Transforming the Runof

E J Peters 2015

 MODULE 2:Hydrograph Analysis

UNIT 2:UNIT Hydrograph (UH)
OBJECTIVES
The student should be able to:

Represent graphically the UH

Estimate excess rain from a storm
Separate baseflow from direct runoff
on a hydrograph

Derive a UH from direct runoff data,

watershed area, and baseflow
information

E J Peters 2015

Slide 2 of 65
E J Peters 2015

Unit hydrograph (UH)

Sherman (1934) originally advanced
the theory of the unit hydrograph.
That is a basin outflow resulting from
one inch, one cm, one mm etc. of
runoff generated uniformly over the
drainage area at a uniform rainfall
during the specified period
UH theory can be summarized as
the hydrologic system is linear and
time invariant (Dooge, 1973)
E J Peters 2015

The Basic Process

Necessary for a
single basin

Unit
Hydrographs

Excess Precip.
Model

Excess Precip.

Excess Precip.

Basin Routing
UHG Methods

Runoff
Hydrograph

Runoff
Hydrograph

Stream and/or
Reservoir
Routing

Downstream
Hydrograph

E J Peters 2015

Assumptions
Rainfall excesses of equal duration
produce hydrographs with equivalent
time base regardless of intensity
Direct runoff ordinates for a storm of
given duration are directly proportional
to rainfall excess volumes.( 3 times the
rainfall would triple hydrograph
ordinates)
Time distribution of direct runoff is
independent of antecedent precipitation
Distribution is the same for all storms of
equal duration (spatially and temporally)
E J Peters 2015

Abstraction (Losses) Estimation

Phi Index Method
Excess (effective)
rainfall
Rainfall that is not retained or
infiltrated
Becomes direct runof
Excess rainfall hyetograph
(excess rainfall vs time)

rd Rm t
m 1

Abstraction (losses)
Diference between total and
excess rainfall hyetographs

Phi Index
Constant rate of abstraction
yielding excess rainfall
hyetograph with depth equal
to depth of direct runof

rd depth of direct runoff

Rm observed rainfall

Phi index
M # intervals of rainfall
contributing to driect runoff
t time interval

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Phi index of 2 cm

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E J Peters 2015

Graphical representation

E J Peters 2015

Step : Separate the baseflow to

obtain the surface runof

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Semi-log Plot
100000

10000

Recession side of hydrograph

becomes linear at approximately hour
64.

Flow (cfs)

1000

100

10

Time (hrs.)

E J Peters 2015

E J Peters 2015

The Unit Hydrograph

E J Peters 2015

Unit Hydrograph
Lingo

Duration

Lag Time
Time of Concentration
Rising Limb
Recession Limb (falling limb)
Peak Flow
Time to Peak (rise time)
Recession Curve
Separation
Base flow
E J Peters 2015

E J Peters 2015

S u r fa c e r u n o ff,R E ffe c tiv e r a in

Unit hydrograph
1
T
Volumeofsurfacerunoff
=areaunderhydrograph

=volumeofeffectiverainfall

Time
E J Peters 2015

Principle of linearity

2
0.25

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E J Peters 2015

Surface
runoff

E ffective
rainfall

Principle of superposition
R1

R2

T 2T
SR 2
SR 1

E J Peters 2015

Time

E J Peters 2015

Obtain the surface

response

E J Peters 2015

Selecting storms for deriving

the Unit Hydrograph
Storms that occur individually, simple storm
structure
Storms that have uniform distribution of
rainfall throughout the period of rainfall excess
Storms that have a uniform spatial distribution
over the entire watershed
Duration of the rainfall excess should be
approximately 25-30% of the lag time t p
Direct runof should be between 0.5 to 1.75
cm
E J Peters 2015

Effectiverain

Application of a unit hydrograph

demonstrating superposition, linearity and lagging

2T

Surfacerunoff

Totalsurfacerunoff

SR1(surfacerunoffduetoR1)

SR2(surfacerunoffduetoR2)

Time

2T
E J Peters 2015

Effectiverain(cm
)

2
1.5
1
0.5
0
100
90

3s1)
Surfacerunoff(m

80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0

5
6
7
Time(hours)

E J Peters 2015

10

11

12

Changing the unit

Hydrograph duration

E J Peters 2015

Time
(hr)

Q(m3s-1)

Q BF (m3s-1)
(direct runoff)

100

100

300

200

500

300

900

700

1200

1100

1150

1050

950

850

600

500

450

350

10

300

200

11

200

100

12

100

13

100

EXAMPLE:
FOR AN E

The base flow is estimated as 100 m3sSubtract baseflow from column to give
column (3)
The gauge readings at the station for
the storm are shown n column (2)

E J Peters 2015

Unit Hydrograph
summary
The unit hydrograph results from 1cm, 1
in or 1 mm of excess precipitation (or
runof) spread uniformly in space and
time over a watershed a given duration.
The key points
1unit of EXCESS rain
Spread uniformly over space- evenly
distributed over the watershed
Uniformly in time
There is a given duration
E J Peters 2015

Rule of thumb for using

UH

Storm should be fairly uniform in nature

Excess precipitation fairly uniform in basin
Initial conditions generally similar in basin
No breaks or periods of no precipitation
during storm
Storm produces 1 unit of excess
precipitation ie area under hydrograph
after correcting for base flow= 1unit
E J Peters 2015

The one-hour unit hydrograph for a watershed is given

below
(a)
Estimate the hydrograph from a storm of two
hours duration with an excess precipitation rate of
0.5 cm/hr for the first hour and 0.3 cm/hr for the
second hour.
(b)
Develop a 2 hour unit hydrograph for this
watershed.
Time (hr)
0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0

Q (m3s)
0
80
120
200
100
50
0

E J Peters 2015

E J Peters 2015

Summary
Unit hydrographs
The first thing to remember when using unit
hydrographs is that they relate effective rainfall
to surface runoff. If you are given total rainfall
amounts, you will need to determine efective
rainfall before doing anything else. In practice this
can be done either by using a constant loss (e.g.
phi-index) or by using Hortonian infiltration. (Refer
back to infiltration lecture notes.)
In this case you are provided with total rainfall
depths, and are told that the phi-index = 0.6 cm hr
-1 . So, efective rainfall is simply the total rainfall
depth (in each hour) minus the infiltrated amount
as given by the phi-index.
E J Peters 2015

Summary
The unit hydrograph ordinates are multiplied by
the efective rainfall to compute the surface runof
arising from that rainfall. This procedure is
repeated for each individual hour of rain.
Remember that the runoff amounts arising
from rainfall falling in the second hour must
be lagged by one hour, the runoff arising
from rainfall falling in the third hour must be
lagged by two hours and so on - this
accounts for the zeroes in the middle portion
of the table.
This is the second thing to remember when dealing
with unit hydrographs!
E J Peters 2015

Summary

E J Peters 2015