Unit Hydrograph

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 Coverage

Assumptions For UH
Flood pictorial views

Terminology for UH Hydrograph - Review

Creating Unit Hydrograph Unit Hydrograph

Applications of Unit H Unit Hydrograph. Why ?

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 Prediction
The only hydrograph that predicts the behavior of a
flood from a storm of any duration
 Why
Construct & Analyse Hydrographs ?

To find out discharge patterns of a

particular drainage basin

Help predict flooding events, therefore

influence implementation of flood prevention
measures
Hydrograph Theory

14
 Hydrograph

Graphical representation of time (hours) versus

discharge (cfs or cms) at a particular point on a
stream or channel which drains the watershed area
Peak Discharge

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-------------------------YES

Then we will be able to

1. Manage the Storm water.
2. Identify the Flood Plans on downstream side.
3. To place the Hydraulic structures at safe level.
4. Efficient Urban Storm water management plan.
5. Design the Different types of Hydraulic structures.
6. Minimize the effects of Floods.
Micro Hydro Projects

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Unit Hydrograph

A conceptual direct runoff hydrograph

resulting from a rainfall excess of unit depth
and constant intensity for a particular
watershed is called a unit hydrograph
 The unit hydrograph method is employed to
calculate the direct runoff hydrograph at the
watershed outlet given the rainfall excess produced
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by a storm here
event.
 This method is categorized as a lumped model in
which the hydrologic characteristics of the entire
watershed are combined and typified by one or more
parameters, simple mathematical expressions, or
graphs.
 The Unit hydrograph is a useful tool in the process of
predicting the impact of precipitation on stream flow.

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 The Unit depth
hereis 1cm in the SI unit system and 1inch
in the U.S. system.

 It is usually abbreviate as a Uhc.

 The subscript “c” indicate the Duration of the rainfall
excess.
For instance, the direct runoff hydrograph
produced Text
by ina rainfall excess that has a
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duration of 3 hr and constant intensity of 1/3
in/hr is denoted by UH3 and depth of the
rainfall excess is (1/3 in./hr)(3 hr) = 1 in
 We can develop a unit hydrograph for a gaged
watershed by analyzing the simultaneous
rainfall and runoff records.
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 Unfortunately,
here most small, urban/rural
watersheds are ungaged. However, there are
several synthetic unit hydrograph methods
available to develop a unit hydrograph for
ungaged watersheds e.g. Espey Ten-Minute Unit
Hydrograph.
 UNIT HYDROGRAPH—WHY ?

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 Simplifying our
here task / work / procedures.
here

 Gives us a base line for a specified watershed.

 Standardize the hydrograph for different watersheds.
 Gives us information that how the flow of a stream
will be affected over time by the addition of one unit
of runoff.
 The role of Unit Hydrograph theory in the flood
prediction process is to provide an estimate of stream
flow given and amount precipitation.
 Once we know
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or insnowmelt has
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occurred, or is likely to occur, and we have an idea of
how much of this will turn into runoff, we still need to
know how the flow of a stream will be affected over time
by that runoff. The unit hydrograph provide us with a
way to estimate this, and is an integral part of many
hydrological modeling systems.
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 ASSUMPTIONS

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 The primary assumption of unit hydrograph
that the rainfall has uniform distribution, both in
space-with minimal variations across the basin-and in
time; in other words, the rainfall rate did not vary
much during the event.
 But In reality,
precipitation events are rarely uniform in space and time.
Often, one portion of the basin experiences higher
intensity precipitation than another portion.
 The base duration of direct runoff hydrograph due to different
effective rainfall of unit duration is constant.
 The ordinatesText in are directly proportional
of DRH Text
toin
the total amount
here here
of DRH of each hydrograph (principles of linearity, superposition,
and proportionality)
 For a given basin, the runoff hydrograph due to a given period of
rainfall reflects all the combined physical characteristics of basin
(time-invariant)
 BASIN-AVERAGED RAINFALL

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In typical non-snow situations, we begin the hydrologic process with
rainfall. In particular, we start with a basin-averaged rainfall. This
simply tells us how much rain fell, or is forecast to fall, on a given
basin and typically takes the form of a rainfall depth per time. In unit
hydrograph theory, we assume that this rainfall has fallen uniformly
across the basin
 BASIN-AVERAGED EXCESS RAINFALL

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From averaged rainfall, we need to know how much of the basin-
here here
averaged rainfall will become runoff. In unit hydrograph theory, runoff
is often referred to as “excess precipitation” or “excess rainfall.”
Rainfall runoff models will typically provide an estimate of what
becomes excess rainfall.
So, for example, if 25% of our 4.00 cm basin-averaged rainfall
becomes excess rainfall, then we have a basin averaged excess rainfall
of 1.00 cm
Direct Runoff

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The unit hydrograph represents the excess - Click to add Text
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precipitation
TERMINOLOGY - UH

 Duration
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here
Rising Limb here
 Recession Limb (falling
limb)
 Peak Flow
 Time to Peak (rise time)
 Time of Concentration
 Recession Curve
 Base flow Separation line
 Base flow
 Quick Response Run off
 Point of inflection
UH Components / Terminology
 CREATING U.HYDROGRAPH

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 Fromhere
Stream flow Data here

 Synthetically
 Espey Ten-Minute Unit Hydrograph
 Snyder
 SCS Unit Hydrograph
 Time-Area Unit Hydrograph(Clark, 1945)
 Gamma Function Unit Hydrograph
 “Fitted” Distributions
 Geomorphologic
A unit hydrograph can be derived from a total stream
flow 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
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STEPS FOR DERIVING THE UNIT HYDROGRAPH
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Step-1 Select Appropriate Precipitation Event

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When deriving a unit hydrograph it is important to
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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
uniform coverage in space and time over the basin
Step-2 Remove Base flow Contribution

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Step-3 Calculate Quick – Response Volume

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The total volume of water from the quick-response runoff needs
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to be calculated. This is done by summing the areas under the
QRR Hydrograph for each time step, in this case, hourly.
Step-4 Determine Excess PPT Depth from Basin

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Step-4 Determine Excess PPT Depth from Basin

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For example, assume we have a basin area of 100 square km,

which is 100,000,000 sq.m and calculated volume of quick-
response to be 2,000,000 cum-then the depth will be
Step-5 Adjust the Quick-Response Hydrograph

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The excess ppt in probably won`t be exactly one unit as unit
depth
here
hydrograph requires. So, we have to adjust the QRR
hydrograph to show what the response from one unit would be.
Step-5 Adjust the Quick-Response Hydrograph

Text in each point on the hydrograph by our

Once we multiply
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adjustment factor of 0.5, our resulting unit hydrograph is for
exactly 1 cm of excess precipitation
Step-6 Determine Duration of UH

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The durationhere
of a unit hydrograph refers to a continuous
time period during which one unit of excess ppt occurred.
If it took 6 hours for the one unit of excess to occur, we
have a 6-hr unit hydrograph. Remember, the unit
hydrograph duration does not refer to the duration of the
stream flow 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 ppt.
 Recall thatText
the inwater that infiltrates & percolates into
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deeper storage and base flow is not part of excess ppt.
 We can estimate this portion of the ppt. by applying a
constant loss function to the rainfall.
 Recall that we have already calculated the depth of the
excess ppt 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 ppt. above the line is equal to the depth
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of excess ppt.
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that we already calculated for the
basin.
 Below that line the ppt. goes to long-term storage.
Above the line is the excess ppt.
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 Now we have an excess precipitation bar graph of 6-hr.
 Notice that the amounts from hour to hour on this
graph are not truly uniform. This is typical.
 For purposes
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duration, however, we assume that all excess ppt
occurred uniformly in time.
 Final Unit Hydrograph

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At the end of in steps, we have a 6-hr unit hydrograph.
these
here
It show the stream flow response to 6 hrs of excess ppt
that produced one unit of depth.
D.R.O = U.H.O * Excess rainfall value

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Example:
Two storm each of 6-hr duration and having
rainfall excess values of 3.0cm and 2.0 cm
respectively occur successively. The 2-cm ER rain
follows the 3-cm rain. The 6-hr UH for the
catchment is the same as given in previous
example. Calculate the resulting DRH.
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T.R.O = U.H + D.R.O

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 Unit Hydrograph of Different Durations

 Under condition where lack of adequate data in

developement of unit hydrograph
 D-hour unit hydrograph is used to develop unit
hydrographs of differing durations nD
 Two method available:
1. Method of superposition or lagged method
2. The S-Curve
 Method of Superpositions

If a D-h unit hydrograph is available, and its desired

to develop unit hydrograph of nD, its is easily
accomplished by superposing n unit hydrographs with
each graph separated from the previous on by D-h.
D = 2-Hr Unit Hydrograph

Adjusted Net Rainfall

one inch over basin

Qp
Change UH Duration

Consider 1 hr UH
Add and Lag two UH
by one hour
Sum and divide by 2
Results in 2 hr UH
Example
Given the ordinates of a 4-hr unit hydrograph as
below derive the ordinates of a 12-hr unit
hydrograph for the same catchment

Time (hr) 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44
Ordinates of 0 20 80 130 150 130 90 52 27 15 5 0
4-hr UH
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know how to draw

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S-Curve
 Also known as S-hydrograph

 Hydrograph produced by continous effective

rainfall at a constant rate for infinite period.

 Curve obtained by summation of an infinite

series of D-h UH spaced D-h apart.
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S-Curves for UH
S-Curves

S-curve • Convert 2 hr UH to 3-hr

• Lag each 2-hr UH by
Duration D
• Add to produce S-curve
Example
Solve previous example with S-curve method:
Given the ordinates of a 4-hr unit hydrograph as below
derive the ordinates of a 12-hr unit hydrograph for the
same catchment
Time (hr) 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44
Ordinates of 0 20 80 130 150 130 90 52 27 15 5 0
4-hr UH
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