Hydrograph

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• Stream flow data in the form of stage or discharge is collected to analyse its
flow characteristics.

• This analysis is done using a ‘hydrograph’.

• A graph of any hydrological quantity (stage, velocity, discharge, etc.)

against time is known as a hydrograph.

1. Discharge Hydrograph
2. Stage Hydrograph
3. Velocity Hydrograph

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• Discharge Hydrograph
– Graphical representation of discharge against time. Generally a
hydrograph means discharge hydrograph.

• Stage Hydrograph
– Graphical representation of stage against time. Used mainly for
designing flood‐protection works like embankments, levees.

• Velocity Hydrograph
– It is the graphical representation of velocity against time

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Effective rainfall

• Portion of rainfall that actually goes to mix in the stream/channel or river

passing through the area to increase its flow (discharge).

• This is the rainfall after deducting all the losses.

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Basin Lag or Time Lag
• Used to identify the location of hydrograph peak.

• Time difference between the center of mass of the rainfall (hyetograph) and
the peak discharge.

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Components of Hydrograph

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Components of Hydrograph
• A hydrograph normally consists of the four components:

• Channel Precipitation
• Direct Runoff (DRO)
• Inter Flow or Sub‐surface Flow
• Ground or Base Flow

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Components of Hydrograph
• A hydrograph normally consists of the four components:

– Channel Precipitation

– Direct Runoff (DRO)

– Inter Flow or Sub‐surface Flow

– Ground or Base Flow

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• Channel Precipitation

 Amount of the precipitation that falls directly on the stream. But its amount
is so small to be neglected

• Direct Runoff

 After all the losses, component of flow that runs over the ground
constitutes Runoff

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• Inter Flow or Sub Surface Flow

 This is the flow which flows laterally in the upper strata and reaches the
stream after a couple of days of the storm

• Ground water flow or Base Flow

 This flow is consisted of deep percolation and can take even months or
years to reach the stream after the storm

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Separation of Hydrograph Components
• A hydrograph is normally a graph of total runoff against time.

• Total runoff is the summation of direct runoff and base flow.

• Empirical methods are proposed, as to separate the flows exactly is almost

impossible which are

– Straight Line Method

– Fixed Base Length Method
– Variable Slope Method
– Recession Curve Equation

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• From point ‘A’, the lowest point on previous recession curve, draw a
straight horizontal line which meets the falling limb of hydrograph at point
‘B’.

• The line is based on the assumption that a constant amount of base flow is
maintained during the storm runoff.

• Above line ‘AB’ is the direct runoff and below this line is the base flow.

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• As per Linsely (1992), N=0.8 A0.2
Where A = catchment area

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Variable Slope Method

• This method is based on the fact that if water rises in the stream the water
level in the stream becomes greater than the adjoining ground water table
level.

• As a result the flow occurs from the stream to the groundwater and is stored
there as bank storage.

• Take a point ‘A’ on the previous recession curve, and the line ‘AE’ by
extending the previous recession curve. Point ‘E’ is under the peak.

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• Now take a point ‘B’ on the recession curve and extend it backward. Take a
point ‘C’ on recession curve where the recession curve is changing slope.

• This point is called the point of inflexion. Draw a vertical line from the
point ‘C’.

• It cuts the line drawn backward from point ‘B’, at point ‘D’. Join point ‘E’
and point ‘D’.

• The area under the line ‘AEDB’ shows the base flow component

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• Line Method is the simplest and easiest but also the least accurate.

• Fixed Base Method is widely used and gives practically good results.

• Whereas Variable Slope Method is not commonly used and is difficult but
can give better results depending upon the expertise of the person using it.

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Recession Curve Equation

• The recession side of the hydrograph is formed of the surface recession,

interflow recession and base flow recession.

• Although the interflow, because of similar characteristics, is taken as part

of the surface runoff in the hydrograph analysis.

• There are means to separate the three components on the basis of the
exponential recession equation of the form

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Factors Affecting Shape of the Hydrograph

• Storm Characteristics

– Intensity of rainfall
– Duration of rainfall
– Weather conditions

• Catchment Characteristics

– Size of the catchment

– Shape of the catchment
– Elevation of the catchment
– Slope of the catchment

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Intensity of Rainfall

• The intensity of rainfall has a predominant effect on the shape of the

hydrograph.

• If other conditions remain the same, a higher intensity storm will produce a
rapid rise in the hydrograph and a higher peak than that in case of a low
intensity rainfall.

• Such floods give little warning time and so are dangerous.

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Duration of Rainfall

• The duration of rainfall is important if it is greater than the time of

concentration Tc (defined as the time of travel from the farthest point in the
catchment area to the gauging station).

• In such a situation, if the rainfall of certain intensity occurs uniformly, the

whole of the catchment area is contributing runoff at the gauging station
and the hydrograph attains its high peak.

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• Weather
– The shape of the hydrograph greatly depends on the seasonal
distribution of rainfall. During summer losses due to evaporation may
produce a relatively small peak hydrograph.

– On the other hand, in winter, losses are small with the result that even a
small intensity storm may produce a relatively rapid rise and high peak
of the hydrograph.

– Antecedent soil moisture conditions (generally being higher in winter)

are important as for high soil moisture; the storm will produce more
runoff.

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• Size of Catchment

– The catchment area affects the stream flow in a variety of ways.

– Even if the intensity and depth of precipitation is assumed to be

constant,

– The hydrograph of a smaller catchment rises to its peak and then recedes
more rapidly than that for a larger catchment, because for the latter, it
takes longer for the runoff to reach the gauging station.

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• The hydrograph of a larger catchment area, therefore, has broader base than
that of a smaller one.

• Moreover, the larger the area, the greater will be the heterogeneity in soil
and vegetation cover, with a consequent effect on the stream flow of each
part of the catchment.

• The vegetation cover increases the time of concentration.

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Shape of the Catchment Area

• The shape of the catchment area affects stream flow by altering the time of
concentration and the pattern of drainage tributaries.

• If the length of the catchment along the main stream is less than the width
across the same stream, separate runoff peaks generated by a heavy rainfall
are likely to reach the gauging station at the same time from the tributaries,
with the result that the flood peak in the main stream increases.

• Thus a hydrograph with a high peak and narrow base is obtained.

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• However, if the length of the catchment along the main stream is larger
than width, the tributaries will be of shorter length and contribution from
each tributary area is likely to reach the gauging stations at intervals.

• After an intense storm over the whole of the catchment area there will be
some lag between the times at which the peak from each tributary reaches
the gauging station.

• The hydrograph will therefore, have a low peak and broader base, because
the remote tributaries will continue contributing for some time even after
the rain fall has stopped.

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Elevation of the Catchment
• The elevation of the catchment also plays an important role in some
hydrologic characteristics of hydrograph, particularly due to variation in
temperature and precipitation.

• The temperature reduces with the increase in elevation with the result that
above a certain elevation, the temperature becomes so low that all
precipitation falls as snow.

• In the Indo‐Pakistan Sub‐continent, contribution from areas, at altitude

15,000 ft. above the mean sea level, is mainly due to snowmelt.

• The floods from snowmelt are of usually low peak and broader base.

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Catchment Slope

• The slope of the catchment affects stream flow by reducing the rate of
infiltration due to increased speed of water‐movement towards drainage
channels.

• The steeper the slope the faster will be the flow and rise in the
hydrograph. The hydrograph in such a situation will have higher peak and
smaller base.

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Unit Hydrograph Concept

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• While designing hydraulic structures, we are mostly interested in
estimating maximum probable rate of runoff.

• Various methods of estimating maximum probable rate of runoff are as

under:

• Frequency Analysis

 It may be used provided adequate stream flow records are available.

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• Empirical Formula

Involving various physical characteristics of the basin i.e.

Q = C I A (Rational Formula)
Where,
I = Intensity of rainfall,
C = Constant, and
A = Area of cross‐section.
Very detailed rainfall‐runoff models have been developed which estimate
losses separately and hence calculate the direct runoff

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Unit Hydrograph
Flood Routing

 Flood Routing will be discussed in detail later.

Unit Hydrograph Method

 Of the four methods of estimating maximum probable rate of runoff, the

unit hydrograph method is being discussed in detail in this discussion.

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Unit Hydrograph

• The T‐hour unit hydrograph may be defined as a hydrograph of direct runoff

resulting from unit rainfall excess (say 1 cm) of a duration ‘T’ hours
having occurred uniformly all over the catchment and having a constant rate
for specific duration say T hours.

• The unit hydrograph theory is based on principles of linearity of runoff to

rainfall excess and superposition. This is a linear process applied to a
non‐linear situation.

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Unit Hydrograph
• The definition of unit hydrograph implies the following

– Unit hydrograph represents the lumped response of the catchment to the

unit rainfall excess of T‐hrs, to produce direct runoff to rainfall excess.

– The rainfall is considered to have an average intensity of excess rainfall

(ER) of (1/D).(cm/hr) for duration D‐hr of the storm.

– The distribution of the rainfall/storm is considered to be uniform all over

the catchment

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Unit Hydrograph
• Physical characteristics of the basin remain relatively constant. The variable
characteristics of the storm cause variation in the shape of resulting
hydrograph.

• The storm characteristics as discussed earlier are the rainfall duration,

time‐intensity pattern, areal distribution of rainfall and the amount of
rainfall.

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Unit Hydrograph
• Rainfall Duration

– The volume under unit hydrograph is always the same for a given
catchment and is equal to one unit say one inch of runoff (note that
volume of one inch of runoff means that one inch of rainfall excess over
the whole catchment.

– The actual volume will be the catchment area multiplied by one). Peak
value for a lesser duration unit hydrograph is higher and is sharp, but the
peak value for a higher duration unit hydrograph is lower with larger
base length.

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Unit Hydrograph
• Time Intensity Pattern

– An infinite number of hydrographs would be required if an attempt is

made to draw separate unit hydrograph for each of the possible time‐
intensity patterns.
– Practically the unit hydrograph may be based only on an assumption of
uniform intensity. Higher‐intensity storms will have higher peak with
low base, and vice versa.

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Unit Hydrograph
• Areal Distribution of Rainfall

 The unit hydrograph is based upon uniformly distributed rainfall over

whole of the catchment.

 So the actual flood hydrograph has to be estimated accordingly from the

unit hydrograph taking into account the effect of areal distribution of
rainfall.

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Derivation of Unit Hydrograph
• The following steps are followed in deriving a unit hydrograph.

 Select an isolated storm, for which reliable rainfall and runoff data are
available.

 Separate the base flow from the total runoff hydrograph and calculate the
volume of direct runoff.

 Divide the ordinates of direct runoff by the effective rainfall. The resulting
hydrograph is a unit hydrograph for the catchment area for the given
duration of excess rainfall.

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Derivation of Unit Hydrograph
• A unit hydrograph derived from a single storm may have some error, and it
is desirable to average the unit hydrograph from several storms of the same
duration.

• This should not be an arithmetic average of concurrent coordinates; since, if

peaks do not occur at the same time, the average peak will be lower than
many of the individual peaks.

• The proper procedure is to compute the average of the peak flows and times
to peak. The average unit hydrograph is then sketched to conform to those
of the other graphs, passing through the computed average peak, and having
a volume of one‐inch.

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Derivation of Unit Hydrograph
• Example 1

From the data given in Table 1 below, derive a 6‐hour unit hydrograph if
this data is obtained from a six‐hours duration storm and the catchment
area is 3,200 square kilometers.

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Derivation of Unit Hydrograph
Date Time Discharge Base Flow
(day) (m³/s) (m³/s)
(1) (2) (3) (4)
11-Jan 1st 21 21
12-Jan 2nd 21 21
13-Jan 3rd 21 21
14-Jan 4th 20 20
15-Jan 5th 20 20
16-Jan 6th 20 20
17-Jan 7th 20 20
18-Jan 8th 20 20
19-Jan 9th 521 11
20-Jan 10th 160 21
21-Jan 11th 82 29
22-Jan 12th 63 35
23-Jan 13th 59 47
24-Jan 14th 53 53
25-Jan 15th 47 47
26-Jan 16th 45 45
27-Jan 17th 38 38
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Derivation of Unit Hydrograph
• Solution
– The calculations are shown in Table 2.
– The Direct Runoff (DRO) is obtained by subtracting base flow from
discharge values.
– The DRO is then multiplied by time interval to get total volume. This
total volume is divided by catchment area to get depth of effective
rainfall in centimeters spread uniformly over whole catchment.
– By definition of unit hydrograph, its ordinates are obtained by dividing
ordinates of DRO by effective rain.

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 Derivation of Unit Hydrograph
Date Time Discharge Base Flow DRO Volume Ordinates of Unit Hydrograph
(day) (m³/s) (m³/s) (m³/s) (x106 m³) (m³/s)
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)=(3)-(4) (6) (7)=(5)/Eff. Rain
11-Jan 1st 21 21 0 0.00 0.00
12-Jan 2nd 21 21 0 0.00 0.00
13-Jan 3rd 21 21 0 0.00 0.00
14-Jan 4th 20 20 0 0.00 0.00
15-Jan 5th 20 20 0 0.00 0.00
16-Jan 6th 20 20 0 0.00 0.00
17-Jan 7th 20 20 0 0.00 0.00
18-Jan 8th 20 20 0 0.00 0.00
19-Jan 9th 521 11 510 44.06 255.00
20-Jan 10th 160 21 139 12.01 69.50
21-Jan 11th 82 29 53 4.58 26.50
22-Jan 12th 63 35 28 2.42 14.00
23-Jan 13th 59 47 12 1.04 6.00
24-Jan 14th 53 53 0 0.00 0.00
25-Jan 15th 47 47 0 0.00 0.00
26-Jan 16th 45 45 0 0.00 0.00
27-Jan 17th 38 38 0 0.00 0.00
Total Volume 64.11 x106 m³
Area 3200 x106 m² Volume 32.05x106 m³
Effective Rain 2.00cm Effective Rain 1.00 cm
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