CE 143: HYDROLOGY

PLATE NO. 1 – AREAL PRECIPITATION

1. Explain the three methods of determining the mean areal depth

of precipitation over a basin covered by several rain-gage
stations in your own words.

Arithmetic Mean Method

This is the simplest approach. Imagine you have a bunch of
rain-gages scattered around a basin, each recording how much
rain falls. At the end of a period, like a day or a storm event,
you take the total precipitation recorded by each gage and then
just average them. You add up all the measurements and divide by
the number of gages. This method assumes precipitation is
distributed uniformly across the basin, which might not be
accurate, especially in large or topographically varied areas.

Thiessen Polygon Method

This method gets a bit more sophisticated by giving more
weight to gages based on the area they're likely representing.
You start by drawing a map with all your rain-gages. Then, for
each gage, you draw lines to its nearest neighbors and create
perpendicular bisectors of those lines, eventually forming
polygons around each gage. Each polygon outlines the area that
is closest to its respective gage than to any other. When you
measure precipitation, you assume that each gage's reading
applies uniformly across its polygon. Then, you calculate the
mean areal depth of precipitation by multiplying each gage's
precipitation amount by the area of its polygon, summing all these
products, and dividing by the total area of the basin.

Isohyetal Method
This is the most detailed and often considered the most
accurate method, but it's also the most labor-intensive. It involves
drawing isohyets, which are lines of equal precipitation, across
your map, based on the precipitation data from your gages and
possibly other information like radar estimates or
topographical influences. Think of it like drawing contour lines on
a map, but instead of lines of equal elevation, these lines show
areas that received equal amounts of rain. After drawing these
isohyets, you estimate the average precipitation between two
isohyets and multiply it by the area between those lines to get the
volume of water. Add up all these volumes and divide by the total
basin area to get the mean areal depth of precipitation.
2. Find the mean precipitation for the area shown by the Thiessen
Polygon method. The area is composed of a square with a 4km
side plus an equilateral triangular plot of side 4km. Do not
round intermediate calculation and round final answer to two
decimal places.

PRECIPITATION DATA
STATION PRECIPITATION
(cm)
A 15
B 68
C 46
D 22
E 40
F 20
3. Thiessen polygons and Isohyetal Map are given in the figures,
respectively, for different drainage basins. Areas and
precipitation values are tabulated. Compute the average
precipitation over the basins. Do not round intermediate
calculation and round final answer to two decimal places.

Station Thiessen Polygon Precipitation (cm)

Area (km2)
A 170 9.3
B 164 10.5
C 156 10.9
D 150 12.2
E 116 13.5
F 36 14.0
G 124 14.2
H 42 12.8
Area of Basin 958

Zone Area (km2)

I 56
II 192
III 420
IV 244
V 44
VI 58
Area of Basin 1014