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Estimation Of Clarks Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph In GIS

Radha Krishna Murthy Project Manager- RMG RMSI Private Ltd. A-7, Sector 16, NOIDA (U.P.) PIN- 201301, INDIA Email: murthy.bachu@rmsi.com

Pratul Srivastava GIS Specialist RMSI Private Ltd. A-7, Sector 16, NOIDA (U.P.), PIN- 201301, INDIA

Ramesh Mukulla

Senior Engineer - GIS

RMSI Private Ltd A-7, Sector 16, NOIDA (U.P.), PIN- 201301, INDIA Email: Ramesh.mukulla@rmsi.com

Email:
pratul.srivastava@rmsi.com

Mr. Murthy has contributed in the development of probabilistic models for risk assessment of natural hazards such as floods and cyclones with applications of Information Technology including GIS. His 14 years of experience include GIS based modeling and consulting and includes execution of small and largescale projects.

Mr. Pratul has experience of working in varied GIS projects. He has over 07 years of experience in the Civil Engineering domain with focus on Hydrology & water resources and flood risk assessment His experience include from remote sensing to GIS analysis, Land slides modeling.

Mr. Ramesh Mukulla has experience of working in varied GIS projects. His 4 years of GIS experience ranges from remote sensing to GIS analysis & modeling. His experiences include execution of GIS data development for Cellular network providers, LULC, Urban planning, etc.

Ramesh Karunakaran has extensive experience of application of GIS in various fields especially in GIS based flood modeling. His 8 years of experience ranges from various types of GIS Analysis, Automated Mapping, Facilities Management, Land Information Systems, Town planning, regularization and networking projects apart from his core experience in flood and related projects Ramesh Karunakaran Project Manager- GIS RMSI Private Ltd. A-7, Sector 16, NOIDA (U.P.) PIN- 201301, INDIA Email:Ramesh.karunakaran@r msi.com

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Abstract Determination of the unit hydrograph of a basin is very important for the design of hydraulic structures. These structures are obtained by using the observed rainfallrunoff data for the storms, but when there is no observed data available they are obtained by using synthetic unit hydrograph methods. In this study one such method is used, together with Geographical Information Systems techniques. Application of Clarks synthetic unit hydrograph technique with GIS technology requires time-area histogram is determined from the Digital Elevation Model of the basin. The translation hydrograph is then derived from time-area graph by applying a unit excess rainfall over the basin. After performing a linear reservoir routing of the translation hydrograph to the basin outlet, the Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph of the basin is obtained. It can be used to obtain any duration unit hydrograph and consequently storm hydrographs in this basin for the design purposes. This technique has been applied to a ungauged basin in Narmada basin in a GIS environment. Key words: Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph, Clarks method, GIS, Narmada Basin Introduction Main consideration of hydrology is the rainfall-runoff relationship of a watershed. The response of a watershed to rainfall is observed as the runoff at the basin outlet. For the gauged basins this is recorded as hydrograph (discharge vs. time graph). The unit hydrograph of a basin is the surface runoff hydrograph caused by a unit excess rainfall distributed uniformly over the area, its determination is significant in hydrology. For gauged basins, unit hydrographs are determined from observed storm data, hyetographs and corresponding hydrographs. For the ungauged basins there are several techniques for derivation of unit hydrographs synthetically. Clarks synthetic unit graph method (Clark, 1945) is one of these techniques. Different to other techniques, flexibility of Clarks methodology enables it to be adapted to new technologies such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), which has been widely used in water resources. Clarks methodology requires estimation of three basin parameters for the derivation of unit hydrograph: time of concentration (Tc), storage attenuation coefficient (R), and time-area histogram of the basin. By applying unit excess rainfall over the basin, precipitation is conveyed to basin outlet through two steps: obtaining a translation hydrograph and then performing a linear reservoir routing. Time of concentration (Tc) is the time that it takes to flow from the remotest point in the basin to reach the watershed outlet. In this study the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) lag equation is used to determine Tc value. SCS equation requires main channel length, average Curve Number and slope of the basin, which are evaluated by the tools of GIS. GIS software, ESRIs ArcView 3.2, ArcInfo and HEC-GeoHMS extension are extensively used in this study. Reservoir storage coefficient (R) is the second parameter of the methodology reflecting the storage effects of the stream channels. R is computed graphically from an observed storm hydrograph of the basin. The coefficient is then used to route the translation hydrograph to the basin outlet. The time-area histogram represents the area of the basin, contributing to the flow at the basin outlet at any given time, after the
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application of unit excess rainfall. Reflecting the shape and drainage properties of the basin, it is the most important parameter for derivation of the translation hydrograph. The Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the basin, which are the 10x10 meter cell sized grids having elevation values, is used for this purpose. Thereafter, to determine the time-area graph the travel distance of each cell to the outlet is determined by estimating cell flow lengths. Then travel distance of each cell to the determined outlet (in time units) is derived from cell flow lengths. Translation hydrograph is derived from time-area graph by instantly applying unit excess rainfall over the basin. The translation hydrograph, which reflects the travel time of runoff to outlet, is then routed by linear reservoir, and Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph (IUH) of the basin is determined. Instantaneous unit hydrograph is the result of a unit depth of rainfall occurred in an infinitely small time interval over the basin. Since the duration of rainfall is assumed as zero, shape of the hydrograph depends only on the basin characteristics. Study Area The Narmada River, on which the Indian government plans to build large number of dams, flows through three states: Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Gujarat. Ninety percent of the river flows through Madhya Pradesh; it skirts the northern border of Maharashtra, then flows through Gujarat for about 180 kilometers before merging into the Arabian Sea at Bharuch.

Figure 1. Location of Narmada Basin HEC-GeoHMS was used to delineate the basin into sub-basins. Hydro1k DEM was used in the delineation process. Details of delineation are discussed elsewhere (HECGeoHMS user manual 2000). Seamless Hydro1k DEM and Delineated sub-basins are shown in Figure 2 and 3 respectively. A test sub-basin used for estimating Clarks IUH is shown in Figure 5 a.

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Application Of Clarks Technique Clarks synthetic unit hydrograph methodology involves the application of a unit excess rainfall (1 mm) over the watershed. As mentioned, the precipitation is conveyed to the basin outlet by translation hydrograph and linear reservoir routing. For this purpose, the time of concentration value (Tc), the storage attenuation coefficient (R) and the time area histogram of the basin are necessary. The methodology is summarized in Figure 4.

Figure 2. Seamless Hydro 1k DEM for Narmada basin.

Figure 3. Delineated Narmada basin. Flowlength Grid To obtain the time-area graph of Narmada Basin, the flowlength grid (FlGrid) was derived for the sub-basin under study. The FlGrid represents for each cell, the total travel length of the water droplet from a cell to the basin outlet along the direction of flow. Velocity of flow in an area will differ depending on the topography and landuse conditions. Water will move slowly in a mild slope or over a dense pasture area and faster on a bare land. To represent the impedance or resistance of the cell to the flow, a grid can be prepared. The value at each cell in the grid represents the resistance per
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unit distance to flow through the cell or weight of the cell. The grid containing values representing the weight of each cell is termed as weight grid (WGrid). The flowdirection grid was used for calculation, where the weight of each cell was accepted as same and equal to 1. Selected basin and Velocity contours for three sets (1m/s, 2m/s and 3m/s ) are shown in figure 5 b, c and d respectively.

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Figure 4. Flowchart of the methodology

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(a). Test basin

(b). Travel time contours with vel. 1m/s

(c). Travel time contours with vel. 2m/s

(d). Travel time contours with vel. 4m/s

Figure 5. Test sub-basin and travel time contours for three velocities. Time Area Histogram The area of the basin is divided into travel time zones. Each zone represents the part of basin, which drains the unit excess rainfall to the outlet at a certain time interval. The plot of these areas with respect to corresponding time intervals determines the time-area histogram of the basin. It is the most important parameter of the methodology, since it reflects the runoff response of the basin to the rainfall at the outlet. The digital elevation model of the basin is used for determination of time-area histogram. First, the direction of flow from each cell is found. Second, by tracing the flowdirection, travel distance of flow from each cell to the basin outlet is calculated. These distances are converted to travel time values. Finally, by selecting contours of 1h intervals on the travel time grid and converting the number of cells to area, the time-area histogram is derived.
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These graphs, represent the time-area histograms of flowing area (in sq. km) function of time display in abcissa . To determine subbasins FlowLength grids, the value of these maps are divided by contant velocity, respectively 1,2,3 and 4 m/s. Taking contour intervals of 1 hour, intersecting with the watershed divide, corresponding areas were computed using ArcInfo, resulting in the time-area histograms. Time area histograms for four velocities are shown in figure 6. The at velocity 1m/s is relatively a flat covering, are uniform in each time interval, and time required to drain the water is 45 hours. Cumulative time-area curves are steep for 2m/s, 3m/s and 4m/s velocities.
7000

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0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46

vel1

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vel4

Figure 6. Cumulative time-area curves for differenet velocities Translation Hydrograph After determining the parameters of Clarks methodology, the unit excess rainfall is uniformly distributed over the basin. Precipitation is then conveyed to the basin outlet by a translation hydrograph. For this purpose the time-area histogram of the basin, obtained in the previous step, is used. As presented in Figure 6, the time-area histogram represents the percent of the basin area contributing to the flow at the outlet in each time interval. With instant application of unit excess rainfall, total volume of water that will be observed at the basin outlet is determined by multiplying basin area with the depth of precipitation (1 cm). Percentage of total volume contributing to the flow at the outlet in each time interval is calculated from the time-area histogram of the basin. Volumes are then converted to discharges for corresponding time intervals. Finally by plotting these values at the mid values of time intervals the translation hydrograph is determined (Figure 7). Linear Reservoir Routing As mentioned the instantaneous unit excess rainfall is conveyed to the basin outlet by two components: translation hydrograph and linear reservoir routing. The translation hydrograph represents the rainfall-runoff relationship of the basin by means of surface flow only. The effect of stream channel storage on the hydrograph is reflected by linear
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reservoir routing. The translation hydrograph obtained in the previous section is routed by Equation 7 (HEC, 2000).

In Equation 7, I(t) is the calculated translation hydrograph, R is the storage attenuation coefficient and t is the selected time interval for routing. Q(t) which is obtained after routing is the instantaneous unit hydrograph of the basin. The routing process is continued till an excess flow depth of 1 cm is obtained under the hydrograph. Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph of Basin is obtained. Figure 8 shows the inflowoutflow, average flow hydrographs for IUH for thee sets of velocities. Large attenuation can be seen when the velocity is 3 m/s and 4m/s, attenuation is small for velocity of 1m/s and is moderate for 2m/s.

(a)

(b)

(c) Figure 8. Clarks IUH for test basin.

(d)

After linear reservoir routing for the sub-basin, the Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph is obtained: What can be observed in the first look is, as velocity rises, the inflow peaks are higher, and more concentrated over time. As runoff flows faster towards the outlet, the amount of water getting in and out in a specific lag of time rises. With velocities 1 and 2 m/s, outflow sustains up to 60 hours after the rainfall, whereas with velocities 3 and 4m/s, this would end after about 40 hours. It is also observed that peak is reached very rapidly (more or less 8 hours) after the rainfall for a velocity of 4m/s, as compared to
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1m/s (28 hours). Among all the IUH, the velocities of 2m/s and storage coefficient of 4 hrs appears to be realistic for the test basin. This needs to be verified with the observed hydrograph. Conclusion The study presents the estimation of Instantaneous Unit hydrograph using Clarks method for an ungaged basin using GIS techniques. These techniques will be very useful for water resource planning in the basin for estimating design flood, water availability etc suitable for countries especially like India, where limited amount of observed flow data is available. References ESRI, 1997: ArcView Watershed Delineator Users Manual, ESRI Publ., USA. ESRI, 1998: ArcView Users Manual, ESRI Publ., USA. ESRI, 1999: Arc/Info Users Manual, ESRI Publ., USA. HEC, 1982: Hydrologic Engineering Center: HEC-1 Training document No.15, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Davis, California, USA. HEC, 2000: Hydrologic Engineering Center HEC-HMS Users Manual, Davis, California. Kull, D. W. and Feldman, A. D., 1998: Evaluation of Clarks Unit Graph Method to Hydrologic Engineering Center Spatially Distributed Runoff, Journal of Hydrologic Engineering. Usul, N., 2002: A Pilot Project for Flood Analysis by Integration of Hydrologic-Hydraulic Models and Geographic Information Systems (in Turkish), METU, Ankara, Turkey

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