Floods and Water Excess

Management
Design Storm
• A design storm is a precipitation pattern defined for use in the design of a
hydrologic system
• It serves as the system input
• The resulting rates of flow through the system are calculated using rainfall-
runoff and flow routing procedures
• Precipitation depth in the form of a design hyetograph (point data) or
isohyetal map (spatial pattern)
 Point Precipitation
• Point precipitation is precipitation occurring at a single point in space

• For frequency analysis, the annual maximum precipitation for a given duration is selected
for each year of historical record

• This process is repeated for each of a series of durations

• For each duration, frequency analysis is performed on the data to derive the design
precipitation depths for various return periods

• The design depths are then converted to intensities by dividing by the precipitation duration

• Isohyetal maps are then prepared for various durations

 Areal Precipitation Depth
• Point precipitation is precipitation occurring at a single point in space

• For frequency analysis, the annual maximum precipitation for a given duration is selected for
each year of historical record

• This process is repeated for each of a series of durations

• For each duration, frequency analysis is performed on the data to derive the design
precipitation depths for various return periods

• The design depths are then converted to intensities by dividing by the precipitation duration

• Isohyetal maps are then prepared for various durations

Areal Precipitation Depth

Depth-area relationships for various

durations (Ref. fig) are derived by a
depth-area-duration analysis
Intensity–Duration Curve
Intensity-Duration-Frequency
Relationship
• It is a three parameter curve that relates the intensity (or depth), duration
and frequency (or return period) of precipitation at a location
• The frequency is usually expressed in terms of return period, T, which is the
average length of time between precipitation events that equal or exceed
the design magnitude
 The isohyets due to a storm in a catchment were
drawn and the area of the catchment bounded by
isohyets were tabulated as below.

Estimate the mean precipitation due to the storm

Peak flood estimation
It provides only the peak discharge values
• Rational method
• Empirical Formulae
• Unit hydrograph method
• Flood Frequency analysis
Rational method
Assumption
• A rainfall of uniform intensity and
a very long duration occurs over
the entire basin

Hydrograph characteristics
• The discharge gradually increases from zero and attains a constant value (peak)
and continues till the cessation of the rainfall
• The peak value is attained at time t = tc
Time of concentration
• US practice • Kirpich equation

• Lca – distance along the stream from the

outlet to a point on the stream nearest
to the centroid of the basin (km) • Alternatively written as
• L – stream length measured from the
basin divide to the outlet
• S – basin slope
• CtL & n – basin constants
Rainfall intensity
• Derived from IDF curves
• Alternatively, computed using equation

• T – return period
• tc – time of concentration
• K, x, a, n are coefficients specific to an area
Runoff coefficient
• Runoff coefficient represents the combination of all losses

• It depends on the soil characteristics, slope, land use vegetation & rainfall
intensity

• However, in most cases it is assumed to be independent of rainfall

intensity

• Equivalent runoff coefficient for a catchment with N-homogeneous sub-

catchments is given as
Empirical Formulae

Dickens Formula (1865)

Ryves Formula (1884)

Inglis Formula
(1930)
Flood Frequency analysis
• The values of the annual maximum flood from a given catchment area for large number of
successive years constitute a hydrologic data series called the annual series

• The data are then arranged in decreasing order of magnitude and the probability P of each event
being equaled to or exceeded (plotting position) is calculated by the plotting-position formula

• The recurrence interval, T (also called the return period or

frequency) is calculated as

• The probability of occurrence of the event r times in n

successive years is given by
 Flood Frequency analysis
A plot of Q vs T yields the probability
distribution
Chow (1951) has shown that most frequency distribution
functions applicable in hydrologic studies can be expressed by
the following equation known as the general equation of
hydrologic frequency analysis:

where
XT = value of the variate X of a random hydrologic series with a return period T,
= mean of the variate,
σ = standard deviation of the variate,
K = frequency factor which depends upon the return period, T and the assumed frequency distribution

Some of the commonly used frequency distribution functions for the predication of extreme flood values are

𝐾 𝑇 =−
𝜋 [ [ ( )]]
√ 6 0.5772+ ln ln 𝑇
𝑇 −1
• Given: 30 years rainfall data (in mm) for 0.5 hour storm duration. Determine the rainfall
depth for the return period of 5 years

47 67 62 61 46 69 41 68 70 50
61 69 46 62 54 65 46 68 52 47
62 55 69 61 68 68 46 43 65 67

• n = 30 , mean= 58.5 mm, std. dev= 9.63 mm

• Frequency factor (from table) K5=0.866

X T  X  KT 

X 5  58.5  0.866  9.63  66.84 mm

Empirical Formulae
Design Flood Flood adopted for the design of a structure

Spillway Design Flood

• Design flood used for the specific purpose of designing the spillway of a storage structure
• This term is frequently used to denote the maximum discharge that can be passed in a hydraulic
structure without any damage or serious threat to the stability of the structure
Standard Project Flood (SPF)
The flood that would result from a severe combination of meteorological and hydrological
factors that are reasonably applicable to the region. Extremely rare combinations of factors are
excluded
Probable Maximum Flood (PMF)
The extreme flood that is physically possible in a region as a result of severe most combinations,
including rare combinations of meteorological and hydrological factors

IS 5477 : Part 4 : 2019 – recommendation

Choice of design flood

IS 5477 : Part 4 : 2019 – recommendation

Inflow Design Flood of a structure, depending on its importance or risk involved.
Any one of the following
Probable Maximum Flood (PMF)
Standard Project Flood (SPF)
Flood of a specific return period
 vere combination of meteorological and hydrological factors that are reasonably applicable to the region. Extremely rare combinations of factors are excluded.

The flood that would result from a se vere combination of

meteorological and hydrological factors that are reasonably
The flood that would result from a
applicable to the region.
se Extremely rare combinations of factors
are excluded