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Hydrographs

Dr. Nitin Mohite

Civil Engineering Department,

College of Engineering Pune

Introduction

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Introduction
 Storm Hydrograph, Flood Hydrograph or Hydrograph.

 It is a graph showing the rate of flow (discharge) versus time

past a specific point in a river, or other channel or conduit
carrying flow.

 It can also called as a graph showing the volume of water

reaching a particular outfall.

Introduction
 Record of River Discharge (the level of water flowing down a
river channel) over a period of time, they show how certain
rivers respond to a rainstorm.

 River Discharge (the level of water flowing down a river) (is

calculated) = cross sectional area rivers mean (average)
velocity X (at a particular point in its course)

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Why Construct & Analyse Hydrographs ?

To find out discharge patterns of a particular drainage basin.

Help predict flooding events, therefore influence

implementation of flood prevention measures.

These graphs are commonly used in the design of

sewerage, more specifically, the design of surface water
sewerage systems and combined sewers.

Why Construct & Analyse Hydrographs ?

 To find out discharge patterns of a particular drainage basin.

 Help predict flooding events, therefore influence

implementation of flood prevention measures.

 These graphs are commonly used in the design of sewerage,

more specifically, the design of surface water sewerage
systems and combined sewers.

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Introduction

 Rainfall after initial losses and infiltration losses are met,

reaches the stream as runoff.

 There is time lag between the occurrence of rainfall and the

time, when it passes the gauging station.

Introduction
 Hydrograph due to isolated storm is typically single
peaked with skewed distribution of discharge.

 Commonly known as storm hydrographs, flood hydrographs

or simply hydrograph.

 Hydrograph is the response of a given catchment to a rainfall

input.

 It consists of all three phases of runoff viz.

Surface runoff
Interflow
Base flow 8

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Elements of Flood Hydrograph

B & D point of inflection

X X
B D

X
E

Component parts of Hydrogrpah

 Rising limb: The rising limb of hydro graph, also known as
concentration curve, reflects a prolonged increase in discharge
from a catchment area, typically in response to a rainfall event.
 Recession (or falling) limb: The recession limb extends from
the peak flow rate onward.
The end of storm flow (quick flow or direct runoff) and the
return to groundwater-derived flow (base flow) is often taken
as the point of inflection of the recession limb.
The recession limb represents the withdrawal of water from
the storage built up in the basin during the earlier phases of the
hydrograph.

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Component parts of Hydrogrpah

 Peak discharge: The highest point on the hydro graph when
the rate of discharge is greatest.

 Lag time: The time interval from the center of mass of rainfall
excess to the peak of the resulting hydrograph.

 Time to peak: The time interval from the start of the resulting
hydro graph.

 Discharge: The rate of flow (volume per unit time) passing a

specific location in a river or other channel
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Time Characteristics of a Hydrograph

1. Time to peak
• From beginning of rising limb to peak discharge
• Function of basin characteristics
• Drainage density, slope channel size, roughness and
soil infiltration characteristics
2. Time of concentration
• Time required for the farthermost rain to reach the outlet

3. Lag time or Basin lag time

• Between centre of mass of rainfall and runoff hydrograph mass.
• Since it is very difficult to find the center then it is the time between
centre of mass of effective rainfall to peak discharge
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Time Characteristics of a Hydrograph

4. Duration of rainfall

5. Base time of hydrographs

Other time periods (where attention is needed while deriving the flood
hydrograph)
1. Time of measurement of discharge
2. Rainfall intensity
3. Rainfall duration
4. Discharge rate

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Factor Affecting Flood Hydrographs

Sr. No Physiographic Factors Sr. Climatic Factors
No
1. Basin Characteristics 1. Storm Characteristics:
a) Shape Precipitation, Intensity,
b) Size duration, magnitude and
c) Slope movement of storm
d) Nature of the valley
e) Elevation
f) Drainage density
2. Infiltration Characteristics 2. Initial loss
a) Land use and cover
b) Soil type and geological condition
c) Lakes, swamps and other storage
3. Channel Characteristics : cross 3. Evapotranspiration
section, roughness and storage capacity 14

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Factor Affecting Flood Hydrographs

Shape of the basin:
It influences the time taken for water from the remote
parts of the catchment to arrive at the outlet.
 Size
Small basins and large basins behave differently due to
relative importance of overland flow and channel flow.

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Factor Affecting Flood Hydrographs

• Slope : It controls the velocity of the flow in the channel and affects the
steepness of recession limb.
• Drainage density: It is the ratio of the total channel length to total
channel area. High drainage density reflected in a pronounced peak.
• Land use : Vegetation and forests increase the infiltration and storage
capacity of soils and retards the overland flow.
• Climatic factors: Intensity, duration and direction of storm movement
are three important climatic factors, which affects the shape flood
hydrographs. Controlled mostly.

Controlled mostly Controlled mostly

by climatic factors by basin factors
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Base flow separation

 To draw surface runoff hydrograph, it is required to
separate base flow

 Methods
 Method-I
 Straight line method
N=0.83A^0.2
Line AB
 Method-II
Line ACB
 Method-III
Line AFE
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Effective rainfall or Rainfall Excess

 Hyetograph
(effective runoff hydrograph)
showing the direct runoff,
(initial losses and infiltration
losses are separated).
• Called as effective rainfall
hyetograph or hyetograph of
rainfall excess
• It is the rainfall which
contributed for direct runoff

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Effective rainfall or Rainfall Excess

 Effective rainfall (also known as
Excess rainfall) (ER) is that part
of the rainfall that becomes dire
runoff at the outlet of the
watershed.
 It is thus total rainfall in a given
duration from which abstractions
such as infiltration and initial
losses are subtracted.
 ER can be defined as that rainfall
that is neither retained on the land
surface nor infiltrated into the Losses
soil.

Effective rainfall Hyetograph (ERH)

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Effective rainfall or Rainfall Excess

 Fig shows the hyetograph of a storm.
The initial loss and infiltration losses
are subtracted from it . The resulting
hyetograph is known as Effective
rainfall hyetograph.
 Both DRH and ERH represent the
same total quantity but in different
units. Since 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 . The initial losses and
infiltration losses are estimated based Losses
on the available data of the
catchment.

Effective rainfall Hyetograph (ERH)

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Example

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Example

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Direct Runoff Hydrograph

• Direct response of rainfall

• Rainfall excess (over the surface)

• Rainfall excess= Total rainfall- losses

• = Total rainfall- Phy Index

• Effective rainfall= Rainfall excess + inter flow

• Effective rainfall = Rainfall excess.

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Effective rainfall Hyetogrpah

Total runoff in the catchment (cm)

Total runoff is x cm

Volume = Runoff x Area of catchment

= x cm x Area of catchment 25

Problem
• A storm over a catchment area of 5.0 km2 had a duration of 14
hours. The mass curve of rainfall of the storm is as follows:

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Unit Hydrograph
 It is DRH resulting from one unit depth of rainfall excess
occurring uniformly over the basin at uniform rate for a
specified duration of D hr.

 DRH

 Rainfall excess= runoff

 = 1 cm
 Volume of runoff= 1 x Area of catchment

 Rainfall intensity is constant (1cm).

 Duration D hr (2hr, 4 hr, 6 hr) intensity = 1/D cm/hr

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Unit Hydrograph
 A unit hydrograph is defined as the hydrograph of direct runoff
resulting from one unit (1 cm ) of rainfall excess occurring
uniformly over the basin and at a unit form rate for a specified
duration (D hours).

 DRH
 Rainfall excess= runoff

 Volume of runoff= 1 x Area of catchment

 Rainfall intensity is constant (1cm).

 Duration D hr (2hr, 4 hr, 6 hr)

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Unit Hydrograph
 The measurement of runoff works out to be a costly and more
time consuming process.

 Hence various methods has been used like RR models,

empirical, rational, soft computing etc…

 UNIT HYDROGRAPH METHOD – Introduced by Sherman

(1932)

 The unit hydrograph represents the lumped response of the

catchment to a unit rainfall excess of D-h duration to
produce a direct-runoff hydrograph.

 It relates only the direct runoff to the rainfall excess.

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Unit Hydrograph
 Hence the volume of water contained in the unit hydrograph
must be equal to the volume of rainfall excess.

 As 1 cm depth of rainfall excess is considered, the area of the

unit hydrograph is equal to a volume given by 1 cm over the
catchment for that duration.

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

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

 The distribution of the storm is considered to be uniform all

over the catchment.

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Basic assumptions of unit hydrograph

 Time invariance

This first basic assumption is that the direct-runoff response to a given effective
rainfall in a catchment is time-invariant.

This implies that the DRH for a given ER in a catchment is always the same
irrespective of when it occurs.

• Linear Response
• The direct-runoff response to the rainfall excess is assumed to be linear.

• This is the most important assumption of the unit-hydrograph theory.

• The Rainfall –runoff obeys the principles of superposition

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Application of unit hydrograph

• It is useful in calculating DRH (flood as well as

storm hydrograph) of a given storm occurred
for D hr.

• If a D hr duration UH is available, it is possible

to derive multiples of D hr duration unit
hydrograph

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Example
• It

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Example
• It

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Derivation of unit hydrographs

• Flood hydrographs used in the analysis should be selected

to meet the following desirable features with respect to the
storms responsible for them:

 The storms should be an isolated storm.

 The rainfall should be fairly uniform during the duration and should
cover the entire catchment area.

 The duration of the rainfall should be 1/5 to 1/3 of the basin lag.
(how will you estimate this?????)

 The rainfall excess of the selected storm should be high. A range ER

values of 1.0 to 4.0 cm is sometimes preferred.
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Steps on derivation of unit hydrographs

1. Collect the rainfall intensity, duration, and runoff values over a
period of time.

2. Plot the storm hydrograph.

3. Separate the base flow if any (use any one of the four methods) and
find the direct runoff

4. Find the volume of direct runoff from the DRH

5. Divide the volume of Direct runoff by area of the catchment to find

the rainfall excess.
6. Divide each and every DRH ordinates using the rainfall excess
7. The resulting ordinates are the ordinates of the UNIT
HYDROGRAPH
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Steps on derivation of unit hydrographs

1. Collect the rainfall intensity, duration, and runoff values

over a period of time.

2. Plot the storm hydrograph.

3. Separate the base flow if any (use any one of the four methods)
and find the direct runoff

4. Find the volume of direct runoff from the DRH

5. Divide the volume of Direct runoff by area of the catchment to

find the rainfall excess.
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Possible rainfall events to derive Unit

Hydrographs
1. Single storm of D hr duration

2. Complex storm or multiple storm

a. Multiple storm of each D hr duration (only magnitude varies)

b. Multiple storm of varying magnitude and varying duration

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Example
Example

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Example
Example

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Derivation of Unit hydrograph of

different durations from available D hr
unit hydrograph.

 Method of superposition
 Is suitable when m is an integer.

 Method of S- curve

 Is suitable when m is a fraction

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Derivation of Unit hydrograph of

different durations from available D hr
unit hydrograph.

 Method of superposition
 Is suitable when m is an integer.

 Method of S- curve

 Is suitable when m is a fraction

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Derivation of Unit hydrograph of different

durations from available D hr unit hydrograph.
1. Method of superposition
• Is suitable when m is an integer
• To solve this method a D hr Unit hydrograph is available
• Super impose m unit hydrographs with each hydrograph
lagged by D hr from the previous unit hydrograph
• The sum of ordinates of lagged hydrograph gives rise to
DRH of m cm in mD hr duration
• hus to derive the Unit hydrograph of mD hr divide the
DRH ordinates by m times. The resulting UH is for mD hr
UH

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Derivation of Unit hydrograph of different

durations from available D hr unit hydrograph.
Example: derive 30hr UH from 6 hr unit hydrograph

• Plot the 6 hr UH
• Plot 4 more such UH each one lagged by 6 hrs
• Add the ordinates- the resulting hydrograph is DRH for
5 cm in 30 hrs
• Divide the ordinates of DRH by 5 to arrive the UN of
30 hr duration.

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Derivation of Unit hydrograph of different

durations from available D hr unit hydrograph.
Example:

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Use of hydrographs

The development of flood hydrographs for

extreme rainfall magnitudes for use in the
design of hydraulic structures

Extension of flood-flow records based on

rainfall records and

Development of flood forecasting and warning

systems based on rainfall.
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Limitations of hydrographs
 It assumes uniform distribution of rainfall over the catchment.

 Intensity of rainfall is assumed constant for the duration of the

rainfall excess.

 Precipitation must be from rainfall only. Snow-melt runoff

cannot be satisfactorily represented by unit hydrograph.

 The catchment should not have unusually large storages in

terms of tanks, ponds, large flood-bank storages, etc. which
affect the line relationship between storage and discharge.

 For derivation of a Unit hydrograph the upper limit of basin

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area is 5000 km2 and lower limit is 200 ha.

Rainfall duration of a Unit Hydrograph

A rough guide for the choice of duration D is

that it should not exceed the least of
(i) Time to peak or time of rising limb

(ii) basin lag – best time is ¼ of basin lag

(iii) time of concentration

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Distribution Graph

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Distribution Graph

 Introduced by Bernad (1935)

Is the variation of the unit hydrograph ordinates with respect to the total runoff.

 D hr UH with ordinates showing the percentage of the

surface runoff.

 In this graph the base time interval must be equal to the

duration of rainfall.

  The total are of the distribution graph works out to be

100% 50

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What is the Use of this Distribution Graph

These are more useful in comparing the runoff

characteristics of different catchments, which are
hydrologically similar.

Also useful in establishing the UH for the un-

gauged basins

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Synthetic Unit Hydrograph

 Is a technique to derive UH for a poorly gauged or un gauged basin
from a known (gauged) hydrologicaly similar basins.

 Synder’s (1938) method is first method and widely used method.

 How ever to derive this SUH for the un-gauged basin atleast the
basin characteristics are available.

 Synder first studied the Appalachian Highlands in USA and

developed the SUH.

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Synthetic Unit Hydrograph

 The same was modified to suit other basin in other countries and
was named as Synder’s Unit Hydrograph.

 In this method, estimate the parameters of the UH from the gauged

Basin and apply that parameters to the un-gauged basin

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Important parameters and constants in SUH

1. Time to peak

2. Standard duration of the rainfall

3. Peak discharge estimation

4. Base time of the unit hydrograph

5. Width of UH at 50% and 75% of the peak

discharge 54

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Important parameters and constants in SUH

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Self Study

? Dimensionless hydrograph
• SCS Dimensionless Unit Hydrograph
• SCS triangular hydrograph

? Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph

? Time Area (TA) and Time-Area-Concentration (TCA)

diagram

? Solve all the questions and problems given in the class

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Self Study
1. Estimation of accurate base flow.

2. Separation of base-flow and inter-flow

3. Application of Artificial Intelligence in deriving UH from

storm hydrographs

4. Establishment of UH for un-gauged basins

5. Methods of integrating UH of large basins.

6. Derivation of IUH using GIS and RS 57

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