Chapter 5: Runof

Questions before class

1. What is baseflow ?
2. What simple structure we can put across a small stream to determine its flow/
discharge ?
3. What is Perennial stream, Intermittent stream and Ephemereal stream?
4. What is catchment characteristics ?
5. What is stream order
6. What is meant by the word Yield of a catchment ?
7. What is Excess Rainfall or Excess Precipitation
8. What is AMC (Antecedent Soil Moisture Condition)

9. What is weighted CN values?

Chapter 5: Runof
1. Runoff is flowing-off from precipitation in a catchment area, through a surface
channel.
- is output from a catchment in a given unit time.
2. When it rain, abstraction (evapotranspiration, initial losses, infiltrations and
detention storage)
must first be satisfied. Only after that we will have surface runoff.
3. Water that infiltrated into ground and return to the surface at some location away is
called thoroughflow, interflow, subsurface flow or quick return flow.
4. Water that infiltrated deep into the ground and reach groundwater storage is called
groundwater flow. Time taken from entry to reaching surface again can be many
months to many years.

5. Direct Runoff- also called storm runoff or direct storm runoff.

- It is part of runoff which enters the stream immediately after the
rainfall.
Baseflow
Natural Flow
(without

- The delayed flow that reaches the stream as groundwater flow

- Natural flow or virgin flow is streamflow in its natural condition
human intervention)
- Runoff represents the response of a catchment to precipitation.
- This response will be influenced by the integrated effects conditions

of
catchments (slope, landuse, topography, etc), climate and
rainfall characteristics.
- Natural flow in time t at a terminal point of a catchment can be
calculated using
Water Balance Equation below
RN = (R0 Vr) + Vd + E + Ex + S

Where:
RN = Natural flow in time t
R0 = Observed flow volume in time t at the terminal site
Vr = Volume of flow from irrigation, domestic water supply and
industrial use.
Vd = Volume directed out of stream for irrigation
E = Net evaporation losses from reservoirs on stream
Ex = Net export of water from basin
S = Change in storage volumes of water storage bodies on the
stream
6. Exercise on Example 5.1 (pg 166)
-The following table gives values of measured discharges at a stream gauging site in
a year.
- Upstream of the gauging site, a weir built across the stream diverts 3.0Mm 3 and
0.5Mm3 of water per
month for irrigation and for use in an industry respectively.
- The return flow from irrigation is estimated at 0.8Mm 3 and from industry at 0.3Mm3
reaching the upstream
-a. Estimate the natural flow
-b. If the catchment area is 180km2 and the average annual rainfall is 185cm,
determine the runoff-rainfall ratio.

Solution:
The natural flow volume in a month of R N is given by the equation below:
RN = (R0 Vr) + Vd + E + Ex + S
The value of E, Ex and S are insignificant and can be assumed to be 0
RN = (R0 Vr) + Vd
where:
Vr
= Volume of return flow from irrigation, domestic water
supply and industrial use
= 0.8 + 0.3 = 1.10 Mm3 (Million m3 = x106m3)
Vd
= Volume diverted out of stream for irigation, domestic water
supply and industrial use
= 3.0 + 0.5 = 3.5 Mm3

Calculation for month 1

RN = (R0 Vr) + Vd
= (2.0-1.10) + 3.5
= 4.4 Mm3

Calculation for months 1 to 12 are shown in the table below

Annual natural flow volume = Annual Runoff Volume = Total R N = 116.8 Mm3
= 1.168 x 108 m3
Area of catchment = 180 km2 = 180 x 106 m2 = 1.8 x 108 m2
Annual Runoff Depth = 1.168 x 108 m2 / 1.8 x 108 m2 = 0.649 m = 64.9 cm
Given Annual Rainfall = 185 cm
Runoff Rainfall Ratio = Runoff / Rainfall = 64.9cm / 185 cm = 0.35
What does Runoff Rainfall Ratio of 0.35 (35%) means ?
- It means 35% of all rainfall become runoff
- It means ___ % of all rainfall become abstraction (see drawings)
7. Hydrograph
- is a plot of discharge in a stream plotted against time
- Below is an example of Long Term Hydrograph. It can tell when big flood
might have occurred

there are also annual hydrograph, monthly hydrograph, seasonal

hydrograph and flood hydrograph

-

Annual or seasonal hydrograph are used for:

i. Calculating surface water potential of a stream

ii. Reservoir studies
iii. Drought studies
- Below is example of Annual Hydrograph in a Perennial Stream (contained
baseflow)

Flood Hydrograph focus only on streamflow during that flood event. It is

essential in analysing stream characteristics associated with floods.
Below is hydrograph in intermittent stream and ephemereal stream

8. There are 3 classes of streams.

i. Perennial Stream - Stream that always carries some flow, even during dry period.
- considerable groundwater flow into it
ii. Intermittent Stream
- There is contribution from groundwater flow, except in
dry season.
- During dry season, the river becomes dry.

iii. Ephemeral Stream

Dry River.

- Stream with zero baseflow contribution. It is also called

- The hydrograph will show series of short-duration spikes

marking flash flows in
response to storms.

9. The flow characteristics of a stream depends upon:

i. The rainfall characteristics magnitude, intensity, distribution (time,
space), variability.
ii. Catchment characteristics soil type, landuse, slope, geology, shape.
iii. Climate factors vapour pressure, temperature, wind, solar radiation
etc.
10.Catchment Characteristics
- A catchment is also known as drainage basin, watershed , or a river basin.
- Physical characteristics of the watershed includes area, shape, slope,
drainage channel pattern etc.
- Physical characteristics affect the volume of surface runoff and the shape
of runoff hydrograph for a catchment due to a storm
- Geomorphology is a study of catchment characteristics of a watershed.

11.Stream Order
- Is a classification reflecting pattern of branches that unite to form the
trunk stream(main stream)
- The smallest stream at the start is designated order 1, which later
produced order 2 etc.
- Below is a figure to explain about stream order

12.Runoff Volume (Yield)

- Yield is the total quantity of surface water that can be expected in a given
period from a stream at the outlet of its catchment

13.Rainfal Runoff Correlation

- The relationship between rainfall in a period and the corresponding runoff
is quite complex.
- It is influenced by a host of factors relating to the catchment and the
climate
- One of the most common methods is to correlate seasonal or annual
measured runoff values with corresponding rainfall values (P)
- A commonly adopted method is to fit a linear regression line between R
and P and to accept the result of the correlation coefficients is nearer
unity.
- The equation of the straight-line regression between runoff R and Rainfall
P is

R = aP + b
-

a and b are coefficients. Details are in book on page 174 (5.5.2:Rainfall

Runoff Correlation)

14.Empirical Equations and Tables (section 5.5.3, pg 177)

- The importance of estimating the water availability from the available
hydrologic data for purposes of planning water resources project was
recognised by engineer very early on.
- Many engineers have developed empirical runoff estimation formulas,
which is only valid for the region it was derived.
- These formulas are essentially rainfall-runoff relations with additional third
or fourth parameters to account for climatic or catchment characteristics
- Among important formulas developed are:
i. Binnies Percentage
ii. Barlows Table
iii. Stranges Table
iv. Inglis and De Souza Formula
v. Khoslas Formula
Details about these formulas are in the book page 178 184.
15.SCS CN Method for estimating Runoff Volume (section 5.6, pg 185)
- SCS-CN method was developed by Soil Conservation Services (SCS) of
USA in 1969. It computes abstraction from Storm-Rainfall
- This method is simple, predictable and stable conceptual method for
estimation of direct runoff depth based on storm rainfall depth.
- It relies on one parameter called Curve Number, CN.

16.SCS CN method is based on the Water Balance Equation of the rainfall in a known
interval of time t.
P = Ia + F + Q

Pe

where P = Total Precipitation

Ia = Initial Abstractions
F = Cumulative Infiltration (excluding Ia )
Q = Direct Surface Runoff

= Excess Precipitation / Excess Rainfall

= Part of rainfall that become surface runoff
= Initial Abstraction (intercepted by grass, wetting the groud, fill the

Ia
hollow on ground.
Fa = Continuing abstraction is continuing infiltration into ground

Excess Rainfall Part of rainfall that become surface runoff

Abstraction part of rainfall that do not become runoff (show it in a
drawing)

2 other concepts are also used. They are:

i.

The ratio of actual amount of Direct Runoff (Q) to Maximum Potential

Runoff (P-Ia) is equal to the ratio of the actual infiltration (F s) to the
potential maximum retention S
This proportionality can be shown as

Q
F
=
PIa S

where where P = Total Precipitation

Ia = Initial Abstractions
F = Cumulative Infiltration

(excluding Ia )
Q = Direct Surface Runoff
S = Potential Maximum Retention

ii. The amount of initial abstractions (Ia) is some fraction of the Potential
Maximum Retention (S)
Ia = S
After a detailed study involving hundreds of data, SCS adopted value
of 0.2 .
So the equation is:

Ia = 0.2 S
iii. The 3 available equations are now
a. P = Ia + F + Q
b.

Q
F
=
PIa S

c. Ia = 0.2 S

------------

eqn 1

eqn 2
------

eqn 3

iv. Combining equation 2 and 3 we get:

(P0.2 S)2
P+ 0.8 S

Q=0
Use t = 1 day,

for P > 0.2 S

for P 0.2S
so P = Daily Rainfall
Q = Daily Runoff

17.Curve Number CN
- The parameter S represents potential maximum retention (which is how
much water the
soil can hold)
-

S is dependent on
a. Soil type
b. Landuse and vegetation of the area
c. Antecedent soil moisture condition

From studies done on thousands and thousands of data, the equation that
relates S with CN values was produced:

S=
-

25400
254
CN

CN values can be between 0 and 100

CN = 100 means zero potential retention. All rainfall become surface
runoff
CN = 0 means all rainfall is retained and no surface runoff. An example is
a lake.
Figure below show the relationship between P and Pe (Excess
Precipitation=Surface runoff)

18.Soil Type:
-Soil are classified into four classes, A, B, C and D based on infiltration and other
characteristics (effective depth of soil, average clay content, permeability etc).
- The soil type will show the runoff potential (high infiltration rate like sand means
low runoff potential)
Explanation about each group are:
Group A Deep sand, depp loess, aggregated soils (high infiltration-Low
runoff potential)
Group B Shallow loess, sandy loam, red loamy soil (Moderately low
runoff potential)
Group C Clayey loam, shallow sandy loam, high in clay (Moderately high
runoff potential)
Group D Heavy plastic clays (low infiltration rate- High runoff potential)
Antecedent moisture condition (AMC) refers to moisture content present in the soil
at the beginning of the rainfall-runoff event under considerations.
3 levels of AMC are recognised by SCS and they are:
AMC-I
= Soil are dry, but not to wilting point
AMC-II
= Average conditions

AMC-III

= Sufficient rainfall has occurred within the immediate past 5

days. Saturated
soil condition prevail.

Table below show total rain amount in the past 5 days for the 3 AMC

19.Landuse
The CN values for various landuse and soil type A,B, C, and D are shown below.
These CN Values are for AMC-II and is called CN II

20.Conversion of CN
The conversion of CNII to two other AMC conditions can be made using the following
equations.
AMC-I

AMC-III

CN I =

CN II
2.2810.1281CN II
CN III =

CN II
0.4270.00573CN II

21.Solving the SCS-CN problems will require the following steps

i. Determine the weighted CN values (use Table 5.6a)

ii.

Calculate S using equation:

iii. Calculate Q using equation:

S=

25400
254
CN

( P0.2 S)2
P+ 0.8 S

22.Explanation from book about Procedure for Estimating Runoff Volume from a
catchment.

23.Example 5.5 (page 191)

In a 350 ha watershed, the CN value was assessed as 70 for AMC-III.
a) Estimate the value of direct runoff volume for the following 4 days of rainfall. The
AMC on July 1st was of category III. Use standard SCS-CN equations.
b) What would be the runoff volume if the CNIII values were 80?
c) What would be the runoff volume if the CNIII values were 90?

Solutions:
a) Given CNIII = 70

S=

25400
254
CN

25400
254
70
= 362.8 254
= 108.8
2

( P0.2 S)

P+ 0.8 S

for P > 0.2S > 0.2(108.8)

2

( P0.2(108.8))

P+ 0.8(108.8)
2

( P21.76)
P+87.04

for P > 21.76

Calculate Q for all the given 4 P for the 4 days

2

Q=

For July 1 P=50

(P21.76)
P+87.04
2

Q=
Do for all the 4 days

(5021.76)
50+87.04

= 5.81 mm

> 21.76

Total Q = 6.39 mm
Total Runoff Value over catchment

V r = 350 ha x 6.39 mm
= 350 x

10,000 m 2
1 ha

x 6.39 mm x

1m
1000 mm
= 22, 365 m3
b) Given CNIII = 80
S=
Q=
Calculate Q for all the 4 dates
July 1, Q =
July 2, Q =
July 3, Q =
July 4, Q =

Total Runoff volume over the catchment Vr = 350 ha x 10000m2/ha x 18.66mm

x 1m/1000mm
= 65,310 m3

24.Example 5.6

Equation 5.26 on

Solve Example 5.6 again if the area is 300 ha and soil is group D

25.Example 5.7

Solve Example 5.7 again if the watershed is 4000 ha and soil classification is 60%
group A and 40% group D

Homework #5 :
Revision Questions:
5.1, 5.5, 5.7
Problems:
5.1, 5.4, 5.7, 5.8, 5.10 and 5.13
Objective Questions:
5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4