10-10-2018

Hydrology and Water Resources

CHAPTER 3
RUNOFF

Hydrologic Cycle
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Learning Objectives
At the end of the class you will be able to
 Explain what is meant by runoff
 Explain the components of runoff
 Estimate the dependable yield of a catchment
 Plot the Flow-Duration Curve

Runoff
Draining or flowing off of precipitation from a catchment area
through a surface channel

 It represents the output from the catchment in a given time

 Expressed as volume per unit time
 M3/s (cumec)

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Runoff = Precipitation excess

Rainfall
Occurs when interception,
detention storage, evaporation
Initial • Interception and infiltration are satisfied.
loss • Depression storage
Excess precipitation moves over
land to reach small channels
• Infiltration
Surface • Surface
partition Runoff

Components of Runoff
Direct runoff =
Surface runoff +
Rapid interflow
(Also know as Quick flow.
It is also the Effective
precipitation)

Base flow =
Delayed interflow
+ GW flow

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Components of Runoff
Overland flow or surface runoff Direct runoff =
◦ The precipitation reaching the land surface, after initial Surface runoff +
abstraction and infiltration, moves over land to reach the stream Rapid interflow
◦ Ceased shortly after the rainfall (Also know as Quick flow.
It is also the Effective
Interflow or through flow or subsurface flow precipitation)
◦ Lateral flow from the infiltrated water and meets the streams
◦ Significant when the lateral hydraulic conductivity is more then
the vertical one Base flow =
◦ Slower than the surface runoff Delayed interflow
+ GW flow
Groundwater runoff or groundwater flow
◦ Groundwater discharge into the streams
◦ Slow flows or long-term component of the stream flow

Interflow
A part of the precipitation infiltrates
Interflow : A part of the infiltration moves laterally through upper
crusts of the soil and returns to the surface at some location away
from the point of entry into the soil

It is also known as
Through flow
Storm seepage
Subsurface flow
Quick return flow

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Interflow
The amount of interflow depends on the biological conditions of the
catchment
Depending upon time delay between the infiltration and the outflow,
the interflow is sometimes classified into
Prompt or rapid interflow : Interflow with the least time lag
Delayed interflow

Groundwater Runoff
A part of the infiltrated water appears as subsurface flow. Another part undergo
deep percolation
Deep percolation reaches the groundwater storage in the soil
The groundwater follows a complicated and long path of travel, and ultimately
reaches the surface

www.sfu.ca

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Groundwater Runoff
Time lag = The difference in time between the entry into the soil and outflows from it

Time lag is very large for groundwater flow (months and years).
Ground water flow provides the dry weather flow in perennial streams

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Direct runoff and base flow

Time delay: delay between the rainfall and it appearance as runoff in the
streams
Based on the time delay between the precipitation and runoff

Part of runoff which enters the stream

immediately after the precipitation
Direct runoff
It includes surface runoff, prompt interflow and
precipitation the channel surface
Runoff
The delayed flow that reaches a stream essentially
as groundwater flow
Base flow
Many times delayed interflow is also included under
this category.

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Direct runoff

Base Flow

Runoff characteristics of stream

A study of the annual hydrographs of streams enables one to classify stream into
three classes as
 Perennial
 Intermittent
 Ephemeral

Mdified from ag.arizona.edu

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Perennial stream
 A Perennial stream is one which always carries some flow
 There is considerable amount of groundwater flow throughout the year
 Even during dry seasons the water table will be above the bed of the stream

thinkingparticle.com

Intermittent stream
 An Intermittent stream has limited contribution from the groundwater
 During the wet season the water table is above the stream bed and there is a
contribution of the base flow to the stream flow
 During dry seasons the water table drops to a level lower than that of the
stream bed and the stream dries up
 Excepting for an occasional storm which can produce a short-duration flow,
the stream remains dry for the most part of the dry months.

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Ephemeral stream
 An ephemeral stream is one, which does not have any base-flow contribution
 The stream becomes dry soon after the end of the storm flow
 Typically an ephemeral stream does not have any well-defined channel
 Most rivers in arid zones are of the ephemeral kind
 The annual hydrograph of such a river show series of short-duration spikes
marking flash flows in response to storms

(A) Ephemeral stream (B) Perennial stream

(C)
Intermittent stream

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Mdified from ag.arizona.edu

Factors affecting runoff

Climate factors Physiographic factors
 Types of precipitation  Land use
 Intensity and duration of the precipitation  Type of soil
 Areal distribution of rainfall  Area and shape of the basin
 Direction of storm movement  Elevation and slope of the basin
 Antecedent precipitation  Type of drainage network
 Other climate factors controlling evaporation
and transpiration

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Yield of a River
 Yield of a river : The total quantity of water that can be expected from a
stream in a given period
 Unless specified, yield is usually used to represent annual yield
 It is the end product from various processes such as precipitation, surface
runoff, infiltration, interflow, groundwater flow
 The calculation of yield is of fundamental importance in all water-resources
development studies.
 Yield = Precipitation –Evaporation – Change in storage

Runoff frequency analysis

Useful in estimating
 Probability of obtaining a yield of magnitude greater than or equal to the
given value
 Percentage dependable yield

What is dependable yield?

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Problem-1
Annual yields of a basin in million m3 for 19 years from 1971 to 1989 are given
832, 672, 488, 1632, 608, 1128, 960, 560, 880, 984, 640, 832, 696, 632, 896, 464,
688, 432, 1440

Using frequency analysis determine

 75% dependable yield
 50% dependable yield 608 Mm3, 696 Mm3, 12.2%

 Dependability f a yield of 1300 million m3

50% dependable yield = 696 Mm3

75% dependable yield = 608 Mm3
% dependability of a yield of 1300 = 12.2 %

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Flow duration curve (FDC)

 Arrange runoff data (N) in the
descending order of values
 Assign an index (m) to each data
 Exceedance probability = m /(N+1)
 % dependability = Probability x 100
 Scatter plot Runoff Vs % Dependability
 Connect the points  FDC

Flow duration curve

Also known as discharge-frequency curve
One of the popular method of studying the
streamflow variability
Discharge Vs Per cent of time the flow was
equalled or exceeded

 For perennial rives 100 % dependable

flow is a finite value
 For intermittent or emphemeral streams,
100 % dependable flow is always zero

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Applications of FDC
 Allows the evaluation of low
level flows
 Useful in planning and design
of water resources projects
 Sediment load can be
estimated when clubbed with
the sediment rating curve
 Used in the design of drainage
systems in flood studies
 Shows the runoff variability

Water year
 In hydrological studies water year is generally considered
 Water year begins from the time when the precipitation exceeds the average
evapotranspiration losses
 In India it happens with the onset of monsoon
 In India, June 1st is the beginning of a water year which ends on May 31st of
the following calendar year
 In a water year a complete cycle of climatic changes is expected and hence
the water budget will have the least amount of carry over (ΔS ≈0)

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Natural flow or Virgin flow

Virgin flow or Natural flow
 Stream flow in the natural condition without any human intervention
 Unaffected by works of man, such as structures for storage and diversion on a
stream
When artificial structures are present in the stream, flow in the downstream
channel does not represent the true runoff unless corrected for storage effects
and the diversion of flow and return flow.

Summary
 Runoff : Draining or flowing off of precipitation from a catchment area
through a surface channel
 Runoff : Surface runoff, interflow, groundwater flow
 Runoff : Direct runoff, base flow
 Catchment yield
 Dependable yield and Flow-Duration Curve (FDC)
 Virgin or natural flow : Flow occurring in the natural condition, without any
human interferences

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