Runoff Computation

•One way of quantifying discharge is through

computation technique
•Based on developing Rainfall and Runoff
relationship
 Runoff Computation Methods

• Rational Formula
• SCS Curve methods
• Unit hydrograph methods
• Synthetic Unit Hydrographs
 1. Rational Method

o to determining discharges from measurements

of rainfall depth

o Consider a rainfall of uniform intensity and

very long duration occurring over a basin

o The runoff rate gradually increases from zero to a

constant value as indicated
 Rational Method
• Designating the time taken for a drop of water from the
farthest part of the catchment to reach the outlet as tc – time
of concentration

• it is obvious that if the rainfall continuous beyond tc, the

runoff will be constant and at the peak value

• the peak value of the rainfall is given by

1
QP  CAi ; for t  t C
3.6 C- runoff coefficient (runoff/rainfall)
dependant on catchment characteristics
A – drainage area in Km2
i – the mean intensity of precipitation
(mm/hr) for a duration equal to tc and an
exceedence of probability P
 The assumptions
1. Rainfall intensity is constant throughout the
drainage area.

2. The computed peak rate of runoff at the outlet

point is a function of the average rainfall rate
during the time of concentration, that is, the
peak discharge does not result from a more
intense storm of shorter duration, during
which only a portion of the watershed is
contributing to runoff at the outlet
Runoff Coefficient (C)
• dependant on the character and
condition of the soil.
• infiltration rate decreases as rainfall
continues, and is also influenced by
the antecedent moisture condition of
the soil.
• Other factors influencing the runoff
coefficient are rainfall intensity,
proximity of the water table, degree
of soil compaction, porosity of the
subsoil, vegetation cover, ground
slope, and depression storage.
Values of runoff coefficient C
Type of Area Value of C
A. Urban area
Lawns: Sandy-soil, flat, 2% 0.05 – 0.10
Sandy-soil, Steep, 7% 0.15 – 0.20
Sandy-soil, average, 2.7% 0.18 – 0.22
Residential Areas:
Single family areas 0.30 – 0.50
Multi units, attached 0.60 – 0.75
Industrial:
Light 0.50 – 0.80
Heavy 0.60 – 0.90
Streets 0.70 – 0.95
A. Agricultural Area
Flat: Tight clay; cultivated 0.50
woodland 0.40
Sandy loam; cultivated 0.20
woodland 0.10
Hilly: Tight clay; cultivated 0.70
woodland 0.60
Sandy loam; cultivated 0.40.
woodland 0.30
weighted equivalent runoff coefficient Ce

C A
Where: - Ai is the aerial extent of
i i the sub basin i having a
runoff coefficient Ci and N
Ce  1
is the number of sub basin
A in the drainage area

The rational formula is found to be suitable for peak – flow

prediction in small watershed area up to 500Km2. It is find
considerable applicable in urban drainage design and in the
design of small culvert and bridges
Impacts from Changing Landscape

Hydrologic Effects
– Disruption of natural water
balance
– Increased flood peaks
– Increased storm water runoff
– More frequent flooding
– Increased bank full flows
– Lower dry weather flows
Rainfall Intensity (i)
• The rainfall intensity i is the average rainfall rate for
a particular drainage basin or sub basin. The rainfall
intensity corresponding to a duration tc and the
desired probability of exceedence P (i.e. return
period T = 1/P) is found from the rainfall – frequency
duration relationship for the given catchment area.
Time of concentration (tc)
• Empirical equations
– Kirpich Equation (1940)
0.385
t c  0.01947 L 0.77
S

Where: tc is time of concentration (minutes),

L is maximum length of travel of water (m),
S is slope of the catchment equal to delta H to L in
which delta H is the difference in elevation between
the most remote point on catchment and the outlet.
 Example – I
• An urban catchment has an area of 0.85km2. The slope
of the catchment is 0.006 and the maximum length of
travel of water is 950m. The maximum depth of
rainfall with a 25 years return period is as below.

Duration (min) 5 10 20 30 40 60
Depth of rainfall 17 26 40 50 57 62
(mm)

If a culvert for drainage at the outlet of this area is

to be designed for a return period of 25 years,
estimate the required peak – flow rate, by
assuming the runoff coefficient as 0.30.
Ans: 7.35m3/sec
 Example – II
• If the urban area of the above example, the
land use of the area and the corresponding
runoff coefficients are as given below,
calculate the equivalent runoff coefficient
Land Use Area (ha) Runoff coefficient
Roads 8 0.70
Lawn 17 0.10
Residential area 50 0.30
Industrial area 10 0.80
Ans: Ce = 0.36
 Hydrograph
• A hydrograph is the response of a given
watershed area to a rainfall input for a
continuous period of time

– Annual hydrograph
• a plot of stream flow, vs. time over a year, shows the
long-term balance of precipitation, evaporation, and
stream flow in a watershed

– Storm hydrograph
• Study of annual hydrographs shows that peak stream
flows are produced infrequently (may be once), and are
result of storm rainfall alone or storm rainfall and snow
melt combined
 Hydrograph
A plot of the discharge in a stream plotted against time
chronologically. Depending upon the unit of time involved, we
have

– Annual hydrographs showing the variation of daily or

weekly or 10 days daily mean flows over a year

– Monthly hydrographs showing the variation of daily

mean flows over a month

– Seasonal hydrographs represent the variation of the

discharge in a particular season such as the monsoon
season or dry season

– Flood hydrographs or hydrographs due to storm

representing stream flow due to a storm over a catchment
different annual stream flow hydrographs

Snow Fed Rivers

Ephemeral River Perennial rivers

 Hydrograph
• the three phases runoff consists of flow
– surface runoff,
– interflow and
– base flow,

• two different storms in a given catchment

produce hydrographs differing from each other.

• identical storms in two catchments produce

hydrographs that are different.
www.usda.gov/stream_restoration/chap1.html Fig. - 2.10
Hydrograph Analysis

• Simple hydrographs resulting from isolated

storms are preferred for hydrograph
studies

• One of the major tasks of the hydrograph

analysis is to produce rainfall-runoff
relationships for a catchment area, to be
able to predict runoffs as a result of
certain rains without the related runoff
measurements.
Component of Hydrograph

• surface runoff
– which is produced by volume of
water derived from the storm event
• base flow
– contributed from groundwater
Stream flow Hydrograph
 Effective rainfall
• the proportion of rainfall that finds its way into
a river is known as the effective rainfall or excess
rainfall, the rest being lost in evaporation,
detention on the surface or retention in the soil

• as the storm proceeds, the proportion of effective

rainfall increases and that of lost rainfall
decreases as shown by the loss curve

• effective rainfall makes the immediate

contribution to the rising limb from A to the
peak of the hydrograph
Runoff Hydrograph due to uniform rainfall
Runoff

Recession
Peak
Value

Rising

Time
 definitions of
lag, which is a
measure of the
catchment
response time,
but here it is
taken from the
center of gravity
of the effective
rainfall to the
center of gravity
of the direct
surface runoff
Factors Affecting Flood Hydrograph

Physiographic Factors Climatic Factors

1. Basin Characteristics 1. Storm characteristics:
a. Shape b. Size precipitation, intensity,
c. Slope d. Nature of the valley duration, magnitude and
e. Elevation f. Drainage Density movement of storm

2. Infiltration Characteristics 2. Initial loss

a. Land use and cover
b. Soil type and geological
formations
c. Lakes, Swamps and other
storage
3. Channel Characteristics: cross- 3. Evapo-transpiration
section, roughness and storage
capacity
Base flow separation
• surface flow hydrograph = rainfall
minus losses

• surface flow hydrograph is obtained

from the total storm hydrograph by
separating the quick response flow
from the slow response runoff

• interflow as a part of the surface

flow
Straight Line Method
N days
Peak
N  0.83 A 0.2
Discharge

Surface Runoff

A B
Base Flow

Time
Fixed Base Method
N days
Discharge Peak N  0.83 A 0.2

Surface Runoff
A B

Base Flow
C
Time
Variable slope method

Pi
Discharge

Surface Runoff
F
A
E
Base Flow

Time
Base flow separation
– The selection of any one of them
depends upon the local practice
and successful predictions
achieved in the past

– The surface runoff hydrograph

obtained after the base flow
separation is also known as direct
runoff hydrograph (DRH)
 Effective Rainfall (ER)

o Excess rainfall, or effective rainfall, is that

rainfall which is neither retained on the land
surface nor infiltrated into the soil.

o Both DRH (Direct Runoff Hydrograph) and

ERH (Effective Rainfall Hyetograph)
represent the same total quantity but in
different units
Effective Rainfall Hyetograph (ERH)
What relation do they have?

o ERH is usually in cm/h plotted against

time, the area of ERH multiplied by the
catchment area gives the total volume of
direct runoff which is the same as the area
of DRH
 How do we determine the ER?

• two simplified methods of determining

the effective rainfall are given below
– The -index method
– The initial and continuing loss method
 - index method
M
rd    Rm  t 
m 1
initial and continuing loss
method
 Example
Rainfall of magnitude 3.8cm and 2.8cm occurring on two
consecutive 4hr durations on a catchment of area 27km2
produced the following hydrograph of flow at the outlet of
the catchment. Estimate the rainfall excess and  - index

Time from start -6 0 6 12 18 24 30 36 42 48 54 60 66

of rainfall (hr)
Observed flow 6 5 13 26 21 16 12 9 7 5 5 4.5 4.5
(m3/s)
 Volume total DR due to storm = 1.4904 x 106m3

4hr 8hr
30
 - index = 0.135cm/hr
25 2.26
2.8 Rainfall excess = 5.52cm
3.26
3.8
20

15 21
16
10
Direct Runoff
11
8 7
4 2
5
6 6
Base6 Flow6 6 6 6 6
0
-6 0 6 12 18 24 30 36 42 48 54 60 66

Excess Rainfall =DR depth = 0.0552m = 5.52cm

 Unit Hydrograph

the hydrograph of direct runoff

resulting from one unit depth
(1cm) of rainfall excess
Definition occurring uniformly over the
basin and at a uniform rate for
a specified duration (D hours).
 Assumptions
1. the excess rainfall has a constant
intensity within the effective (specific)
duration.

2. the excess rainfall is uniformly

distributed throughout the whole
drainage area.
 …cont’d
3. Law of proportionality. From this law
it can be seen that different rainfall
intensities with the same duration of the
rain will produce hydrographs with
different magnitudes but the same base
length, however, there will be only one
unit hydrograph for the same duration.
 …cont’d
4. The total hydrograph of direct runoff
due to n separate storms is equal to
the sum of the n separate
hydrographs produced by the
separate storms
 … cont’d
5. The fifth property of TUH assumes
that the effective rainfall-storm runoff
relationship does not change with
time, i.e., the same TUH always
occurs whenever the unit of effective
rainfall in T h is applied
 Limitation of UH theory
• The UH theory cannot be applied to
catchment areas greater than about
5000km2
• The UH theory cannot be applied to very
smaller catchment area with area less than
2km2.
• The principle of linearity of response is not
strictly correct. It has been found in practice
that the UH derived for very light rainfalls
having generally lower peaks than those
derived from very heavy rainfalls
 …cont’d
• The base period of the direct runoff is
not exactly the same for all storms of
the same durations but different
intensities.

• The UH theory cannot be applied

when a major portion of the storm is
in the from of snow.
 …cont’d
• The UH theory is not very accurate. The
accuracy obtained is +-10%

• A large number of UHs are required for a

catchment because as the unit duration
changes, the UH also changes. However, it
has been found in practice that the effect of
a small difference in unit duration is not
significant, and a tolerance of +-25% in unit
duration is acceptable.
Application of UH
• Once a UH for a duration T has been
developed for a basin, the storm
hydrograph for that basin for any other
storm of different intensity but the same
duration can be easily developed.

• The UH may be used for the development

of the maximum flood hydrograph for the
maximum rainfall for the design of
spillway and other hydraulic structures.
 Application of UH
• The available stream flow records can
be extended using the rainfall records
which are generally available for a
longer period.

• The UH can be used for flood

forecasting and flood warning based
on the observed rainfall in the basin.
 5min

6m/min

150m
25min

6m/min

150m