aeross the rainfall pa tt e rn (Fig. 2-17). The shaded
area sums 10 the "olumc of infi ltrat io n, lind the are a above the 4> index sums
to the volu me of direct runoff. Sometim es the method is modified to include
II grea te r j n it i allos.~ or abstraction fo llowed by II constant loss for th e event.
The use of <b inde)!: met hods for infil tration is ill ustrated in Ex ample 2- 11 .

figure 2-17
Grophical rep'. " " Groos precipimiO)n ra le (;)
sentation of the phi
iOOcx method.

VQlu me o f
ruooff

V<)\u_uf
infiltnolion
 Hydrologic Anolysis 127

PHIINOEX MrntOO FOR NlTRATION EXAMPlE 2-11

Use the rainfall datil below to determine the 4> inde1( for a watershed that
is 0.875 square miles. where Ihe runofr volume is 228.7 a,-ft.

n_ "'""'I
••
<>-2
f,n.{hrj

I.,
2-5 2.3
5-7 1.1
7_10 0.7
10-12 0.3

fhe (irst slep involves graphing the &i'·en data. liS in Figure E2- 1O. To SOlllOON
approach the problem, \\>e must first change Ihe area of Ihc watershed
into acres:
area(ae) = 0.875 sq mi (640acres/sq mil.
area" 560 acres.
We develop an equation for rainfall minus infiltration for each of the
time interval s 3S given:
2(1.4 - <b) + 3(2.3 <b) + 2(1.1 <b) + 3(0.7 - 4» + 2(0.3 - 4» "" 4.9
NOle that if <b is grea ter than the net rainfall for II ~pecilic lime period.
no negative rainfall is added inlo the runoff calculation.
The rate of infiltration can he found only by trial and error:
Assume <b = 1.S in.lhr. The runoff is [he volume of water abo'·e the
line al which y = 1.5 on Ihe j!raph in Figure 0-11. This 4> index would
then account for 3(2.3 - \.5) = 2.4 in. of runoff (neglecting negative
components). which is less Ihnn 4.9 in. Try again.

,
I I I .u Figure E2-11
Graph 01 ra infall

,
.
. .
intensify V$. time .

" >
1
44_4 ______________

" I
" -t--or
0 , • •
" "
128

Assume tP = 0.5 inJhr. This q, would accou nt for 2(1.4 - 0.5) +

3(2.3 - 0.5) + 2(1.1 - 0.5) + 3(0.7 - 0.5) = 9.0 in. of runofC which
is greate r tha n 4.9 in. Try aga in.
~U11l1': tb - 1.0 in.lhr. and the solution is found where lhe runoff
is equal to 2(1.4 - l.0) + 3(2.3 - lJ) + 2( 1.1 - 1.0) = 4.9 in .. Ihe
required am oun t.
From th e calculations. one ca n sec that below the dotted li ne al wh ich
4> = 1.0 in.lh r, the rai nfa ll infiltrates into the ground and the ra infall
above [his line (a lotal of 4.9 in. in 12 hT) runs off, as required.

More ad,'nnccd infilt rat ion methods based o n actua l soil types an d
solving the governing equa tions of now in porous media (i.e., Richa rd's
equation) are presen ted \\~th examples in Ihe next secti on. G reen and Ampt
(19 11) assu med II sharp welting front. separa ting initial moisture content
from saturatcd moisture con tent. which has pene trated to a dept h L in time
I since infil tra tion began. Water is ponded to a small depth on the surface.
and the Grecil and Ampt model can be used to predict cu mulat ive infilt ra-
tion as a function of time and soil type. The met hod requires e s t im ~t es of
hyd rau lic cond uctivity, po rosity. and wClling front soil suctio n head. This
mdhod has receivcd much attenl ion, since il is ba~d on readily measured
parameters for various soil classes.

2.' The aootraction tenn in the water-bal:mce equation usually includest hc loss of
GR EEN water thro ugh the interception of precipitation on aboveground vegetation.
ANO AMYf depression storage on the ground surface. and infi lt ra tion into und erlying soils.
INFILTRATION As previously disc ussed, infil tra tion Clln bel determined u si n g~imple empirical
MEIHOO methods or theoretically. The infillraliOI1 methods that rely on physical rat her
tha n empirical parameters providcsol ut ions to the govemingequalionsof flow
in porous media (i.e" Darcy's equation prese nt ed in C hapler 8) forspccific soil
types and gr.! in sucdistributioos. This SCC'Iion is a more adV'.!nced trcatment of
infilt rat ion. and it ca n be skipped without a loss of OOfItinuity in the lext.
inmtration is model ed as unsaturnted flow and differs fro m saturated
(aq uifer) flow because bot h a liqu id (watcr) :lIld a gas (air) phnse art: presen t
in the unsut urlltcu syste m. Gravity and frielion art< thc only forces at work
for sat ura ted fl ow; however. a suction ror~e as discus.~d in the next para-
grapb must be incluucd fur unsat urllled flow. Richard 's equat ion for unsat-
urated flow in porous media applies the equlltion of cOnlinuity to Darcy's
law in ordi: r to account for the presena: of a gas phase in the subsurface.
Richard 's eq untion takes the form:

i'J8 = -!..[ k(O)'»(0)] _ il K(O) . (2-46)

iJt Jz ilt ilZ
wherc

/I "" vol um ctric mois ture contcn t (cmJfcmJ ) .

.;: = distance below the surfa!;c (em).
q,(/I) = !;apillary su!;tion (pressu re) (elll of water).
K(/I) = unsatura ted hydrotulic cond uct ivi t ~' (cOils).
Moisture conl~nt 8 is defined as th e ratio of the \'olu me (If wate r to the
total volume of a unit of porous media. For satu rated grou nd wati: r now. ()
equals Ihe porosity of the sa mple, II , ddined as Ihe ratio of interconnected
,'oid volume 10 lota l sa mple volume. Fo r uns.lIlu rated flow above th c watcr
table. () < II. ~UHJ rema ining void space is filled wit h air.
The hydntulic ('unductivity K us de fi ned by Darcy's law relales grou nd
wa te r veloci ty to Ihe hydra ulic grud icn t and is de~ ri bt:d as the volume of
wa ler tha t will now Ihrough a unit soil column in a givt:n time. Hydraulic
conducti vilY is Ihus directly proportiona l to Ihe moisture conlen t of Ihe soil
and is usua lly written as K(8) for unMuurated flow.
The capillary suction 4/t is a measure of the combined ad hesive forces
that bind the wa ler molecules 10 solid wa lls an d the cohesive forces that
attract watcr mol ecules to each other. The capillary suct ion head dril WS water
to a poin t at wh ich the tensite sucti on forces acting on an element of water
nre io equilibri um with th e down ward (orce of gn\\'ity acting on the fluid cle-
men\. Tht: sign of the variable o/J ca n be thought of in lenns of energy or work;
q, is greater than ze ro in the sat ura ted ,..one (because po5itive work is required
to push an denlenl of water against hydrostatic pressure) and eq uals zero at
the bounda ry betwee n the unsa turaTed and saturated WIlts. II follows that,;,
is less than zero in the unsalura ted zone. re necting The facll hat water is held
in soil pores umkr surfa!:e-Ie nsion forces. During infiltrat ion. the suclion acts
in the s.1me direction as the water now and pulls water downwa rd.
Soil ph ysicists refer to '" < 0 as the tensioJl head or aapillilry sltction.
whi ch ClIII bc measured by an instrumen t called a tensiometer. T he capillary
tenn can be added 10 the elevatio n head to prndue.: Ihe total hydrau lic head
aClingonlin elcme nto( water.h = '" + ~ ,whe re c = P/ pg·.p isgive n llS the
liquid pressure al a certain point divided by Ihe tiquid specifIC weight: this un it
equates to a lengt h term and reiterates that suction head is the re lati"e eleva-
lion of a liquid eleme nt at a given poin t with respect 10 the Sill unned zone. As
opposed to the hydraulic conduct ivi ly, the tension head increases with decreas-
ing moisluTC conlcnl and can be written (/1(8 ) for unsaturated flow.
The /I Rl1 d (/I rel atiOllshi ps differ significa nt ly for differen t types of soil
and different s" tu ra tions; a soil with smaller pores has large r soil surface area
acting on nn clement of water th~m a large-pored soil. MOre! tensiol1 can be
applied per unit of water in the smaller pore splices. allowing wa ter 10 travel
furl her in Ihe cn pillary to the poinl where suction re aches equilibnum wil h
gmvily. G realer moisture conlent permIts waler molecules 10 cohere inward
to each other ra the r th an adhe re 10 th e soil grains. and ca pil1nry le ngth
deereIlSC:>. Figu re 2- 18 summari zes Ihe various unsat urated rone parllmetcrs
and rcl al iOl1shi ps,
130 Chapter 2

I•
!
•
MoOS1U rt: C(>nlCnl0(% ) Hydrouioo cunduct"',ly k(cm/s)

• "I.;nr,eld .... nd o Col umbia SIIndy kNtm • Guelpil loam

• Ida si llmm o Yolo I'&hl day

rrr- .--.-----,
..0 "0,.-- - ----,
"" -1 """"
.I OJ
!
•< '"
'a,
~
'"
20

00 ().2 0.' 0.0

Reill( .ve ronducti.ity

Mois lu~con l"m8 pl'cssu'c head •

( % by vol ) (em ",fwater)
o NCgIlllvC 0 F'o$itive
,
1 g
I W~t e r table
I
s..tu""t~d moisture
CO.Ueol equl> pr><O$ity of ooil

Figu,.. 2-18
Typicol reiationshipi In the unsaturated zone.
 Hydrologic Anolysis 131

•
•
"• "• Fig....-e 2- 19
Moisture ond infiltra·
'~ 1 tion relationships .
V (a) Moi~ture prolile

.., ,1--",.----:.
"-

.~
WCl1iogl
fron! :

,
,
, 01 moment of surface
~turotion. (b) Mois·
ture profile 01 a later
,
=
< ,,
•
,•
AWl

./:
time. (c) Infiltrotion
beho~ior under

.. ,
• ,,
,••
different rO infoll .
(Aoopled from Moin
and lo,,,,,,.
1973)
,., ,'<

\,
I~ ~
__ __ ~,__'_'_O_~_~_O_O_o_o_=_=__
o f---_--'A'---_ _---1

,<)

Green nnd Am pt n:pfcscnts the typicnl relat ionshi p between moist ure
content and soil depth (Fig. 2- 19(a) as a shnrp wC11ing fron t scparating
sa turated moisture content at the top of the soil col umn from the initial
moisture conk" t at the column base. The Green and A mp! mode l is lIOW
widely accepted. since it C(tn be used to predict cum ulative infiltration as a
funct ion of lime and readily availa ble soil parameters. For e~ample. it "';IS
used as the basis for t he analysis of Houston ,lrea watersheds a fter T. S.
Allison in 2001 (TSARP. 2001).
The Grecn and Ampt modcl operates un de r five princip~1 assum ptions
(Ferguson. 1994):
I. The soil under consideration is ho mogeneous and stab le. implying
that macropores and prefe rential migr;;tion pathways should not be
considered.
2. The su pply of ponded water althe surface is not limited (an assump-
tion su bject to modification below).
132 COOpter 2

3. A disti nct and precisely definable welting front exists. an d as water

conti nues 10 infiltrate. th~ welting fron t ad"tlllces at the same rate
wi t h dotpt h.
4. The capillary suction just below the wclting fron t is uniform through-
out lhe pro me and constan t in tim~ during Ih<:l infihrrtl ion even!.
5. The soil is uniformly sat urat ed above the wcuing front. and the vol.
ume tric walercontenls remain co nstant above and be low the advanc-
ing welting fron l .
At the wett ing fronl. the average capillary suction he:Ld .; is used to
represent the Ch3T8C\Cristic moisture cu rve. Th e moisture-oontcnt profi le al
the momt! n t of s urface sal uration is shown in Figure 2- 19:1. T he a rea above
the moist ure profile is the amount o f infillralinll up losurface SHlurat ion F a nd
is repre senTed by the shad~ d area o f depth L in Figu re 2- 193. T hus.
F = (e, - 9/)L .. MtfL . wh ere 6; is the ini tial moisture con ten t. 0, is the sat-
e e
ura ted moisture conlent. and Mil - s - l is the initial moL~ tu re deficit.
The unsa turateu hydrau lic cond ucti"ity of th e soil K(e) C'In be substi-
tu ted into Darcy·s law (Chapter 8) to yield:
~,
q ., - K(O) ilz' (2-47)
where
q - Darcy ve locity (em /s) ,
z ". de pth below surface (COl).
h = poten tial or head = z -+- '" (em).
1/1 = suction (negative cm),
K(6) = unsat ura ted hyd raul ic condu ctivi t), (cm/s).
o - \·olumetric moisture contcn t.
Eq uation (2-47) is thcn applied as an ap proximation 10 the sHt urlllcd condi-
tions betwcc n th e soil surface (subscri pt ··surf") and the wetting front (s ub-
scri pt "wf'· ). as indicated in Figure 2- 19b:
q = -/ III -K,(h wrl - h"'f)f(Z.urf - lwf). (2-48)
in which il is assu med that the Darcy ve locity at the soil surface equals the
downwa rd infiltra tion rate -[. and the SIi\ll rat cd hydra ulic conductivity Ks
is used to rcpresen t conditions between the surface and the wC lI ing fron t.
T he de pth 10 the welling [ront is L . Th us. wilh the coo ru ina te z positive
upward, Z" I .. - L. Using the avcmge capilla ry suction at the welting front
t/J. we have
hwf = z -+- 1/1 111 -L + ",. (2-49)
Noting Iha l II "" 0 at the surface. Equation (2-48) becomes
-f~ - K>iO - ( - L + .)J/ IO - (- L)J (2-50)
f= K,(I - "'IL).
 Hydrologic Analysis 133

The volume of infi ltration down to the dep th L is given by

F = L(O, 9/) - LM,/. (2-5 1)
Substituting for I. in Eq ll rltioll (2-50) gives the original form of the Grcen-
Ampf eqUllfhln:
f= K.(l - /.fIlii / F). (2-52)
Eq uation (2- 52) depicts the relationship betwe('n the infiltration rate
(j) and the cu mulative dept h of water infiltraled into the soil (f). Re mem-
bering thai the hydra ulic conduct;.,ity thai transmi ts wate r downward based
on the hydlvsta tic pressure is accompanied by the suction head. t/I. which
pulls W<lfer downward into un saturated soi l. Equation (2- 52) ind icllI¢s that
the infil trati on mt e is a val ue greater thnn the S,r turated hyd nr ulie co nductiv-
ity as lon g a.~ there is suffi cient water at the surface for infiltration. as
sketched in CUT\'es B-C and 0 of Figure 2-J9c. The infil tration rate decreases
as the cumulative infiltrat ion incrcaS-l:s.
Solution of the Green and Ampt equa tion req ui res the estima tion of
three parameters: the ve rt ical saturated hydraul ic conductivity (K, ). the
moisture defici t (M,;). and the we ll ing front suction head (,,). K, is the most
com monly available of the th ree and is the limiti ng downward rRie of water
tran smission: for a give n nuid. K, depends on the pon: size nnd gruin sire
properties ( Chnp t~r 8). Tht: moistuTC deficit is a functio n of the effec tive
porosity and the ini tial saturation: cfrl'ct i v~ porosity is the space availab le
for water flow (t he porosity minu~ the thin film of wate r surroundi ng all soil
grains that co nlprise the residual water conle nt ). The suCho n ht:ad is the
di fferelKe between the atmospheric and hyd rostatic pressurcs.
Three rai nfall-infilt ration sccmrri05 are possi ble:
Case I:; < K.. The rainfall intensity is less than the ma xi mum down-
wn rd hydra ulic conductivity. meaning thai ru noff wil l ne"e r ()(;cur and
all rainfall will infiltrnte regardless of the duration.
Case 2: K. < I < f. The rainfall intensity is grcater than the satura ted
hydraulic conductivity but less th an Ihe infiltrat ion rate. 11lc lime to
ponding ,-aries for difrcre nt rai nfall intensities.
c.St' J: i > f. Th~ rainfall intensit y is grealer than the infihnu ion rate
and ru noff can occur.
As mentioned in the d iscussion of the Hort on t:4u"tion. til!: minfn ll
int ensity i ean be less tha n the poten tinl infilt ration rat e given by Equatio n
(2- 52). in which cnse f = i. Mcin and Larson (1973) showed how the equa-
tion call be used to develop the cumulative infiltration F as a (unction off.
The infilt rat io n is go"ern~d by ei ther the rninfall rate or the Green and
Ampt funetioll. At the mome nt of su rface satuTation. f = i. letlhe corre-
sponding volume of in fill ration be F•. Wi th f "" ;. Equation (2- 52) ca n then
be solved for F,. the vo lume of infiltration occu rrin g at the time ofsurfaee
134 Chapter 2

saluration I,. when Equat ion (2-52) beoo me5 valid. Th us, sellin g i "" f a nd
50h'ing for F, results in the following Green and Ampi equa tion,
(2-53)
We require i > K, in Equation (2-53) ~ nd remember Ih al capilla ry suctio n 1/1
is nega ti ve. The Green-Am pi infi ltration method will pred icl lhe following
results for various intensities of rainfall i:
I. If i :S K then f '" i (curve A in Fig. 2-19(c».
"
2. Ifi > K,.thc n f= ;unlil F = if, = F. _
3. Following surface saluTatio n.

f= 't') fro m Equation 2-52for i > K~ and f -

KS(1- M i for i s Kj •

The combined process is ske tched in curve B--C of Figure 2-19c. As

long as the rainfa ll in tensit), is greater than the saturated hyd raulic cond uc-
tivity, the infiltration rale asymptot ically npprom;:hcs K, as a limiling lowe r
val ue. Mein and larson (1973) found e;o;cellent agree ment be tween this
G recn-Ampt method, numerical solutio ns of Richards' equation, and exper-
imcn tal soils dat a.
Ponded wa te r descends illl o the soil due paTti:tll)' (0 the capilla ry
suction of unde rlyi ng soil tha t is drier than the soil ncar th e surface and
due to the hydrostatic pressu re of the wate r accumula ting on the ground
su rfa ce. Downward movement stops when all the wale r that has soakcd
in lo th e soil and is in equilib rium with th e ca pilla ry sucti on of the sur-
rounding soil.
If the rainfall rate starts abo,'e. d rops below, and the n again rises above
K, d uring Ih e infil tration computations. the use of Gree n- Amp! becomes
more complicu ted. It is necessa ry 10 red istribute the moisture in the soil
column, ra thcr than ma intaining the assump tion of sal ura tion h om Ihe sur -
face down to the welling fron t shown in Figu re 2-19b. The use of the G reen-
Ampt procedures for unsteady rainfall sClIucnccs is illustr.lloo by Skaggs and
Khaleel (1982).
Equalio n (2-52) predicts inmlmtion rdte,f. as a (unct io n of cumulati\'c
infiltrat ion F, no t time. Because f" dF/ dl. the eq uation ciln be converted
into a differen tial equ atio n. the solution of which can then be solved itera-
tively for F(/).

Appic:otion of Green-Ampt Method for Infiltrolion

A major adv antage of the Green- Ampl model is thlli. in principle, the
necessa ry paramcters K., "', and M J can be determined fr01ll ph)'sical lllea-
sureme nls in the soil. For example, satura ted hydrau lic conductivity is
tabulated by the U.S. Natural Resources Conse rvation Se rvice (N RCS,
form erly SCS) for a large num be r of soi ls liS part o r that age ncy's Soil
 Hydfolog;e Anolysis

Properties and Interpretation sheets (available from local NRCS offices

Itnd from the web-see Appendix E), An increaSing q Ullntity of tension vs.
moisture conte nt data (as shown in Fig. 2-18) are also availablc. fro m
which a value of ¢ can be obHlilled by integralion over Ihe moisture con·
le nt of interest. For example. several volumes o f such inform ation have
been assem bled for Florida soils (e,g .. Cll rlisle et a1.. 1981). In prnctice, the
G reen- Ampl parameters ar!! often calibrated. especially when used in con·
t innous simula tio n models.
A very useful sourcc o f informHlion on G reen-Ampl paramctcrs is
prov ided by Rawls el al. ( 1983). who prese nt data for II large select ion of
suils fro m ac ross the Uni ted States. These parameters arc shown in Tuble
2-4. Two porosity (0,) \'alues an: given: tota l and effect ive. Effectivc
porosity accou nts for t rapped air and resid ual water and is the mo re rea-
sonable va lue 10 use in !;omputations. because it de notes the inlereon-
nc!;ted pore space available for wa ter £low. It can be seen in Table 2-4 Ihal
as the soil part icles ge t fine r. from sands to clays. the sat urated hyd rau lic
conductivilY K. decreascs. the ave ragc welling fro nl suction '" increascs
(negatively), and porosi ty e, is varia ble. Note lhal K, also S<:f\'CS as an

Tabl. 2..... G'e<!n-Amp l ln li lwalion Paramor.,.. 10, VoriOOJ. Soil Tex!!... CIo....
Eff.oo.tMo Poro.iIy Welling Fronl Sudion HydrQUlic Conduc~viIy
Sail CIa..
So",
Poro.iry '\
'.
0.",17
HecxlI/1 I'eml K {tm/h.)
11.78
0.."
037"'-0.500
0 ... 37
035......0 ... 80
0401
'"
0.97-2530
,""",w", 6. 13 2.99
o 363-0..xl6 0 .329-0.473 1.35-279.
Sandy loam 0 . 53 0 . 12 11.01 1.09
0.351-0.555 0 .283-0.541 2.07-4.5 47
Loom 0 ."63 0.43 .. 8.89 0"
0.375-0551 0.33"'-0.53 .. 1.33-59.38
Sih loam 0.501 0.486 10.68 0.65
0.420-0,582 0.394-0.578 2.92-95.39
Sandy day loom 0.398 0.330 21 .85 0.1 5
0.332-0..464 0.235-0.425 4.42- 108.0
Cloy loam 0.464 0309 2088 0.10
0.0409-0.519 0 ,279-0.50 1 4.79_91 \0
Solly clo~ loam 0 ... 71 0.432 27.30 0.10
0 .418-0.52. 0347-0.517 567_131.50
Sanely cloy 0 .430 0321 23.90 0 06

Silly day
0370-0490
0 .",79
0207-0 .. 35
0 423 ,.,,,
".08-IAO.2
0.05
0 .• 25-0.533 0.33"'-0,5 12 6. 13_139."
C., 0475 0.385 31.63 0.03
0 .• 27-0523 0.269-0. 50 1 6.39- 156.5
s.....:., Rcwb Itt 01.• 1983
136 Chaptel 2

estimate for Horton's fin al infiltration capacity. Ie[Eq. (2-42)]. Ta ble 2-4
provid es valua ble estima tes for G reen-Am p! para mete rs, but local dal a
(e.g., Carlisle CI al. , 1981) a re preferable if available. MiS5i ng is th e ini t ia l
mo istu re conten!, since it depends on antecedent ra infall and mois ture
conditions. Ideall y, Md = n - 8; shou ld be mC iisurcd . but t his is rare ly
accomplis hed. A lower bound for maximum Md may be inferred from th e
" avai lable wate r ,apaeily, in.llo." fou nd on NRCS Soil Properties and
In terp re tation sheets. Available wate r ca pacily on these sheets is the di f·
ference between fic ill capacity a nd wilting poi nt, with typi~ a l values usu-
al ly range fro m 0.05 \00.30 in.!in. These are lower bounds on the max imum
M J , sincc they do nOI include wat er stored a bove field capacity. T he value
of Mil to use for a partic ular soil in ques tion is be$t de termined from a soil
te5t. Othe rwise:, <I co nservat ive (low) MJ value could be used for design
purposes (e.g., 0.10). Md "alues must be upda te d in contin uous simulation
hydro logic models tha t account for soil llloisture con te nt.
In areas of high water tables, there is a li mit to th e soil storage ca pac-
ity. an d infiltrat ion can not continue inde fi ni tel)' without comp le te satura -
tion of th e soil. In suc h cases, infilt ra ti on ceases. losses (ra infall
abstrac ti ons) become lero, an d rai nfall exceu intens ily eq uals rainfall
intensity. If site-speci fic informa tion i~ avail abl c. this capacity, S, CHn be
es ti mnted from soil moist ure dahl an d de pth 10 wllter table, L, as implied
in Figu.·e 2- 19b,
S = L(9. - 9;). (2-54)
where L is now the depth to the water ta ble. I n some localiti es. regional
informnl ion on available soil storage has bee n prepared (e.g.. South Florida
Water Management District, 1987). T he above value of S is esse ntially the
sa me a5 the storage ya lue in tht: SCS mt:lhods dcscribc:d ea rlier.
Th e examples below demonstrate the use of Green and Ampt equa-
tions with act ual soils data. An Excd spreads heet is avai lab le on the text-
book website for use in solving fo r infiltmtion f as a function of time.

EXAMPlE 2-12 GRHN AND AMPT tNFILTRATION EQUATION

For the following soil properties, devc lop a plot of infiltra tion rate f VS.
infiltration I'olume F using the G recn and Ampt equalion:
K, :: 1.97 in.lhr.
9, = 0.518,
0; = 0.3111.
'" = - 9.37 in.,
I = 7.S/) in.fh r.
 Hydrologic Anolys is 137

Noting that Md = 9, - 0;, wc can solve Equation (2- 53) 10 obtain the SOLLJTION
volume of water that will infiltrate before surface salUration is reachcd:
.M,
p. = 7C-"';~~
(I ilKs)
-(9.37 in.)(0.518 0.318)
[(7.M in ..11r)/(1.97 in ..11r)]
P, = 0.625 in.
Until 0.625 in. has infiltrated. the rate of infiltration is equal to the rain-
fal! rate. After that point (surface saluTation). the rate of infiltration is
given by the equation [eq. (2-52)]
f = K.(1 - MJ'II/F).
Solving this equation for various values of F givc~ the graph shown in
Figure E2-12, whe re f decreases as F increases.
Figure E2-12
"• Infiltrotion rate ys .

1~
infiltration volume.
~
<
0
~
~
,,
,
0
0 , 3 , , • ,
F(in.) "
GREEN-AMPT TIME TO SURfACE SATURATION EXAMPLf 2-13
Silt loam has the following soil properties for use in the Green-Amp!
equation:
K. = 1.81 X 10 4 em/sec,
8, = 0.523,
I/! = 17.0em water.
For an initial moisture contenl of e, = 0.3. what is the ponding depth (f~)
and pondi ng time (I.) based on this rainfall intensity? What will be the
infiltration depth 20 minutes after the beginning of the rainfall"! (Assume
that the rainfall has a constanl intensity.)
i = 6Ks for 10 minutes.
138 Chapler 2

SOlUTlON The ini l ial moisture deficit M" ,., 0.523 - 0.300 '"' 0.223. In o rder 10
Ohlain the ponding time. "e comp ut e the ponding depth req uired 10
produce ~atu r3 li o n from Equatio n (2- 5.3):
F." (- 17.0cm)(O.223) / ( 1 - 6K./Ksl = O.76 cm.
Th e paneling l ime (r,) i s

Is = F.I; - (0.76 cm )/ [(6 x 1.81 x II) 4 tm/s)(60sllninl] = l L7min

It ~ hows th at it ta kes Taiurnll 11.7 minut es to saturate the soil. However.
" fler this point ( \ L7 min < 20 mi n), the infih ml iol1 deplh is not go ing 10
be eq ual to the product orlhe rai nfall in tensity (i) lind time but increase
exponentially :uxording 10 the equa tion as fo llows ( Chow el at.. 1988):

K,(t - tp ) = F - Fp + ~Md ln[ ;:: ~] -

A pparenl ly. infiltrdtion deplh ( f ) varies with time (/) in this equa tion. There
is onl y one un known variable (f) in the equation al any lime aftcr ponding.
Wehaveknowlll, = 1l.7 mill. M il = 0.22.1. W"" -17.0 cm. F. = 0.76 em.
and I '" 211 mill . By Goal Seek. and rearnmging Ihe above eq uat ion in
Excel spre.,dshcctto make it eq ual to 7ero. t he infiltration dept h for
20- mi nut e mi nfall can be calculated a~ 1.20 un. It indicates th aI 0.44
cm (L2cm - O.761;l1l) of ra infall ha~ bee n infilt rated in 8.3 minutes
(20 min - 11 .7 min) afler thc po nding..

2.9 A small percentage (about 13%) of precipitation over the en tire U.S_ falls as
SNOWFAU AND snow, but it can be n dom inant source of s\rcamnow. cspcdally in moun tain-
SNOWMELT ous areas during spring melt. This is cc rt ai nly true of the western United
Stotes. bu t significant perccntagcs of runofr in th e no rt heast and mi dwest
also originale as snow. Because the storagc and mclting of snow play an
importfln! role in the hydrologic cycle of some areas. hydrologists mLL~t be
able to re lia bl y predict the co ntribut ion of snowmel t 10 overall ru noff.
BeCfl use snowm el t begins ill Ihe spring and Ihe derived runoff is OUI of phase
with periods of grea tes t wate r demand. control schemes slIch as storage res-
ervoi rs ha ve been implemented in many areas for wate r supply. Under cer-
tain conditions. ~nowmel l can alsoconll;bute to nDOding problems. especially
in larger river basins with moun tai nous areas. In ad di lion to forecasting
nood si tuat ions. snowmelt predictions art also valuable to powcr com panics
that generate hydroelectricity and 10 irrigation districts_
Beca use of the range of uses for estimat ing th e con tri bution of snow-
melt to stream now and the variation of cond itions applicable to each case.
many met hods have been deve loped for com puting sno wmelt as it affects
 Hydrologic: AnQly.i~
".
slreamnow. These methods ha\'c consistently found that the timing and
amoun t of runoff dcpend main ly on threc factors: the energy of a snowpack
available for mch. the areal extcn t of the mehing snowcove r. and the effects
of storage on the movement o f the meltwater (Male and Gmy. 1981).
Snow meas urements are obtained using standard and reco rding rain
gages. snow stakes. and snow boards. which measure accu mulation ove r a
period of li me. Snow surveys al a numbe r o f spaced poin ts lllong a snow
course arc nceemry 10 account for dri fti ng and blowing snow. The Nat ural
Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) uses devices call ed snow pillows.
which continuously record and transmit lhe pressure from snow at the bottom
of a snowpack. The NRCS h1l$ about 500 telemetry sites (~SNOTEL ~ sites)
througho ut th c western Unit ed StatestTllllsrnilling data from snow pi llows.
The distribution of mell n annual snowfa ll in the Un ited States is qu ite
variable. and errors may be large in mou ntai nous region s becuusc of the lack
of measuremen ts in remote areas. The re is a gradual increase in snowfall
with latitude and elevation, and from 400 to 500 in.fyr (- lOOO cmfyr) can
occur in the Sierra Nevada and Ca'!C..1de Range or the wC$tcrn United States.
Large snoW!; can also occur nea r the Great Lakes. wi lh average va lues O\'cr
100 in. (254 cm),

Ptr)'$iu of Snowmelt
The ene rgy exchanged betwee n the snowpaek. t he atmosphere. and the
earth's ~ u rrace is Ihe con trolli ng factor in rates of snowme lt. Other geo-
graphic.topoograp hie. and surface cover faclon; are also importa nt. Density
of snow is a major asp..-'Ct of predicting ru noff and is dete rmined by stweral
factors. Snow th aI is fo rmed unde r dry. cold condit ions will be less dense
than snow formed under we t and warmer con dition~. As snow HL'Cum LilatC$
on the gro un d over Il period or lime. its density increases wilh th e se tt ling
and oomP<'c tion due 10 factors such as wi nd. Win d increases th e dens it y of
snow in two ways: First. th e lurbulc nc.: break s icc crystals into smaller ones.
ma ki ng them se ttl e more compact ly. and second. dra~ fo rces an:: exerted on
the surface of snow due to the movi ng air an d particles. Newly [fl lle n snow
has a density abou t 10% that of liq uid water. but the density ca n increase to
50% wilh aging. The depth o r water that wou ld result ifall the snow melted
is called the snow wlter equivllent. SWt:. lind is gi\'e n by the equat ion

SWE - 0.01 '/,11.,. (2-55)

where SWE is in mm . snowdcpth ,I. is in em. and p, is in kg/mJ . The densit y
of snow is often ass um ed 10 be 100 kg/mJ , He nce II rul e o f thumb for new
snow is that the depth of water equivalent is approximately 1(10 the dep th of
the snowpack. RipI' SIlO'" hol ds all the liquid water il can against the actioll
o f gravi ty. If a ~nowpack is ripe. add itional rain can not only resull in runoff
itself bu t also wa rm the SIlOW due 10 the release of the late nt heal whe n the
rai n fuses wi th the pack (Male and G ray. l\ltll). He nce. any heat ad ded to
1<. ChopIOf 2

Tipc snow will produce runoff. H en t added \0<I snowpack at a te mpcmture

be low frct:zi ng will act to wa rm it.
Snowmelt :m d evaporation are ooth thermodynamic processes a nd ca n
be st udied with an energy-balance ap proach. TIle energy fo r snowmel t i ~
derived from the fonowing; (I) net solar radiation. (2) netlongwa\'c radia -
lion exchange (fl'om a tmosphere and d ouds). (3) conduction (diffus ion) and
convection transfer of se nsible heat 10 or from th e ove rl yi ng air. (4) conden-
sation a f wat er vapol' from the overlying ai r. (S) conduction fro m the under-
lyi ng soil, flnd (6) helll supp ly by incident rainfa ll. The heat c"chang!:: al lhe
sno w- air in te rface dominat es the snowmelt process. and heal exchan ge with
the soil is secondarily importa nt.
For each gram of water melted in a snowpack a t IrC (32"F), m caUg of
latent heat must De supplied. ThUs. if th e: density of wa te r is I gfan, 80 cal will
melt 80 em3 (water eq uivale nt) of snow. Ho:nce, 80 Iy (ca Uan 2) are req uired to
melt 1 em depth of snow. Meltwate r may re freeze with cooling, or it may d rain
fro m the snowpack. con tributing to soil moisture. streamflow. or groun d wdter
recharge. Soowlllelt computalions are made difficul t by Ihe variations in solar
radiation rerei\'w by the surface and va riatiOlls in the albedo. Ihe reflect ion
c:oeffide nt eq ual 10 the ra tio of reflected to indden l shortwave rad iatioo.
A lthou gh on ly 5% to 10% of incom ing shortwave ra dia tion is reflected
by a water su rface. up to 83% is reflected by a dean, d ry snow surface. A s the
~now IIges. ils albedo can drop to less Ihllil 50% beca use of structural changes.
and shortwave radiation pe ne trat es to varying dept hs. depending on snow
density. New precipitation aUeets the albedo o f a s no wpaek: A s nowfall
increases the albedo 100.8 and rai n re<luce5 iliO 0.4 (Male and G ray, 1981).
Snow radialel e:';SCn tia ll y II!'i a bla ck body (emissivity = 0,97) according
to Ihe Stefan-Bol lzma nn law, an d ou tgo ing longwavc radiation at O"C is
eq uivale nl lO 8.4 ern (3.3 in.) of me lt over a one-day period. Becau se of re-
rad iafion from th e atmosphe re baek 10 the ea rth, longwave radiiltion loss is
equiv ale nt to only about 2 em (0.8 in.) of melt per day unde r clear s kies and
nca r-freezing lempe ratures.
Heat exchange between a snowpack and the a tmosphe re is affec!c:d by
cond uc tion. con\·cc tion. conde nsa tio n, and e vaporation (Ande rso n, 1976;
U.S. A rmy Corp!; of Enginee rs, 1956). However. ve ry lill ie e vaporatio n from
snow occurs. Direct transfonmllion of s no w (ice ) to vapor. known lIS Sllbli-
IIU1liem, is a n impon ant pa rt of the water bllJallee in the Arelie. Wind veloc-
ity and air lempe ratu re are prima ry facto rs affecting th e de nsit y of ne w
snow. The rate of Iransfer of se nsible heat (convection) i$ pro portional to
the temperature d iffe rence between the air '/~ and the snow T. and \0 th e
wind velocity v. Conde nsat ion melt i5 propo rt ional to the va po r-pressure
d iffere nce be twee n the snow su rfncc a nd the nlm osphere and to Ih e win d
\'tloci ty. The tra nsfe r of heat from the undc rlying soil to Ihe s nowpa ck is
s ma ll on a d ai ly basis but may accumulale to sevc ral ce ntimeters of me lt
during a n e nti re season. Th is may be eno ugh to kce p the soil satu ra ted a nd
10 prod uce a n lpid response of ru noff when mtl ting ~urs. R ain dro p
tempe rature is reduced as it e nte rs a snowpllc k, and nn eq uivale nt amo unt
 Hydrologic Anoly.i~ 141

of heal is imparted to the snow based on the surface wet-bulb temperature.

For example. the heat available in 10 10m of rain at 1000C will melt abo ut 1.2
mm of water from the snow pack.
In ma ny basins of very high relief. the lower li mit of ~nowcover (t he
snow line) is dynl1mic and moves up and down the slopt:. As mel ting pro-
ceeds. snOWCO\"i:r recedes more rapidl y on sou the rl y and ba rren slopes. with
thc rate of snowmelt decreasing with elevation. Given tht: tcmperature at an
index station. an area-.::1evation curve for th e basin. and 1111: average snow-
line ele\'ation. one ca n compute the area subject 10 mclting based on the rate
of change of tempe rature wi th elcvation. tYI>ieally about loe per 100 m (S'F
per 1(0) ft) increase in elevation.

The Snowpock Energy Budget

The snowpaek cnergy budget is wriUen in terms of the energy nux to and
from the snowpad.. with units of energy per unit area pe r unit time:. The
mos t convenient un its for Q arc caVcm 2_day (1~'/day). In terms o f the energy
budget components mentioned earl ier.
(2-56)
where
t:.H = change in heat sto rage in snowpack.
QN = net (incoming minus reflected minus outgoing) shortwave and
longw8 \'e radiation.
Qg = conduction of heat to snowpack from underlying ground.
Qr = COn \'ecti ve trans pOri of sc nsible heal from air 10 snowpack
(negative if from snowpack to " ir).
Q~ - relc ase of latent ht:at of ""porizati on by conde nSlition of wilter
va por onto snowpack.
Qp "" ndveetion of h~atto snowp(lck by rnin.
If the change in storage is positive. it will act e it her to warm the snow. OrlO
ripen the snow. or to produce melt. These arc th e three phases of snow melt.
though the)' do not always OIXur in clear. steady seq uence (Dmgman. 2(02).
~tailed computation of net shortwa ve and lonJ!,wan~ radiation is discussed
in deta il in G ray and Prowse. (1993). Convective heal trllnspoTl lind con-
densatioo melt arc both diffusive processes: the helll fl ux is pro[)O rlional
to the gr~dien t o r temperatu re for the forme r and to th e gradi ent of vapor
pressure fo r the Iil tter. Diffusivitics or traosfer l"Oefficienls ;Irc funet i on~ of
wind velocity and surface roughness. HeM transfer to or from th e ground
Q, is usua lly neglec ted unless Ihe snowpack and ground surfnce tempera-
tures arc both known. Heat advected by rnin into the snowpack is simply
proportional to the difference Octween the rain temperatu re (usually as-
sumed equal to the wel·bulb tcmperature) and the temperature of the snow.
Using a givcn time durat ion and the sum of cnt:rgy budgct com[)Onents
in Iylday (Qt + Q2 + Q3 + ... ). missing vn riables 5uch as water out pu t can
142 Coopter 2

be found from eq uations for heat storage change (!J.H) (see Dingma n. 2002.
for examples), T he equations for each phase of snowpack development
(warming, ri pening, and melti ng) arc similar to IhOSll o f simple mel ting ice.
Fir.>t the snow warms from below freezing to O"C before it can begin melting.
<lccord ing to l he equation
H! = -c,·Pw·SWE-( T, - Tm} (2- 57)
where c, is the heal capaci ty o f ice (502.1 caVkg- K). p", is the densi tyofw8ler,
SWE is the water e q uiva le n t de pth o f the snow, T. is the te mpe rat ure of Ihe
SIIOW, and T ttl is the mel ting-point temperature (<fC). This brings the snow-
pack to the point wh ere it can begill phase change; snow turns to ret ained
water within while maintain ing a temperature of O"c. The pore spaces nil
unti] saturati on, and the energy inpul re quired is
(2- 58)
where Ottt is the maxim um vo lumetric wat eroon tent that the snow (;an retai n.
hs is the depth of the snow. and L is the la ten t heat of fusion (79.8 KJlkg).
Finally. ..... ater begins C1(iting the snowpack as th c phase change cuntin-
ues. The heat requi red for the snow to melt is
H] = (S WE - h .TCI)·P...· L (2-59)
whe re h ..w is the depth of the retained water th at is alrcud y melted (Ding-
man, 2002).
Add ing 1/ t. fi 2 , and H3 resulis in the change in heat Storage necessa ry
to achieve me lting. The approximation of 00 Iy (ca Vl;m ~) to melt I cm depth
of snow (from above) lakes into acco unt such equat ions. Assum ing the snow
is already ripe. the amoun t of mel t from II positive va lue of ~N (;3n be (ound
wit h a shortcu t
M = dHj 80 cmldny (2-60)
0'
M = dH j203.2 ill.lday.
Energy budget methods represent the best lcchniques for predicting snow-
mel t when all oomponcll ts can be estimated.
The Na tional Weather Servi ce (A ndc rron. 1973. 1976) has de\'eloped
an energy budge t model for runoff fo recasting. U nfort unatel y. so me e nergy
budget compone nts arc usua lly mi SSing. leading 10 the use o r simpler but
less accurate " degree-day methods ~ based solely on temper atu re da ta.

Deg,,",Ocy eM' Ttmperotur&-index Melt Equa.icxu

Oegree-day or temperature-index equ ations are em pirica l or can result from
a li nearillltion of the energy budge t equat ion (Huber and Dicki nson, \988).
The simplest eq uation used is
(2-61 )
 143

where
M = d:lily mel t as a deplh of wa ter eljuivaient (inJ day; mm/day ).
Ti = index air le mperature eF; 0c).
To = l);Ise melt te mpcralun;: (OF: · C).
DJ = degree-day me lt faClor. (in.ldil y.o F: mm/day·"C).
Empirical deg ree·day faciors range fro m 0.05 to 0.15 inJday-OF and can be
determined by several eq Ual ions. one of the sim plest being
DJ = 0.0111',' (2-62)
where Df is in un its of mm/day·· C above O"C and p, is the snow densi ty in kg!
m3. "Ib is factor is a ff~te d by location. time of year. and meteorological condi-
tions. and more complex equations IIlay lake in toacoounl vegetation transmis-
sion for radialion. solar radiation. and snow albedo (Ma le and G ray, 1981).
Equa tion (2-6 1) is bas ically a regression equa tion: ACOE (1956)
results are shown in Figure 2- 20. Either the max imum or ave rage dai ly tem-
pcralllre for Ihe ponion over O~C is usulllI)' used fo r Ihe indu ai r tempera·
ture T;. and C1'C is most commo nly used for Tn (Gray and Prowse. 1993).
However. bllsc mel t tempera tures ca n be below freezing. si ncc Equalion
(2-62) represents II li neari za tion abou t reference conditions well above
freezi ng. "nlus. the e q u~lions shown in Figure 2- 20 shou ld nOI be u$Cd for
T, < 34°F. The te mperature·in dex approach is most u~cfu l and acc urate
under nonnal cOll ditio ns and less so for extreme conditio ns. The ACOE
develo ped a numbe r of e(I U~lions ror gene ralized areas.

" ,--- - - - - -- - - - , Figun 2-20

Empiric:aI degree-doy
equo~ on ,. If,om u.~.

" "',my Coopl 01

Engin_l. 1956.)
2.0

Open .. te
.II - Q06(T-2~J

Fu"'~"te
M O.05(T- 32)

0.'

.\ Ican dail)' I<ml'""'""tllre T(°F)

No ..... EqualiolL' aTe applit:.i)k only to range of .emptr:nures

"huwlI on Ihe di.g .... m.
'44 Choptef 2

The genera l equat ion used by the ACOE to calcul ate the smOlin! of
sno",mc lt accounts for the total amo unt of energy 8\'aila ble for melting the
sno"'p aek lit a point. The equation is given as:
M - Om334.9pw8 (2--63)
where
M •
snowmelt. mm per day of waler equi va lent

-
Q.. • algebraic sum of all heat components, kJ/m2/day
8 the rma l quality of the snow (e.g.. rBl ia o f he at re q uired 10
heal a unit weigh t of the snow 10 that of iec al O"C)
334.9 • latent heat of fusion of ice. kJ/kg
I'• • dens ity of wale r , kglm 3
The ge neral eq uat ion for snowm elt (2-63) call be combined wilh long-
wave radiat ion snow melt equntions described by ACOE. resulting in a non-
linear relaTionship between temperat ure and long-wave radia tion. These
relationships were simplified by filting linear approximat ions and shiftcd 10
Ibe Fahrenheit tcmpe rature scale to derive th e following long-wave rad ia-
tion me[t cq uat ion$_
a. For melt unde r d ea r skies:
M [=O.02 [2(T. - 32) - O.S4 (2-64)
h. For me[1 under a forest canopy or low cloud cove r:
M[-O.029(T,,- 32) (2-65)
where
M [ - long-wave radiat ion me h (inches/day)
T. _ ai r temperature. F
These arc general ized equll lio ns uscd by th e ACOE. but other factors
such as rai n, wind, and pe rce nt o f fores t cove r also affect t he ra te of snow-
melt. For [url he r informatio n regarding factors affecting snowmclt and
calcu[ating snowmelt rale. please rder to lite U.S. A rmy Corps of Engineers
Engineering and Design Manual for RU l'IOfffrom Snowmelt (1998 ).
United Slaies Anny Corps of Engineers. 1998, Engineeringand Desig.n
Man ual, R/UlOff From Snowmdt, Wash ington. DC.

ComfXIriwn of Mod, 1A«uraey

To hdp COmpllre the energy-bahmcc and tempe rat ure-indcx models. lysime-
teI'S are useful (or prmi ding act ua l datu in point loca tions to ensure accuracy,
since they collect water from ove rlying snow and measure ou tOow o\'c r time.
In 1976. Anderson set up Iysimelc rs in a clea ring in Vermont and observed
through six winlers Ihe necessMy "ariables of the energy-balance and temper-
ature-index models (Dingman, 20(2). The final re;ults show good accuracy
for both models. although somc ycnrs fa vored one over the olhcr. Du ring the
 Hydrologic Ano~i~ '45

000 o ObK rv.,.'\l ,...1...:

00_,... 0 - - - EOC'WY-t>ola"ce ~l
--leml",rt,I " ",_iooe. model

--
00
-- •
• .~

••
, March Al'fil l ?7~

0J~-!,--,!--!,'-C,O'-"'J"-,",,-~,',-f,'9,-",",-,,,'-C,,!.c",,"C"!c-'J',_",oe",
1i_{d~I.J

Figure 2-21
Comporir.on of $flOW estimation modell. (from Andenon, 1976.1

melling plm~. Anderson closely mnlehed bot h snow-wuterequiv::lIenl (SWE)

ove r time and daily Wilier output wil h Iysimcter and visual obscrvntion data.
Although bot h models worked we ll. eac h requires detailed knowledge of tile:
local environment and changes in ronditions. The temperature·index model
requires a careful choice of coefrlcicnts.lmd the energy-balance mode l works
better with the inclusion of more variables. Dingman recommends data on at
least air tcmper:llure. hum idity, wind sjX'oo. cloud cover. precipi tation. and
snow surface. Figure 2.21 shov.-s a Iypical bliuard in Ihe Northcast. U.S.

Compukltion of lunoH fnHn Snowmelt

Synlhesis of run off hydrographs associllled wi th snowmelt can be shon term.
for a kw days. or long term. for a complelc mel l season. Short-term for~ast­
ing is used in preparing ojX'flIlional plans fo r reservoirs or olher flood con·
trol works and for calc ul al ing design floods. To forc(;as l a few days in
ad\'ance. only Ihe present condition of a snowpack and st renm fl ow arc
req uired. Programs used to predict runoff from snowmclt ind ude the ACOE
Stream now Synt hesis and Rcservoir Regul ati on (SSARR) nn d the U.S.
NWS River Forecasting System. Snow Accumulation and Ablation Mode l.
For long-term forecasting over a whole season. initial conditions are requi red
as well as reliable predictions of meteorologic p..1rametcrs.
Snowmelt occurs only from Ihosc portions of a watershed covered by
snow, and devation is significant. since rales of snowmelt gene rally decrease
wi th higher elevation due to a gcnc rul rcd uction in tempera ture. Elevation
effects can be considered by div iding n hnsin into a series of elevati on zones .
'46 Chapter 2

when'. the sno ..... depth. losses. and snowmelt arc ass umed uni fonn in ellch.
In llIost praclic111 cases, snow melt is estima ted by the index meth ods pre-
sented in the prev ious section. The budget method itself is used in design
flood studies. Once inflow water has bee n calcul ated. storage routing tc,h·
niques are used to accommoo ate surface and gro und wa ter components.
each with a di ffe ren t storage time li nd number of roul ing un its. Storage roUI -
ing methods arc trea ted in det ai l in Chapler 4.

SUMMARY Chapler 2 presents the Ulnrxpl ofrail1r. n..rull()ff anal)l$is. or the OOfWcrsion of pre-
cipitation to runoff or strcamnow, a central problem of ensinccnng h~·drology. GrO!>S
rainf3 i! must b;: adjusted for losses 10 infiltration. e\'aporat ion, and depressioo 5tOI-
Age 10 obtain rai nf~1l c.ocss. wh ich equa ls direct runoff (ORO ).
The UH is defi ned as 1 in. ( 1 In.n) of direct ronnfr ge nerate d uniformly o~er 11
bIIsin for a specified period of rainfall nnd is a powerfu l method !llil1 used for m~ ny
wat"rshetl studies.. The concepl of the UH allo>o.'S for the conversion of r~infall eJI-
cess into a baSIn hydrograph, through a linear addmg an d lagging proced ure ailed
hydrogl1lph corovolution.
UHs can be derived from actua l storm data for gauged basi ns. Synthetic UHs
rcpresentthcorel kHI or empirical appro~chC$ that can be: Applied to ungaged ba-
sins, These are mOlit ofte n used for the ~nH I)'Si~ ofwater$l\c:ds where limited gBuging
might e~ist MO$t synthel ic UH formulas relate parameters such itS tune to peak or
la& time to measures of channel le ngth. slope, wlitersit«l siu, and wateMW shape,
A second reillt ion usually corre la tes peak flow to basin area and lag time. UHs are
grea tly affected by urban developme nt and channel iza tion. and UH tech niques have
bee n customi~ed fur loca l or regional condi tiuns using statisticul methods (Chapter3),
Sc.-eral of t he more popula r UH met hods arc presented with examl,l" s, incl udi ng
Snyder. SCS. and Clark (TC & R). all COI'1\ained within the HEC_ HMS oornputcr
model (Cha pter 5),
Ki nematic " 'a'oc methods developed in the 1970s fot overl and flow hydro-
graphs and channel hydrog", phs we re based o n 5Ol utlons of the continui ty and Man-
ning's equ ation for a gi\'e n geometry. Kine matic ",'a"" methods are now more useful
with the ,urre nt popu larity of nu mer ical methods and advanCl;d hydrologic models,
"'hich in d ud.:: HEC- HMS from tile U,S, ACO E Hyd rologic Engineerinll Ce ntcr
(2006. 2010) and distributed hydrologio; models (VieuJ[, 2'102),
Hydrologic 1OS5CS arc covered in detail in O!~ pter 2, including eVapora tlon
and ET for wat er bodi"" and ,ocgetated surfoces, The Penman equation is presented
along with a detailed ,,~~ mple of,15 use . Infiltra tion I~ is p",sented using both simple
empirical methods ~ U\: h a~ Hort on Mild more pbysics·ba.wd methods such as Green
and Amp!. Several c~Hl11ples and homework proble ms ale included to cover thell<'
methods in delail.
Chapter 2 also presents snowfall and 500"" melltheory 15;t relates to the rain.
fall-runotf proccu. The physics of ~1l()\\'me1t is briefly covered . and energy bodget and
e mpi rical degree.Jay e,!uations arc shown that can be used to estimate melt rat"" in
 Hydrologic Analysis 147

inJday or em/day a5 a flJ ~tJon of air tcmp:ra lure, snow lemp: rature, and ather f(\(,
lors, Snowmelt can b.:: a signincant factor in flood flows and water supply est imates.
especiaUy OUt WCSt in the Rockies and in the SIO:n'll Nevada TlInge in Californ ia.

2.1. What charactcrius 8 watershed? CONaPf

2.2. Describe Ihe four assumptions made tha t are inheren t 10 the unit hydrograJ,h. CH!CK
1..3, Whut physical fact(>rs afflX't the shape and Liming of th e unit hydrogruph '!
2.4. Di!iCU5S the parame ters tha t describe Ihe mam IImingasJI'I:cl5Uf the h)'drograph,
1.5. WJI"ttwo r haractcristics urthe hydrograph do most methods for the synt het ic
un;1 hydrogrnphS re late?
2.6. In order to determine which of the three excavalion sites could ha"e poLen-
tiall)' contnbuted to the !iCdimenlation of Ihe Ihree lake5. it is neeessary 10
delermine the walerslled bound aries and the cont ributmg dra inage areaS of
the syste m of lahs. Ca tchme nt basins (watersheds) "lUi be determined Il)'
connccti ng ri dge lines and dividing lines. Ridge lines \\';11 follow t he clevation
;soconlours.. and dividing lines II~ perpendio:ular to the ele,'ation lSOContours
al the e nd and $Ia rt al the connuences of streams. Using ,he map 01'1 the text·
book "",Ilsile d i~plH yi ng the elevation dHla. determine Ihe foll owing:
(a) How !HallYcun nu enC<'5 are dIspLaye d on the map?
(b) I)dincale the W3lCT$hcds using Ihe clev~lion
isocontou rs. The total
drainage area of tilt: 5IUdy area is ap p ro~imalely 238 PCTes.
(e) De tcrmin e which of Ihe three lak ~$ may be nrre~ted by Bcce lcraled
scdimentation.
(d) ~termine which of th" th ree excavation si te:> may be responsible for lhoe
[\(.'CC lcralCd sedi mentation of the lakes,

2.7. A watershed hru; .he f0l10" 'ing eharactenstics;

A -26OOac
t .. 4ml.
S- SHVmi.
y-I%
The chan nel is lined with concre le.
lbe wBlershed is a reslden"a l .rea wilh 1f4·ac 1015. The $Oil is cBlegori7.cd as
soil group B, Assume thatlhc ,,"erage wal~rshed slope is the same as the chan ·
n~1 slup<:. Determine (he U I·I for this arep for a storm duration of 1 hr usi ng
the SCS lTiangul ar UH mcthod.
2..&. D.:termine Ihe stQrm hydrugraph resolting from the rain fpll pauem in Figure
P2-8a usi ng the triangular l·hr UH given in Figure l'2-8b.
". Chapler 2

, r-
,.
l1
,
•• , I-

0
I , , , , ., , ,
o • "lime (Ii,)

figure P2-8a Figure P2-8b

Storm hyetogroph. Triongulor 1-hr UH.
2.9. (a) Given a lri allgular I· hr UH Wilh

Ts = 12h •.
TII - 4hr.
Q, = 200ds.
".-Iiere
Til - lime base of the U ~I ,

TR - time of ri!k!.
Qr · peak now,
de"clop II storm hydrogrnph [or Iloorly rainfaLl (in.) of I' = 10.1,0.5. 1.21.
(b) Rt:pca llh e I\oove problem for liourly rainfall (in.) of p,. [0.2. 1.0. 2.4J.
2.10. A ~k clch of the Buffalo Creek Wal en;hc(J is shown ill Figure P2- IO. Areal! A
Qnd () are identICal in ~i7.c. Sh3pe. slope, and channel length. UHs ( I liT) are
provi ded for nat ural and fully de,doped coodiuons roo bolh areas.

figure P1- 10
SkefCh of Buffalo
CteeIc walef~ed.

r ...... (hr)
UI-Y..ld.j
0

• .,, '"
, 2
290
3
• , • ,
". '", , • 90 ,. 8

.. "" ..
T1 .... (II.)
UH In(" )
•
• " " "
2 3
...
4
". 2"• • •
'" '" 80 53 "" ", •
<II) Assummg natural roodi liuns [or boll1 arc..... evaluate the peak uutnow /II
point 1 ;( 2..5 inJhr of ram ra lls for 2 hr. Assume a totlll inliltratiol1 l0S50f] in.
 Hydrologic Ano~i' 149

t h ) AS$UlllC th m area B h ~s re ached full deve lo pmenl and area A has re-
m~incd in natunrl condil ions. DC lcnniroc the outn ... w h)-dmgrap/l&1 point
1 if a nel r.llnfall of 2 in A" fHlls for 1 hr
(c} Sketch (he uut flow hyd rognrph for the Buff:,1o Creek Watershed under com-
rlete dewlOl1rT1"nt (A and B Mth uroon i~etI) for the rainfall given in part (b).
2.11. The I-hr UH in lhe: accompa o)'mg lable ""$recorded lor a parlicular " 'ater-
'hed. Dt'tennin.. lhe ~7.c of the watershed in acres and Ih en oon\"en t he I. hr
UH inl O a 3-hr UH for the wnlcr<hed.

TI .... lh.) 0 2 , 4 , • 7
• • 10
Ufenl 0723.01475605030 " , o
2.12. A majorslorm evenl "'as reC(lrded [or Linle Bel" Creek. The rncrern" mal r~in­
fall and measured hydrognrph data for Ihis stonn are pro>ilkd in T able P2- 12
in I ·h. increment s. The drainage area for the ba~n iii 3.25 nli~ . Assume thatlhe
base flow for Lrll ie Bear is h·m. (See Fig. 1- 26.)

-
Incremenlal
P...:ipilarion p...) Flow ""
Date/Ti"..
6/8/01 16:00 0 00
6/ 8/01 17:00 00' 0.'
6/8/0 1 18:00 0.0.01 0. 5
6/8/01 19:00 0 0.0
6/8/01 2000 0.08
6/ 8/ 01 2 1 00 0.05 "
J2
6/8/01 "00 0 ..012
"
.
6/8/01 23.00 0.' 78
0;00
6/9/01 0.3
'"
6/9/01
6/9/01 ,
1:00 0.1.01
0.1 9 '"
20'
6/9/0 1
6/9/01
3:00
4:00
0 ...5
0.01 '"
'"
6/9/01
6/9/ 01
' .00
600
0
'"
no
6/9/01
6/9/01
' ·00
8:00 '"
'"
6/9/0 1
6/9/01
9:00
10:00 '"
98

""
6/ 9/01 11:00
6/9/01 "00
6/9/01 13.00 27
6/9/01 14:00 0

(n) Using ~ I orm hydrograph. eslimate the "01 of runuff In inches m'er the
wHk ,.,;hcd.
150 Chapler 2

(II) Estimat e Ihe vol of i nfiltration ( in.).

(e) Estima te Ip rOl'" the entire even t
2.B. l'1ot the h}"drogra ph for tilt sto rm da ta 8i~cn in Problem 122 (l'Iow mit 'IS.
lin'IC ). Label l l1e following;
(a) peak !low Q".
(II) lime: la peak Ip (df5lance from the ecoler of mass oflll;nfaU\0 lhe peak nov.').
(e) l ime of rise T R (distance fmm the Slarl of disdmrgc \0 lh e pcn k flow).
(d) t ime base T" (dill lance from t l\c SIan of disch arge 10 the end of discharge).
2.,14. Using Ihe convolution equation. dewlop II storm hydrograph for Iht rainfall
intensity i IIml infil lral ioo !Slven in the [H hle ( al Ille end of each lime step)
IIsi n g the 3{).min unil h ydrograp h U give n be lo w.

T_Ih<l 0 0.' 1.0 U 2.0 2.' 3.0 3.' '.0 ••• ' .0
I (cmI'N/
I (cm/hr/ ,,, I.,
0.75
1.25
'5 ,. I.'
2.'
'.3
,
U (mlls) 33 06 80
" " 3S 20 10 •
U, Vsmg . progra m suc h. as Exoc l. deveLop the S-c"rve for It..: "VC ll J(). mll) UB ,
ftnd Ihen dew lop Ibe IS-m in V ii from the 3O-m in V B.

Time (hrJ
U 1d>J
, "
0 0.25 0.'
70.9
0 .15
11 8 .6
1.0
109.4
1.25
81.6
...
60.'

Tim. (l11i 1.15 '.0 W 2.' 2.75 3.0 3.2S

U (,;hl 45. 4 33.9 25.3 18.9 14. 1 10.5 ' .8

T_""
u l.;hl
3.'
5. 8
3.15
H
'.0
33
4.25
2.<
...
1.8
4.7S
1.,
' .0
08 ,
5.lS

2.16. Usm g E xcel spreadsheet programs, de>'clop Ihe S-cu,ve for Ihe gIVen 3- hr UH .
and Ihen develop th e 2-hr UH from Ihe ) -hr UB.

o
o
2 3
•
28' •
• ", '80
, '", 210
Time (lit!
u 1d>J ' 30 00 30
"
,
10
",
1.17. O ivcnlhc folJcw.ing2-hrunit hydmgraph.eakulate the I· h, unit hydrograph. Then
back calculate and rtnd Ihc 2· hr unit hydroJITHph 10 prove Ihat the melhod of cal.
rolalioo is IlCC\lratc. Graph both unil hydrographs agamsltimeon the same plot.

Ti me !hrl
,
0 , 2 3
,sa • , •
Flow (cis)
" '" '" . 00
'"
r..... "rI , 8 , 10 12
, 13
flow (chi 350 300
'" 15' "
100
"
 Hydrologic Analysis 151

2.18.. o..:vc lop 5\Orm lIydrograplls (rom UHs v( subareas 1 and 2 shown in Figure

.,,
1"2 18 for the gi •..,n rainfall and infiltratIOn.

i f
f,n./Iv) ron./hr)
I 0.5 0.'
2 0.2
,
3 "
3
0.'
0.2
0.2

"rI
Ti ....
UH \ Jeh)
a
a
I
200
2
<SO
3
.50
,
050
5
300
• a, • ,
ISO
UH2 Id.) a 150 300 500 3SO 250 125 100 50 a
Figwe 1"2-18
Wotershed with thrC(!
,, 3
suboreos and their
respective Io nd use
" ,
\ /~
- Meadovo"$
"""..
~~ " M~.<Jov,"$
'A

8
2.19. [k,~lop a oombmcd Storm hydrograph al poinl A in the watcnhed (Fig. PI- IS)
and lag route (shift in time only) Bs>um ing thlll travel lime from poim A to B is
exactly 2 hr.
l.lCI. o.",·elopa storm hydrograph (or subarea J from Ihe gi-c:n U H. <tdd 10 the rom·
binoo hyd rogrnph (rom PrOOlem 2.19. and p roduce a fin al Storm h)drogra ph

.,
~1 the o utlet of Ihe wBler.;hed. B .

,~ ..., ..,, r...t'M

,
r.../hrI
a ""a 0.5 0.'
0.2
I
2 '"
020
2
3
1.1
3 02
3
•
630 • 09 02

5 '"
350
•
,,,
210
130

"a
' 52 Chapter 2

2.21. Redo E~ample 2-6 if tile watershed is soill~'pe 13 in good cover forest lan<J .
H ow doe~ the forested aTtn «mIpare to Ih" '1>(:11<10111 U H ?
2.22. Sketch tile SCS triangular arK! curvilinear UHs and the mass curve: fc-- a loo.mj~
WlIlenltcd ....h ich '" 60% good condition meadow a nd 40% gootI oo"er foresl land
The wa!C~he() l'()nsi~t$of70% iIOil group C and 30% soil group A. Tne 8'l::rage
Slope is 100 ftlmi. the rainfa ll dura tion is 3 hr, ond Ihe kllgth \0 di,-ide is 18 rni.
1.23. A small watershed has the characlcrislicsgivcn below. Find lhe peak diKhargc
Qp. t he basin lag lime I". and the time base of 11K: unil h)'drograph T". using
Sn~'uer's method.

A - 15Omi.2; C, 0= ],70; L '" 27 mi.; I.." - 15 mi.;Cp .. 0.7

2.24. For II 55 mi 2 wa tershed wilh C, - 2.2. L - IS mL 1-.:= 7 mL a lld CI''' O.s. fi nd
1, _Qp. Tb• and O. PIollhe l'C$ul lmg Snyder UH.
2.25. Watershed dam arc prOVIded on !'iguTe 1-22 (or a small forested watershed
!hM! contai ns seven subarca~ as shown. Compu te an SCS UH (di mensionless)
for subarea S, ba'\t:d on leng! hs and areas fmm tht: watershed. Ass ume a w~·
lersbed ~Iope of 0.5% and a CN - iO.
2.26. A ssumo:: the .... a!er.;hed ;n EJlaOlIlIe 2-5 has gone through extensive a)mrnerc;al
and in dus!rial gro ....!h on the .... ooded area. No .... 50% of the formerly wooded
areas have ~com" urbani~.cd. $0 of!ha! porllon. 40% iscolll lllcrcial and busi·
ness and 60% ill fairoondi!ion lawn $pac<:. Assu me the soil ill 50% group B hnd
50% group C for all areas. Using Figure 2-8. detennine the runoff volume for
a rainfall of 6 in.
2.27. Make SUI"<' t h~t the uni t hydrograph for subbasin C is a unil hydrograph (sub-
bHsin C are a - 770 ae). The unit hydrograp h for subbHsin C i~ graphed in
Figu re P2-27.

Figure Pl-27 Subbasin C (U~i! lIydrov~ph)

3OO'L---;~~~
Unit hydrogroph for
Subbosin C. IPuk - 2fIO I
"".
"".
:g- l~).O
" 1((1.0

"'.0

..,!''-----~,------O.------.!-----~.!-----",",->---!,-,
Time (0.5 hr)

2..28. Using Figure 2-14. find the daily ev aporat ion from a shallow Jake ""illt the
following ehn racteristics:
Mean daily tempe rature - 2S.6"C.
Daily $Olar radiation = 550 callem 2,
 Hydrologk Analysis 153

Mea n daily dew pomt _ 4.4' C.

Wmd movcmCnl (6 in, above pan) '" 5.5 [tis ,
2.29. A class A pan is mHin t~i ned near a smalll ~kc IOdetcrm inc<.lailyevaporation (lee
table). lbe Jc'~1 in lhe pa n is obs<:m:d at the end of e,·er),<.I8),. Wa ter is added If
Ihe level falls IImr 7 in. For each day lhe di fference in ~ight k\'C1 is calcu laled
bel~e n tlte curren t and previous day. and the precipilallon \':d uc is from the
current day. Determine lhe daily la ke evaporation if th e pan coe ffICient is 0. 70.

llai"""l ~n.) W_ a..v.I (in.l

"'",
1 0 800

J
0.23
0 .50 '"
",
,• oos
0 -01 '"
7.76
,
6 0
0,02
7.56
7.J 3

,• 0.0 1
0
7.32
7.25
10 0 7.1 9
11 0 7,08·

."
0,01 7, 91
13 0 7.86

~ofihd '"
O.oJ

"'n P<"'" 10 8 ........ "

2.30. Gi"en an initial rate of infih ralion equal to 1.5 in./hr and a fi nal ca pacily 0[ 0.5
in./hr. usc Honon's equ alion [Eq . (2-42)J 10 find Ih e infi l1 ra tion eapa<-i ly at
th e following timc$: 1- 10 min. 15 m in. 30 m; l1. 1 hr.2 hr. 4 hr. and 6 hr. You
m'l )' assume a lim e cunSlant k '" 0.25/h r.
2..11. Dct..:rminc a Horton ~ua lion 10 fit the (oIlo»ing 1;1Ilt'!; and Infiltration capoc:iliC!..

.,
r_ f
r.../hrj
,
1
'"
"• '"
2.50
1 20

l.J2. A j ·hr storm over I IS·ae basin prod uces a 5·in. rainfall: 1.2 in.lIl r for Ih e firsl
h<'lur.2.1 inJ hr for the second hour. 0.'>1 ,nl hr for the thi rd hour. and 0.4 in./h r
for the last 2 hr. Determi ne th e infiitraliun Ih at would rc~u l l from the Horton
mvdd ",ilh k " I.tlllr. ' .... 0.2 in.lhr. pnd/., - 0.9 in./hr. Plot t h ~ ove rland flow
for this condi tion 111 in./h r YiL r.
2.33. A plol oflhc infih ratoon eo ..·c oblain ed osing HOrloo 's e qua toon iS5hown in

1-1);ure 1-'2- 33. Prove ,har k _ (j" ; ,~) if F" is the area belwee n the cu rve ami
the Ieline. Find 1h ~ Hrca by In tegrat ion ove r t ;me . as 1ime al'prrn,chcs infi nity.
". Cfloplcf 2

figure P2- 33
Horton's i n~hrotiOf1

~l'>z
curve .

~ I- . . . . - --:-::
-_"":":
. --:::
--::-: -- ~- "
- -""

TIme (h.)

2.34. D elermi 'le th e tnckx of Figure 1'2- J.4 if Ihe runoff depth "''as <a) ."i.6 i n. of
rainfa ll over th e W8 lC,,;hcd area and ( b) 6.5 in.

Figure P2-34 RaiMali dism hul >oo

Reinlo" distribution. ' .0

0.8

.Iii
';:: 0.6

.1
f--I
- OA
j - I
0.' -
- -
, • 6 ~ 10 12 14 16 18 ~ n ~
"li me (h .)

us. A saody loam has an in ilial moisture content o f 0.18. hydraulic cond uct;,·;!),
o f 7.8 mmlh r. and ave ragc capill ary !!IJct iOil of 100 RIm . Rain fall5 al 2.9 cmJ
hr. and the fin al moist ure co nlc nt is meas ured to be 0.45. When docs surface
sa lunl1 ion occur? Plot the infiltra tion . 81<; "S. the infli mtion "olumc in 2-35.
2.36. Usc the panunelC~ glvcn to groph Ihe infihnllion note \'S. the infiJll1Iliun volume
for the SlIme SI01m for both IYI1,,:5 of !oOil. Prepare a graph lr>ing the Oreen-Amp!
mo.:thod. compo ring sillhe ~lIrves calcula ted Wilh bolh the lowe r-bound a nd upper-
bound porosi ty parameters. "Tht: rainfall inlC'nsily of the storm wM 1.5 emlhT for
5C\~raI hou rs,lInd the ini tial moisture OOflIC'nt of All [he toiLs ... as O 15.

c..piUary Suction HydrvuI"IC Conduclivil)o

"",
Sl~ loom
Po,osily

0.42--0.58
'' '
16 .75
!<m/>;
065
Sondyday 0.3-0.49 23.95 0. 10
 Hydrolog ic Anofy$is '55
2.31. The G recn nnd A mpl 'nfiltratiun eq uat ion is a loss funct H)n used IU compute
the eumulati,'e in filtration. F (em) for ~ giw n infi ltnlion ra te .f(cmlhr). ReCll Il
lilal. I. K,' ( ] - (M · wfl/ F). For Ihe given soil propc rlic$ hnd infill Ta lion
rat e. ans ....e r the following.

, , cm/hr
-, ,m
M 0.2"
,.., I l<mI" 'kml
0 0 0
001 15.3.4 0. 15
0.25 3.32 0.95
0.50 2." 2 1.55
0.75 2.07

(a) Compute Ihe mfil tr3 110n ra te./(un/hr) for F .. 2.07 em. and $ha w your
comp utat ions.
(b) Compllle the cumula ti,'c I nfil lr~ t i()f1 resulting from a cunsta nt rai n rale of
O.5emfh r for ] hr.
(c) At s;.luration. what is Ihe IIlr, lim tiun m tc in cmlllr ? Jusl;fy.
2.33. Please refer to the Green and Amptlnfi lt ra tion and Runoff Exa mple posted on
the te~lboo~ web, il ... a long wi lh the associated Excel spreadsheel. Com ple te
t he proble m III lhe example. and the n repea t Ihe pTOe" durc ",·.111 II conSlanl
rainfall raleorSO mmi hr for ].8 hn. DClerm;M: Ihe new cumulali, e f unoCfand
fUnQff eoefr.cicm.

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