TECHNICAL NOTES

Hydrology-Based Approach to Storm Water Detention Basin

Design Using New Routing Schemes
James C. Y. Guo, P.E.1
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Abstract: The design of a storm water detention basin requires both hydrologic and hydraulic information. The basic hydrologic data
include the inflow hydrograph and the allowable release. The hydraulic information of a basin requires prior knowledge of the basin
geometry and outlet structures. With a known storage-outflow curve, the performance of the basin can be examined using a reservoir
routing procedure. During the planning stage, a series of feasible basin sites is typically investigated for comparison and selection. During
a feasibility study, the engineer faces a challenge as to how to derive the required storage-outflow curve when little hydraulic information
is known. This paper presents a hydrology-based approach by which the storage-outflow curve can be approximated from the inflow
hydrograph to the basin and the maximum allowable release from the basin. This hydrologic procedure significantly simplifies the storm
water detention modeling technique and is a useful tool for regional drainage planning and alternative studies. In addition, this paper
rearranges the continuity principle to derive two new reservoir routing functions. Both functions provide a direct solution using all
variables at the same time step without iteration. The selection of routing functions is a matter of mathematical convenience.
DOI: 10.1061/共ASCE兲1084-0699共2004兲9:4共333兲
CE Database subject headings: Hydrographs; Flood routing; Stormwater; Detention basins; Hydrologic data.

Introduction drologic information at a basin location is readily available, but

not the hydraulic information, because the detailed detention
In the development of a metropolitan area, storm water drainage
basin geometry and outlet works have not yet been developed.
planning is one of the major tasks for the preservation of the
Therefore, it is imperative that a hydrology-based approach be
urban water environment 共ASCE 1994兲. A storm water drainage
developed to approximate the proposed detention basin character-
system consists of conveyance and storage facilities. Detention
istic curves for the purpose of initial assessments.
and retention basins are the major storage facilities designed for
This paper presents such a hydrology-based approach that re-
storm water quantity and quality controls. Between storage basins
quires only the inflow hydrograph and the maximum allowable
are conveyance facilities such as pipes and channels. Storage fa-
release rate to assess the detention storage volume and also to
cilities in a drainage network should be placed at strategic loca-
perform the reservoir routing through the proposed detention
tions in order to effectively attenuate the peak flood flows. In
basin. The algorithm provides a simple and quantifiable basis for
order to achieve an overall optimization of costs and benefits, it is
comparisons among various storm water detention alternatives
necessary to evaluate all feasible combinations of basin locations,
without any knowledge of basin shape and outlet structures. After
storage volumes, and allowable release rates 共Guo and Urbonas
having finalized the alternative selection, the detention basin
1996; McCuen 1998兲. Decision making relies on the impact as-
under design can further be refined when more detailed informa-
sessments by numerical simulations for the entire watershed with
tion becomes available.
and without the proposed drainage facilities. To numerically
The performance of a basin is examined by a reservoir routing
model a detention basin using a watershed model such as HEC-1
procedure. In this paper, the continuity principle is rearranged to
共HEC 1980兲, the performance of a detention basin must be de-
provide two new routing functions, one providing solutions by
picted by its characteristic curves, including the stage-storage and
storage volume, and the other in terms of flow rate. The numerical
the stage-outflow relationships. The derivation of the basin char-
algorithm using the new routing functions generates a direct so-
acteristic curves requires detailed knowledge of the basin shape,
lution using all variables at the same time step without an itera-
outlet structure, and tailwater. During a feasibility study, the hy-
tion. The selection of these two routing functions is up to math-
1
ematical convenience.
PhD, Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Colorado at
Denver, Campus Box 113, 1200 Larimer St., Denver, CO 80217-3364.
E-mail: [email protected]
Hydrologic Method for Storage-Outflow Curve
Note. Discussion open until December 1, 2004. Separate discussions
must be submitted for individual papers. To extend the closing date by
A detention basin is designed to reduce the peak inflow by tem-
one month, a written request must be filed with the ASCE Managing
Editor. The manuscript for this technical note was submitted for review porarily storing the excess storm water and then releasing the
and possible publication on September 27, 2002; approved on November water volume at allowable rates over an extended period. As il-
10, 2003. This technical note is part of the Journal of Hydrologic Engi- lustrated in Fig. 1, whenever the inflow exceeds the channel de-
neering, Vol. 9, No. 4, July 1, 2004. ©ASCE, ISSN 1084-0699/2004/4- livery capacity, Q b , the excess water is diverted into a detention
333–336/$18.00. basin for temporary storage. Many diversion devices have been

JOURNAL OF HYDROLOGIC ENGINEERING © ASCE / JULY/AUGUST 2004 / 333

J. Hydrol. Eng. 2004.9:333-336.

 Fig. 1. Storage-outflow curve by runoff hydrograph method Fig. 2. Graphic solution for reservoir routing using SO function
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developed for on- and off-line detention basins. The maximum and storage volume. At each time step, the inflow hydrograph
allowable release rate, Q a , from a detention system is dictated by prescribes the inflow rates to the detention basin and the storage-
the downstream critical conveyance capacity or the local design outflow curve dictates the release from the basin. The variation of
criteria applied to the tributary watershed. For instance, the maxi- storage volume in the basin is described as
mum allowable release recommended for the Denver metropoli-
tan area is approximately one cfs per acre for the 100-year event I 共 t 兲 ⫹I 共 t⫹⌬t 兲 O 共 t 兲 ⫹O 共 t⫹⌬t 兲 S 共 t⫹⌬t 兲 ⫺S 共 t 兲
⫺ ⫽ (4)
共Urban 2001兲. The required storage capacity is the volume differ- 2 2 ⌬t
ence between the inflow and outflow hydrographs prior to the Rearranging Eq. 共4兲 yields
occurrence of the maximum allowable flow rate.
As illustrated in Fig. 1, without any knowledge of the outlet O 共 t⫹⌬t 兲 ⌬t⫹2S 共 t⫹⌬t 兲 ⫽ 关 I 共 t 兲 ⫹I 共 t⫹⌬t 兲 ⫺O 共 t 兲兴 ⌬t⫹2S 共 t 兲
structures, the required detention storage volume can be approxi- (5)
mated by a linear outflow hydrograph that has a linear rising limb In this study, two new reservoir routing functions are derived
from the channel capacity, Q b , to the maximum allowable release to solve Eq. 共5兲. They are the storage routing function and the
rate, Q a , on the recession of the inflow hydrograph 共Malcom outflow routing function. Both routing functions require prior
1982; Guo 1999, 2001兲. As a result, the outflow rates on the rising knowledge of the storage-outflow curve. During the preliminary
limb can be expressed as stage, Eqs. 共1兲 and 共2兲 provide the approximate storage-outflow

冋 册
relationship. Of course, the final pairs (S,O) can be refined after
共 O a ⫺O b 兲
O共 T 兲⫽ O b⫹ T for 0⭐T⭐T p (1) the basin shape, outlet work, and tailwater effects become known.
Tp Although these two routing functions are formulated in different
in which O(T)⫽outflow rate at time T; and T p ⫽time to the maxi- ways, both produce the same outflow hydrograph. The selection
mum allowable release. For an on-line basin, the value of Q b of a routing method is a matter of convenience. Details are dis-
⫽0.0. The accumulated storage volume, S(T), at time T is the cussed as follows.
difference between the inflow hydrograph and the rising limb of
the outflow hydrograph as Storage Routing Function
t⫽T

兺 关 I 共 t 兲 ⫺O 共 t 兲兴 ⌬t
Let the storage routing function, or SO function, be defined as
S共 T 兲⫽ for 0⭐t⭐T and 0⭐T⭐T p
t⫽0 SO⫽2S⫹O⌬t (6)
(2)
in which SO⫽storage volume; and ⌬t⫽time increment. The stor-
in which S(T)⫽cumulative storage volume at time T; age routing function is formed by pairs (S,O) to provide solu-
I(t)⫽inflow rate at time t; and ⌬t⫽time increment. As illustrated tions in terms of storage volume. As shown in Fig. 3, both the
in Fig. 1, the basin storage volume, S s , is equal to the total routing function and the storage-outflow curve can be plotted ver-
cumulative storage volume at T⫽T p as sus outflow. In order to apply Eq. 共6兲 to determine the outflow,
S s ⫽S 共 T p 兲 (3) Eq. 共5兲 is rearranged as
The pairs of storage volume and outflow, (S,O), described by 关 2S 共 t⫹⌬t 兲 ⫹O 共 t⫹⌬t 兲 ⌬t 兴 ⫽ 关 I 共 t 兲 ⫹I 共 t⫹⌬t 兲 ⫺2O 共 t 兲兴 ⌬t
Eqs. 共1兲 and 共2兲 represent the ideal relationship between the in-
flow and outflow hydrographs and serve as the target for the basin ⫹ 关 2S 共 t 兲 ⫹O 共 t 兲 ⌬t 兴 (7)
shape and outlet designs. In this paper, Eqs. 共1兲 and 共2兲 are rec- Aided by Eq. 共6兲, Eq. 共7兲 implies that the flow volumes at time t
ommended as the preliminary storage-outflow curve for the basin and t⫹⌬t can be related to the SO function as
under design, and the design procedure using the pairs, (S,O), for
preliminary basin assessment has been adopted by the Urban SO 共 t⫹⌬t 兲 ⫽ 关 I 共 t 兲 ⫹I 共 t⫹⌬t 兲 ⫺2O 共 t 兲兴 ⌬t⫹SO 共 t 兲 (8)
Storm Water Design Criteria Manual for Denver, Colorado The value of SO(t⫹⌬t) in Eq. 共8兲 is prescribed by the known
共Urban 2001兲. variables of I(t), I(t⫹⌬t), O(t), and SO(t), at time t. The so-
lution for the two unknowns, O(t⫹⌬t) and S(t⫹⌬t), is the pair
(S,O) that has an SO function value to satisfy
Reservoir Routing Functions
SO 共 t⫹⌬t 兲 ⫽2S 共 t⫹⌬t 兲 ⫹O 共 t⫹⌬t 兲 ⌬t (9)
A reservoir routing procedure applies the finite-difference scheme Fig. 2 illustrates how (S,O) pairs can be graphically deter-
to solve the continuity principle among inflow rate, outflow rate, mined. This algorithm using the SO function provides direct so-

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J. Hydrol. Eng. 2004.9:333-336.

 Table 1. (S,O) Pairs and SO Function for Design Example
Outflow linear
Inflow rising Cumulative
hydrograph, hydrograph, volume, SO function,
Time I O 关Eq. 共1)] S 关Eq. 共2兲兴 SO 关Eq. 共6兲兴
共min兲 共cfs兲 (cfs兲 共acre-ft兲 共acre-ft兲
0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
5.00 4.00 2.00 0.01 0.03
10.00 10.00 7.23 0.03 0.11
15.00 23.20 10.85 0.12 0.31
20.00 52.00 14.46 0.38 0.86
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25.00 110.00 18.08 1.01 2.14

Fig. 3. Graphic solution for reservoir routing using OS function 30.00 165.00 21.69 2.00 4.15
35.00 185.00 25.31 3.10 6.37
40.00 150.00 28.92 3.93 8.06
45.00 120.00 32.54 4.53 9.28
lutions without any numerical iteration. Eq. 共8兲 requires an initial 50.00 90.00 36.15 4.90 10.05
condition. For a dry pond, both O(t⫽0)⫽0 and SO(t⫽0)⫽0. 55.00 75.00 39.77 5.15 10.57
Otherwise, a permanent pool volume and the trickle flow shall be
60.00 58.00 43.38 5.25 10.80
used to initiate the numerical calculations 共Guo and Urbonas
65.00 48.00 47.00 5.30 10.92
2002兲. Repeating Eqs. 共8兲 and 共9兲 for the following time step, the
70.00 35.00 N/A N/A N/A
complete outflow hydrograph can be generated.
75.00 28.00 N/A N/A N/A
Note: N/A, not applicable.
Outflow Routing Function
Design Example
Let the outflow routing function, or OS function, be defined as
The design example illustrated in Fig. 4 is related to a road-side
2S ditch that carries the storm water generated from a tributary area
OS⫽O⫹ (10)
⌬t of 62 acres. The runoff coefficient for the tributary area is 0.68.
in which OS⫽outflow amount. The outflow routing function, or The maximum allowable release from the tributary area is limited
OS function, is formed by pairs (S,O) to provide the solutions in to 15 cfs through the roadside ditch. For this example, the Colo-
terms of outflow rate. Similarly, Eq. 共5兲 can be rearranged in rado Urban Hydrograph procedure 共Urban 2001兲 was employed
terms of the OS function as to generate the 100-year inflow hydrograph from the watershed.
After subtracting the on-line release of 15 cfs, the diverted hy-
OS 共 t⫹⌬t 兲 ⫽ 关 I 共 t 兲 ⫹I 共 t⫹⌬t 兲 ⫺2O 共 t 兲兴 ⫹OS 共 t 兲 (11) drograph is presented in Table 1. The maximum allowable release
For each time step, the value of the OS function at (t⫹⌬t) from the basin is set to be 47 acres. With an assumed linear rising
can be determined by Eq. 共11兲, and the solution is the pair that outflow hydrograph, the pairs (S,O) are derived by Eqs. 共1兲 and
satisfies 共2兲 and their SO function values in acre-ft are calculated by

2S 共 t⫹⌬t 兲 O * 300
OS 共 t⫹⌬t 兲 ⫽ ⫹O 共 t⫹⌬t 兲 (12) SO⫽2S⫹ (13)
⌬t 43560

The graphic solution using the OS function is illustrated in Fig. 3. Table 2 is an example of the hydrograph routing procedure
These two new routing functions are superior to the modified Puls using the SO function developed in Table 1. The initial condition
method or storage indication method 共Puls 1928; Bedient and was a dry pond. At each time step, Eq. 共8兲 defines the value of the
Huber 1992兲 because both functions provide the solutions without SO function for the next time step, and the solution for the next
a time lag, ⌬t, between storage and outflow variables. Numeri- time step is the pair (S,O) that satisfies the prescribed SO func-
cally, both SO and OS routing functions are equivalent to an tion value by Eq. 共9兲. As shown in Table 2, a minor numerical
implicit scheme, but they do not require any iterative procedure. difference may exist between Eqs. 共8兲 and 共9兲, depending on the
error tolerance in the numerical scheme. It is interesting to ob-
serve that the storage volume dictates the value of the SO func-
tion. As a result, the prescribed value by Eq. 共8兲 provides a good
guidance to determine the pair (S,O) at t⫹⌬t. For instance,
Table 2 indicates that the storage volume is only slightly less than
50% of the prescribed value. This numerical relationship is due to
the factor of two associated with the storage value in Eq. 共9兲. For
this example, the hydrograph routing procedure verifies that the
basin under design will produce a peak outflow of 48 cfs and a
peak storage volume of 5.34 acre-ft.

Conclusion

1. A hydrology-based reservoir routing algorithm was derived

Fig. 4. Example drainage system
in this paper for estimating the required storm water deten-

JOURNAL OF HYDROLOGIC ENGINEERING © ASCE / JULY/AUGUST 2004 / 335

J. Hydrol. Eng. 2004.9:333-336.

 Table 2. Example Hydrograph Routing Using SO Function Jon Jones, President, Wright Water Engineers Inc., Denver, Colo-
Solution pair (S,O) rado, for their review and suggestions. Mr. Ken MacKenzie of
Value of Prescribed UDFCD and the writer have jointly developed an Excel Spread-
Time, Inflow, Outflow, Storage, SO function SO function
sheet computer model, UD-DETENTION, that can be down-
t I O S 关Eq. 共9)] 关Eq. 共8兲兴
loaded with many other Excel Spreadsheets from the web site:
共min兲 共cfs兲 共cfs兲 共acre-ft兲 (acre-ft兲 共acre-ft兲
http://www.udfcd.org.
0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
5.00 4.00 2.00 0.01 0.03 0.03
10.00 10.00 7.00 0.03 0.11 0.10 Notation
15.00 23.20 10.00 0.09 0.25 0.23
20.00 52.00 12.00 0.25 0.58 0.61 The following symbols are used in this technical note:
dt ⫽ time increment, same as ⌬t;
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25.00 110.00 16.00 0.71 1.53 1.56

30.00 165.00 20.00 1.55 3.24 3.23 I(t) ⫽ inflow rate at time t;
35.00 185.00 24.00 2.60 5.37 5.37 O a ⫽ maximum allowable release rate;
40.00 150.00 27.00 3.57 7.33 7.34 O b ⫽ channel capacity to trigger diversion flow;
45.00 120.00 30.00 4.30 8.81 8.83 O(t) ⫽ outflow rate at time t;
50.00 90.00 35.00 4.80 9.84 9.87 OS ⫽ outflow function;
55.00 75.00 39.00 5.13 10.53 10.52 Q p ⫽ peak inflow;
60.00 58.00 44.00 5.30 10.90 10.90 S s ⫽ design storage volume;
65.00 45.00 48.00 5.34 11.01 11.00 S(t) ⫽ storage volume at time t;
70.00 35.00 44.00 5.30 10.90 10.89 SO ⫽ storage function;
75.00 28.00 42.00 5.20 10.69 10.72 T ⫽ time;
80.00 22.00 38.00 5.10 10.46 10.48 T b ⫽ time to start diversion flow;
85.00 17.00 37.00 5.00 10.25 10.23 T p ⫽ time to peak on outflow hydrograph;
90.00 13.00 36.00 4.86 9.97 9.93 t ⫽ time variable; and
95.00 11.00 34.00 4.70 9.63 9.60 ⌬t ⫽ time increment.

tion volume. From the inflow and linear outflow hydro- References
graphs, the storage-outflow curve can be estimated for the
basin under design. This hydrology-based approach offers a ASCE. 共1994兲. Design and construction of urban stormwater manage-
useful planning tool for alternative and site comparisons dur- ment system, New York.
ing a feasibility study. Bedient, P. B., and Huber, W. C. 共1992兲. Hydrology and floodplain analy-
2. Without knowing the details of outlet hydraulics and basin sis, 2nd Ed., Addison-Wesley, New York.
geometry, the pairs of storage volume and outflow rate de- Guo, J. C. Y. 共1999兲. ‘‘Detention storage volume for small urban catch-
rived from the inflow and linear outflow hydrographs can be ments.’’ J. Water Resour. Plan. Manage., 125共6兲, 380–382.
Guo, J. C. Y. 共2001兲. ‘‘Rational hydrograph method for small urban wa-
converted into either a storage (SO) or outflow (OS) rout-
tersheds.’’ J. Hydrologic Eng., 6共4兲, 352–356.
ing function. These two routing functions developed in this Guo, J. C. Y., and Urbonas, B. 共1996兲. ‘‘Maximized detention volume
study are superior to the modified Puls reservoir routing determined by runoff capture rate.’’ J. Water Resour. Plan. Manage.,
method because both provide stable and direct solutions 122共1兲, 33–39.
without an iterative process. These two new routing func- Guo, J. C. Y., and Urbonas, B. 共2002兲. ‘‘Runoff capture and delivery
tions are applicable to both preliminary and final storage- curves for storm-water quality control designs.’’ J. Water Resour.
outflow curves. The selection between the two routing func- Plan. Manage., 128共3兲, 208 –215.
tions is a matter of mathematical convenience. The SO Hydrologic Engineering Center 共HEC兲. 共1980兲. Hydrologic analysis of
function provides solutions in terms of storage volumes, and ungauged watersheds with HEC-1, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
the OS function provides solutions in terms of flow rates. Davis, Calif.
Malcom, H. R. 共1982兲. ‘‘Some detention design ideals.’’ Proc., Conf. on
Stormwater Detention Facilities, W. DeGroot, ed., ASCE, New York,
138 –145.
Acknowledgments McCuen, R. H. 共1998兲. Hydrologic analysis and design, 2nd Ed.,
Prentice-Hall, New York.
The methods presented in this paper have been included in and Puls, L. G. 共1928兲. ‘‘Construction of flood routing curves.’’ House Docu-
recommended by the Urban Storm Water Design Criteria Manual ment 185, U.S. 70th Congress, First Session, Washington, D.C.
共2001兲. The writer thanks Mr. Ben Urbonas, Chief Engineer, Urban Storm water design criteria manual. 共2001兲. Vols. 1–2, Urban
Urban Drainage and Flood Control District 共UDFCD兲, and Mr. Drainage and Flood Control District, Denver.

336 / JOURNAL OF HYDROLOGIC ENGINEERING © ASCE / JULY/AUGUST 2004

J. Hydrol. Eng. 2004.9:333-336.