Hydrology

Rainfall - Runoff Modeling (II)

Synthetic unit hydrographs
Prof. Ke-Sheng Cheng
Department of Bioenvironmental Systems Engineering
National Taiwan University

Synthetic unit hydrographs

For areas where rainfall and runoff data are not

available, unit hydrograph can be developed
based on physical basin characteristics.

SCS unit hydrograph

Clarks IUH (time-area method)
Linear reservoir model (Nash model)

SCS unit hydrograph

Misuse of SCS UH an example

Clarks IUH (time-area method)

The concept of isochrones

Isochrones are lines of equal travel time. Any point on

a given isochrone takes the same time to reach the
basin outlet. Therefore, for the follwoing basin
isochrone map and assuming constant and uniform
effective rainfall, discharge at the basin outlet can be
decomposed into individual contributing areas and
rainfalls.

Contributing area and contributing

rainfall

Using the basin isochrone map, the cumulative

contributing area curve can be developed. The
derivatives or differences of this curve constitute
the instantaneous unit hydrograph IUH(t).

If the effect of watershed storage is to be

considered, the unit hydrograph described
above is routed through a hypothetical linear
reservoir with a storage coefficient k located at
the watershed outlet.
For a linear reservoir with storage coefficient k,
we have

Consider the continuity of the hypothetical

reservoir during a time interval t.

Example. A watershed of 1000-acre drainage

area has the following 15-minute time-area
curve. The storage coefficient k of the watershed
is 30 minutes. Determine the 15-minute unit
hydrograph UH(15,t).

Area between isochrones t = 0 and t = 0.25 hr is

100 acres. Since we are interested in the unit
hydrograph UH(15-min, t), the rainfall intensity in
the time period (0.25 hr) should be 4 inch/hr.
Therefore, the ordinate of UH(15-min, t) at time t
= 0.25 hr is:
4 inch/hr (1/12 ft/inch) (1/3600 hr/sec) 100 acres
(43560 ft2/acre) = 403.33 cfs


Hydrological Analysis for Detention
Pond Design in Hillslope
Development


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(Rational Formula)

1
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CIA
360

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I( / ),
A(
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