NAME: QUEVADA, JESSICA MAY L.

DATE: MARCH 3, 2023

SECTION CODE: G155 YEAR & COURSE: BSCE – III
ASSIGNMENT 5
1. Discuss the methods of plotting hydrograph.

Plotting the unit hydrograph

To plot the unit hydrograph in x-y axis, plot the hour (time) on the x-axis. On the y-axis,
plot the following:
1. Base flow in relation to time.
2. For unit hydrograph, plot direct run-off in relation to time.
3. For storm hydrograph, plot the total Q in relation to time.
2. Illustrate and discuss the typical hydrograph showing method of separating direct
and groundwater run-off.
Base-flow Separation

Method I

This is the simplest method and is generally practiced by field engineers. In this
method, the base-flow is separated by drawing a straight line from the beginning of the
surface runoff to a point on the recession limb representing the end of direct runoff. In
Fig. 3.4, point A represents the end of direct runoff, identified by the sharp end of direct
runoff at that point; and point B marks the end of direct runoff. An empirical equation for
the time interval of N days from the peak to the point B is given by:
N = 0.83 A^0.2
where, A = drainage area in km2, and N in days
The value of N is approximate, and position of B should be decided by considering the
number of hydrographs.

Method II

In this method, base-flow existing prior to the commencement of the surface

runoff is extended until it intersects with the ordinate drawn at the peak point C. This
point is joined to point B by a straight line. The segments AC and CB demarcate the
base-flow and surface runoff. This method is most widely used in engineering practices.

Method III

In this method, the base-flow recession curve, after depletion of flood water, is
extended backwards till it intersects with the ordinate at the point of inflection (Line EF
in Fig. 3.4(a)). This method is realistic in situations where groundwater contributions are
significant and reach the stream quickly. All the above methods of base-flow separation
are arbitrary, and the selection of any of these methods is dependent on local practice and
successful predictions achieved in the past.
 3. Illustrate and discuss the derivation of unit hydrograph.
A unit hydrograph can be derived from a total streamflow hydrograph at a given stream gauge
location along with the following information:
 The basin area
 The basin–averaged rainfall depth
 The duration over which the excess precipitation occurred.
BASIC STEPS FOLLOWED FOR To make the unit hydrograph show the effect
DERIVING A UNIT HYDROGRAPH of the quick–response runoff only, we need
to separate out the baseflow portion.
STEP 1: SELECT APPROPRIATE
PRECIPITATION EVENT

When deriving a unit hydrograph, it is

important to start with an archived
hydrograph in which the quick–response
runoff portion is from one single storm
event. In addition, that storm should have
produced its excess precipitation with nearly Once we subtract out the baseflow
uniform coverage in space and time over the component, the resulting hydrograph shows
basin. only the contribution from excess
precipitation, or quick–response runoff.
STEP 3: CALCULATE QUICK–
STEP 2: REMOVE BASEFLOW RESPONSE
CONTRIBUTION VOLUME
Recall that a unit hydrograph represents the
quick–response runoff.

The total volume of water from the quick–
response runoff needs to be calculated. This
is done by summing the areas under the
quick– response runoff hydrograph for each
time step, in this case, hourly.
STEP 4: DETERMINE EXCESS
PRECIPITATION DEPTH FROM THE
BASIN
Once we have the estimated volume of the
quick–response runoff for a basin, we need
to determine what basin–wide average depth
would cause that volume. We do this by
spreading this volume out evenly across the
entire basin.
We derive this mathematically by dividing
the volume of the quick–response runoff by
the area of the basin to get the average depth
of the excess precipitation.
For example, assume we have a basin area
of 100 square kilometers, which is
100,000,000square meters. Assume we
calculated the volume of water from the
quick–response runoff to be 2,000,000 cubic
meters. So, dividing the volume by the area,
or 2,000,000 cubic meters/100,000,000
square meters, we get 0.02 meters, or 2.0
centimeters. These 2 centimeters is the
average depth of excess rainfall over the
basin.
STEP 5: ADJUST THE QUICK–
RESPONSE
HYDROGRAPH
The excess precipitation depth probably
won't be exactly one unit as unit hydrograph
theory requires. So, we have to adjust the
quick– response runoff hydrograph to show
what the response from one unit would be.
We can determine the adjustment by simply
dividing the hydrograph unit (in this case,
one) by the excess precipitation. We then
use this adjustment factor to convert the
points on the hydrograph to the unit
hydrograph.

For example, our unit hydrograph depth
measurement is 1 cm, and we just calculated
the excess precipitation depth to be 2 cm
that gives us an adjustment factor of 0.5,
which we can use to calculate each data
point in the hydrograph.
Once we multiply each point on the
hydrograph by our adjustment factor of 0.5,
our resulting unit hydrograph is for exactly 1
cm of excess precipitation.
Note that for a hydrograph the Y–axis shows
flow, such as cubic meters per second (cms).
For a unit hydrograph, the Y–axis shows
flow per unit, for example, cms per cm .
STEP 6: DETERMINE DURATION
The duration of a unit hydrograph refers to a
continuous time period during which one
unit of excess precipitation occurred. If it
took 6 hours for the one unit of excess to
occur, we have a 6–hour unit hydrograph.
Remember, the unit hydrograph duration
does not refer to the duration of the
streamflow response. The difficult part of
determining the duration of a unit
hydrograph is estimating which portion of
the entire precipitation event actually
contributes to excess precipitation.
Recall that the water that infiltrates and
percolates into deeper storage and baseflow
is not part of excess precipitation.
We can estimate this portion of the
precipitation by applying a constant loss
function to the rainfall.
Recall that we have already calculated the
depth of the excess precipitation to be 2.0
cm. Now, we need to know how long it took
for that excess to occur.
So, we move this loss function line such that
the amount of precipitation above the line is
equal to the depth of excess precipitation
that we already calculated for the basin.
Below that line the precipitation goes to
long– term storage. Above the line is the
excess precipitation.
Now we have an excess precipitation bar
graph. Note that there are only 6 hours
represented, compared to 9 hours in the
original total rainfall graph. That means the
excess rainfall duration is 6 hours, thus we
will derive a 6–hour unit hydrograph.
Notice that the amounts from hour to hour
on this graph are not truly uniform. This is
typical.
For purposes of calculating a unit
hydrograph duration, however, we assume Unit hydrographs derived from rainfall and
that all excess precipitation occurred stream gauge data are the preferred method,
uniformly in time. however, in many basins there are
insufficient data to do this.
FINAL UNIT HYDROGRAPH
Synthetic unit hydrographs are used in these
areas. Synthetic unit hydrographs typically
represent basins without adequate stream
gauge information and are developed from
the information we have from numerous
instrumented basins.

At the end of these steps, we have a 6–hour

unit hydrograph. It shows the streamflow
response to 6 hours of excess precipitation
that produced one unit of depth.
A rainfall–runoff model for a real event
would incorporate the information from this
unit hydrograph to predict the streamflow.
DERIVATION OF UNIT
HYDROGRAPHS
1. A number of isolated storm hydrographs
caused by short spells of rainfall excess,
each of approximately the same duration
(0.9 to 1.1D h) are selected from a study of
continuously gauged runoff of the stream
2. For each of these surface runoff
hydrographs, the base flow is separated
3. The area under DRH is evaluated and the
volume of direct runoff obtained is divided
by the catchment area to obtain the depth of
ER
4. The ordinates of the various DRHs are
divided by the respective ER values to
obtain the ordinates of the unit hydrograph
Flood hydrographs used in the analysis
should be selected so as to meet the
following desirable features with respect to
the storms responsible for them:
1. The storms should be isolated storms
occurring individually
2. The rainfall should be fairly uniform
during the duration and should cover the
entire catchment area
3. The duration of rainfall should be 1/5 to
1/3 of the basin lag
4. The rainfall excess of the selected storm
should be high (A range of ER values of 1.0
to 4.0 cm is preferred)
• A number of unit hydrographs of a given
duration are derived as mentioned above and
then plotted
•Because of spatial and temporal variations
in
rainfall and due to deviations of the storms
from the assumptions in the unit hydrograph
theory, the various unit hydrographs
developed will not be exactly identical
• In general, the mean of these curves is
adopted as the unit hydrograph of the given
duration for the catchment
• The average of the peak flows and the time
to peaks are computed first
• Then a mean curve of best fit (by eye
judgment) is drawn through the averaged
peak to close on an averaged base length
• The volume of the DRH is determined and
any departure from unity is corrected by
adjusting the peak value
• Note – It is customary to draw the
averaged ERH of unit depth in the plot of
the unit hydrograph to indicate the type and
duration of rainfall creating the unit
hydrograph.
• It is assumed that the rainfall excess occurs
uniformly over the catchment during the
duration D hours of a unit hydrograph
• An ideal duration for a unit hydrograph is
one in which small fluctuations in rainfall
intensity does not have any significant effect
on the runoff
• The duration of the unit hydrograph should
not exceed 1/5 to 1/3 of the basin lag
• In general, for catchments larger than
250sq.km., 6-hour duration is satisfactory.
Unit Hydrograph from a Complex Storm
• When suitable simple isolated storms are
not available, data from complex storms of
long duration will have to be used to derive
the unit hydrograph
• The problem is to decompose a measured
composite flood hydrograph into its
component DRHs and base flow
• A common unit hydrograph of appropriate
duration is assumed to exist
• This is the inverse problem of derivation of
the flood hydrograph
• Consider a rainfall excess made up of three
consecutive durations of D hours and ER
values of
• After base flow separation of the resulting
composite flood hydrograph, a composite
DRH is obtained. Let the ordinates of the
composite DRH be drawn at a time interval
of D hours.
• At various time intervals 1D, 2D, 3D, .......
from the start of the ERH let the ordinates of
unit hydrograph be and the ordinates of the
composite DRH be
• The values of can be
determined from the above
• Disadvantage of this method – Errors
propagate and increase as computation
proceeds
REFERENCES:
Gopal, M. (2021). Derivation of Unit
Hydrographs. Retrieved from
https://theconstructor.org/water-
resources/derivation-of-unit-
hydrographs/4391/
Ojha, C.S.P., Berndtsson, R., & Bhunya, P.
(2008). Engineering hydrology.
Oxford University Press. Retrieved
from www.knovel.com

Figure: Unit hydrograph from a complex

storm