Hydrographs- basic principles and

derivation of unit hydrographs

7/5/2019 CVE 308 1

 Hydrograph
• Plot of discharge against
time
• •Has three regions: rising
limb, crest segment and
falling limb
• •Nature of hydrograph
depend on rainfall and
watershed characters.
• •Isolated storm results
single peak hydrograph
and complex storm yields
multiple peak hydrograph.
7/5/2019 CVE 308 2
 Rising limb & Crest Segment
• –Ascending portion representing rising discharge due to
gradual increase in flow in stream
• –Slope depend on storm and basin characteristics
• •Crest Segment
• –Inflection point on rising limb to falling limb
• –Indicate the peak flow
• –Controlled by storm and watershed characteristics
• –Multiple peaks –due to occurrence of two or more
storms of different intensities in a closer interval

7/5/2019 CVE 308 3

 Falling limb (recession limb)
• From point of inflection at the end of crest
segment to base flow.
• –Inflection point indicate the time at which
rainfall stopped
• –Shape independent on storm
characteristics but dependant on
watershed characteristics

7/5/2019 CVE 308 4

 Factors affecting shape of
hydrograph
• Climatic factors
• –Form of precipitation
• •Rainfall and snow fall –rainfall tends to produce runoff rapidly
generating hydrograph with high peak and narrow base
• –Rainfall Intensity
• •Affect volume of runoff , occurrence of peak flow, duration of
surface flow
• •Higher the intensity quicker the peak flow and conical hydrograph
• –Duration of rainfall
• •Longer the duration more the volume
• •Longer duration, peak flow occur after longer time and hydrograph
is flatter with broad base

7/5/2019 CVE 308 5

• Distribution of rainfall
• •When heavy rain occur near outlet
• –Peak flow occur quickly
• •When heavy rain occur in upper areas
• –Peak flow occur after few hours
• –Lower peak and broad base (more time taken for flow
to reach outlet)
• –Direction of storm movement
• •Affects amount of peak flow and surface flow duration
• •Upward direction –lower peak and broad base
• •Downward direction –sharp peak and narrow base
7/5/2019 CVE 308 6
 Distribution of rainfall and hydrograph

Hydrograph affected by movement of

rainfall

7/5/2019 CVE 308 7

• Physiographic factors -characteristics of
watershed
• –Shape of basin
• •Affects the shape of hydrograph affecting time
of concentration
• •Broad shaped –peak flow occur soon because
of less time of concentration, narrow hydrograph
with high peak
• •Fan shaped –peak flow occur at longer time
interval because of longer time of concentration,
7/5/2019 CVE 308 8
broad base lower peak hydrograph
 Effect on Hydrograph by Shape of
7/5/2019 catchment CVE 308 9
• Size of basin
• •Small basin –flow dominated by overland flow that joins
channel quickly, peak flow occur quickly
• –Stream slope
• •More the stream slope higher the slope of recession
limb, reduce base width of hydrograph
• •Small slope make recession limb flatter, base width
wider
• –Nature of valley
• •Greater valley slope higher the slope of recession limb

7/5/2019 CVE 308 10

• Drainage density
• •Higher the drainage density, quicker the peak flow,
recession limb is steeper with narrow hydrograph
• •Lesser the drainage density, slow moving rising limb
and wide base width
• –Landuse
• •Vegetation increases loss of water
• •Higher the vegetation density, lesser the peak flow
• –Surface depression
• •Presence of ponds, rills etc. delay and modify flow
pattern
• •Decreases peak flow and
7/5/2019 CVEwide
308 base width 11
7/5/2019 CVE 308 12
 UnitHydrograph
 An unit hydrograph (UH) is the hypothetical unit
response of a watershed (in terms of runoff volume and
timing) to a unit input of rainfall.
 It can be defined as the direct runoff hydrograph (DRH)
resulting from one unit (e.g., one cm or one inch) of
effective rainfall occurring uniformly over that watershed
at a uniform rate over a unit period of time.
 As a UH is applicable only to the direct runoff component
of a hydrograph (i.e., surface runoff), a separate
determination of the baseflow component is required.

7/5/2019 CVE 308 13

 Unit Hydrograph Theory

7/5/2019 CVE 308 14

 Unit Hydrograph “Frequently Used
Terms”

• Duration
• Lag Time
• Time of Concentration
• Rising Limb
• Recession Limb (falling limb)
• Peak Flow
• Time to Peak (rise time)
• Recession Curve
• Separation
• Base flow

7/5/2019 CVE 308 15

 Graphical Representation

Duration of
excess
precipitation.

Lag time

Time of
concentration

Base flow

7/5/2019 CVE 308 16

 Methods of Developing UHG’s

• From Streamflow Data

• Synthetically
– Snyder
– SCS
– Time-Area (Clark, 1945)
• “Fitted” Distributions
• Geomorphologic

7/5/2019 CVE 308 17

 Unit Hydrograph

• Hydrograph of surface runoff of a catchment resulting from unit depth

(usually 1 cm) of rainfall excess (effective rainfall) occurring uniformly
over the watershed and at uniform rate for a specified duration.
• •A constant for the watershed
• •Can be used to determine volume of direct runoff of any storm
occurring in the catchment

• The key points :

 1-cm of EXCESS precipitation
 Spread uniformly over space - evenly over the watershed
 Uniformly in time - the excess rate is constant over the time
interval
 There is a given duration

7/5/2019 CVE 308 18

 Assumptions in deriving Unit
Hydrograph
• Uniform intensity of rainfall within a specified duration
• –Effective rainfall is uniformly distributed in the
watershed
• –Base of time duration of the direct runoff hydrograph is
constant

7/5/2019 CVE 308 19

• Direct runoff due to effective rainfall over
the watershed is always same, not vary
with time
• –Relationship between direct runoff and
effective rainfall is linear (Example: if ER
of x cm generate y m3of direct runoff, 3x
will generate 3y m3)

7/5/2019 CVE 308 20

7/5/2019
0.
00
0

0.0000
100.0000
200.0000
300.0000
400.0000
500.0000
600.0000
700.0000

0. 0
16
00
0.
32
0
0. 0
48
00
0.
64
0
0. 0
80
00
0.
96
0
1. 0
12
0
1. 0
28
00
1.
44
0
1. 0
60
00
1.
76
0
1. 0
92
00

CVE 308
2.
Surface

08
0
Response

2. 0
24
00
2.
40
0
2. 0
56
0
2. 0
72
00
2.
88
0
3. 0
04
00
Baseflow

3.
20
0
3. 0
36
00
3.
52
0
3. 0
68
00
Derived Unit Hydrograph

21
 Derived Unit Hydrograph

700.0000

600.0000 Total
Hydrograph

500.0000

Surface
400.0000 Response

300.0000

Baseflow
200.0000

100.0000

0.0000
0.0000 0.5000 1.0000 1.5000 2.0000 2.5000 3.0000 3.5000 4.0000

7/5/2019 CVE 308 22

 Derived Unit Hydrograph

Rules of Thumb :
… the storm should be fairly uniform in nature and the
excess precipitation should be equally as uniform throughout
the basin. This may require the initial conditions throughout
the basin to be spatially similar.
… Second, the storm should be relatively constant in time,
meaning that there should be no breaks or periods of no
precipitation.
… Finally, the storm should produce at least an inch of
excess precipitation (the area under the hydrograph after
correcting for baseflow).

7/5/2019 CVE 308 23

 Deriving a UHG from a Storm
sample watershed = 450 mi2

25000 0,8

0,7

20000
0,6

Precipitation (inches)
0,5
15000
Flow (cfs)

0,4

10000
0,3

0,2
5000

0,1

0 0
0 8 16 24 32 40 48 56 64 72 80 88 96 10 4 11 2 12 0 12 8

Time (hrs.)

7/5/2019 CVE 308 24

 Separation of Baseflow

... generally accepted that the inflection point on the recession limb
of a hydrograph is the result of a change in the controlling physical
processes of the excess precipitation flowing to the basin outlet.
In this example, baseflow is considered to be a straight line
connecting that point at which the hydrograph begins to rise rapidly
and the inflection point on the recession side of the hydrograph.
the inflection point may be found by plotting the hydrograph in semi-
log fashion with flow being plotted on the log scale and noting the time
at which the recession side fits a straight line.

7/5/2019 CVE 308 25

 Semi-log Plot

100000

Recession side of hydrograph

10000 becomes linear at approximately hour
64.

1000
Flow (cfs)

100

10

1
29 34 39 44 49 54 59 64 69 74 79 84 89 94 99 10 4 10 9 11 4 11 9 12 4 12 9 13 4

Time (hrs.)

7/5/2019 CVE 308 26

 Hydrograph & Baseflow

25000

20000

15000
Flow (cfs)

10000

5000

0
0
7
14
21
28
35
42
49
56
63
70
77
84
91
98
105
112
119
126
133
Time (hrs.)

7/5/2019 CVE 308 27

 Separate Baseflow

25000

20000

15000
Flow (cfs)

10000

5000

0
0 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63 70 77 84 91 98 10 5 11 2 11 9 12 6 13 3
Time (hrs.)

7/5/2019 CVE 308 28

• Unit hydrograph can be used to get the
hydrographs for other rainfall events.
• –Example : If 1 hour unit hydrograph is
known, it can be used to compute
hydrograph of a three hour event.

7/5/2019 CVE 308 29

 Uses of unit hydrograph
• Development of flood hydrographs for
extreme rainfall events that can be used to
design hydraulic structures such as
bridges, culverts etc.
• –Flood forecasting and warning
• –To extend flood flow records based on
rainfall

7/5/2019 CVE 308 30

 Obtain UHG Ordinates

• The ordinates of the unit hydrograph are

obtained by dividing each flow in the direct
runoff hydrograph by the depth of excess
precipitation.
• In this example, the units of the unit
hydrograph would be m3/cm (of excess
precipitation).

7/5/2019 CVE 308 31

 Final UHG

25000
Storm #1 hydrograph

Storm#1 direct runoff

20000 hydrograph

15000
Flow (cfs)

Storm # 1 unit
hydrograph

10000

Storm #1
baseflow
5000

0
0
7
14
21
28
35
42
49
56
63
70
77
84
91
98
105
112
119
126
133
Time (hrs.)

7/5/2019 CVE 308 32

 Determine Duration of UHG

• The duration of the derived unit hydrograph is found by

examining the precipitation for the event and determining that
precipitation which is in excess.
• This is generally accomplished by plotting the precipitation in
hyetograph form and drawing a horizontal line such that the
precipitation above this line is equal to the depth of excess
precipitation as previously determined.
• This horizontal line is generally referred to as the F-index and is
based on the assumption of a constant or uniform infiltration
rate.
• The uniform infiltration necessary to cause 1.65cm of excess
precipitation was determined to be approximately 0.2cm per
hour.

7/5/2019 CVE 308 33

 Estimating Excess Precip.

0.8

0.7

0.6
Precipitation (inches)

0.5

Uniform loss rate of

0.4 0.2 inches per hour.

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Time (hrs.)

7/5/2019 CVE 308 34

 Excess Precipitation

0,9

Derived unit hydrograph is the

0,8
result of approximately 6 hours
of excess precipitation.
0,7
Excess Prec. (inches)

Small amounts of
0,6
excess precipitation at
beginning and end may
0,5
be omitted.

0,4

0,3

0,2

0,1

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Time (hrs.)

7/5/2019 CVE 308 35

 Changing the Duration

• Very often, it will be necessary to change the duration of the unit

hydrograph.
• If unit hydrographs are to be averaged, then they must be of the
same duration.
• Also, convolution of the unit hydrograph with a precipitation
event requires that the duration of the unit hydrograph be equal
to the time step of the incremental precipitation.
• The most common method of altering the duration of a unit
hydrograph is by the S-curve method.
• The S-curve method involves continually lagging a unit
hydrograph by its duration and adding the ordinates.
• For the present example, the 6-hour unit hydrograph is
continually lagged by 6 hours and the ordinates are added.
7/5/2019 CVE 308 36
 Develop S-Curve

60000,00

50000,00

40000,00
Flow (cfs)

30000,00

20000,00

10000,00

0,00
0
6
12
18
24
30
36
42
48
54
60
66
72
78
84
90
96
102
108
114
120
Time (hrs.)

7/5/2019 CVE 308 37

 Convert to 1-Hour Duration

• To arrive at a 1-hour unit hydrograph, the S-curve is lagged by 1

hour and the difference between the two lagged S-curves is found to
be a 1 hour unit hydrograph.
• However, because the S-curve was formulated from unit
hydrographs having a 6 hour duration of uniformly distributed
precipitation, the hydrograph resulting from the subtracting the two
S-curves will be the result of 1/6 of an cm of precipitation.
• Thus the ordinates of the newly created 1-hour unit hydrograph must
be multiplied by 6 in order to be a true unit hydrograph.
• The 1-hour unit hydrograph should have a higher peak which occurs
earlier than the 6-hour unit hydrograph.

7/5/2019 CVE 308 38

 Final 1-hour UHG

14000,00 60000,00

12000,00
50000,00
Unit Hydrograph Flow (cfs/inch)

S-curves are
10000,00 lagged by 1 hour
and the difference 40000,00
is found.

Flow (cfs)
8000,00 1-hour unit
hydrograph resulting
30000,00
from lagging S-
6000,00 curves and
multiplying the
difference by 6. 20000,00
4000,00

10000,00
2000,00

0,00 0,00
Time (hrs.)

7/5/2019 CVE 308 39

 Shortcut Method

•There does exist a shortcut method for changing the duration of the
unit hydrograph if the two durations are multiples of one another.

•This is done by displacing the the unit hydrograph.

•For example, if you had a two hour unit hydrograph and you
wanted to change it to a four hour unit hydrograph.

7/5/2019 CVE 308 40

 Shortcut Method Example

•First, a two hour unit hydrograph is given and a four hour unit
hydrograph is needed.
•There are two possiblities, develop the S - curve or since they are
multiples use the shortcut method.
Tim e (h r) Q
0 0
1 2
2 4
3 6
4 10
5 6
6 4
7 3
8 2
9 1
10 0
7/5/2019 CVE 308 41
 Shortcut Method Example

•The 2 hour UHG is then displaced by two hours. This is done

because two 2 hour UHG will be used to represent a four hour UHG.

Tim e (h r) Q D is p la c e d U H G
0 0
1 2
2 4 0
3 6 2
4 10 4
5 6 6
6 4 10
7 3 6
8 2 4
9 1 3
10 0 2
11 1
12 0
7/5/2019 CVE 308 42
 Shortcut Method Example

•These two hydrographs are then summed.

Tim e (h r) Q D is p la c e d U H G S um
0 0 0
1 2 2
2 4 0 4
3 6 2 8
4 10 4 14
5 6 6 12
6 4 10 14
7 3 6 9
8 2 4 6
9 1 3 4
10 0 2 2
11 1 1
12 0 0

7/5/2019 CVE 308 43

 Shortcut Method Example

•Finally the summed hydrograph is divided by two.

•This is done because when two unit hydrographs are added, the
area under the curve is two units. This has to be reduced back to
one unit of runoff.
Tim e (h r) Q D is p la c e d U H G S um 4 h ou r U H G
0 0 0 0
1 2 2 1
2 4 0 4 2
3 6 2 8 4
4 10 4 14 7
5 6 6 12 6
6 4 10 14 7
7 3 6 9 4.5
8 2 4 6 3
9 1 3 4 2
10 0 2 2 1
11 1 1 0.5
12 0 0 0
7/5/2019 CVE 308 44
 Average Several UHG’s

• It is recommend that several unit hydrographs be derived and

averaged.
• The unit hydrographs must be of the same duration in order to be
properly averaged.
• It is often not sufficient to simply average the ordinates of the unit
hydrographs in order to obtain the final unit hydrograph. A
numerical average of several unit hydrographs which are
different “shapes” may result in an “unrepresentative” unit
hydrograph.
• It is often recommended to plot the unit hydrographs that are to
be averaged. Then an average or representative unit
hydrograph should be sketched or fitted to the plotted unit
hydrographs.
• Finally, the average unit hydrograph must have a volume of 1
7/5/2019
inch of runoff for the basin. CVE 308 45
 Synthetic UHG’s

• Snyder
• SCS
• Time-area
• IHABBS Implementation Plan :
NOHRSC Homepage
http://www.nohrsc.nws.gov/
http://www.nohrsc.nws.gov/98/html/uhg/index.html

7/5/2019 CVE 308 46

 Snyder

• Since peak flow and time of peak flow are two of the most important
parameters characterizing a unit hydrograph, the Snyder method
employs factors defining these parameters, which are then used in
the synthesis of the unit graph (Snyder, 1938).
• The parameters are Cp, the peak flow factor, and Ct, the lag factor.
• The basic assumption in this method is that basins which have
similar physiographic characteristics are located in the same area
will have similar values of Ct and Cp.
• Therefore, for ungaged basins, it is preferred that the basin be near
or similar to gaged basins for which these coefficients can be
determined.

7/5/2019 CVE 308 47

 Basic Relationships

t LAG  Ct ( L  Lca )0.3

t LAG
tduration 
5.5

talt.lag  t LAG  0.25(talt.duration  tduration )

t LAG
tbase  3 
8

640 AC p
q peak 
t LAG

7/5/2019 CVE 308 48

 Final Shape
The final shape of the Snyder unit hydrograph is controlled
by the equations for width at 50% and 75% of the peak of
the UHG:

7/5/2019 CVE 308 49

 SCS

SCS Dimensionless UHG Features

1

Flow ratios
Cum. Mass
0.8

0.6
Q/Qpeak

0.4

0.2

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
T/Tpeak

7/5/2019 CVE 308 50

 Dimensionless Ratios
Time Ratios Discharge Ratios Mass Curve Ratios
(t/tp) (q/qp) (Qa/Q)
0 .000 .000
.1 .030 .001
.2 .100 .006
.3 .190 .012
.4 .310 .035
.5 .470 .065
.6 .660 .107
.7 .820 .163
.8 .930 .228
.9 .990 .300
1.0 1.000 .375
1.1 .990 .450
1.2 .930 .522
1.3 .860 .589
1.4 .780 .650
1.5 .680 .700
1.6 .560 .751
1.7 .460 .790
1.8 .390 .822
1.9 .330 .849
2.0 .280 .871
2.2 .207 .908
2.4 .147 .934
2.6 .107 .953
2.8 .077 .967
3.0 .055 .977
3.2 .040 .984
3.4 .029 .989
3.6 .021 .993
3.8 .015 .995
4.0 .011 .997
4.5 .005 .999
5.0 .000 1.000
7/5/2019 CVE 308 51
 Triangular Representation

D SCS Dimensionless UHG & Triangular Representation

1.2 Excess
Precipitation

Tlag

0.8

Flow ratios
Cum. Mass
Q/Qpeak

Triangular
0.6

Point of
Inflection
Tc
0.4

0.2

0
0.0 Tp 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0
Tb
T/Tpeak

7/5/2019 CVE 308 52

 Triangular Representation
D SCS Dimensionless UHG & Triangular Representation

Tb  2.67 x Tp 1.2 Excess

Precipitation

Tlag

Tr  Tb - Tp  1.67 x Tp 0.8

Flow ratios
Cum. Mass

Q/Qpeak
Triangular
0.6

Point of
Inflection
Tc
0.4

qpT p qpT r qp
Q= + = (T p +T r )
2 2 2 0.2

0
0.0 Tp 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0
Tb
T/Tpeak
2Q
qp=
T p +T r

654.33 x 2 x A x Q
qp= The 645.33 is the conversion used for
T p +T r
delivering 1-inch of runoff (the area
under the unit hydrograph) from 1-square
484 A Q
qp= mile in 1-hour (3600 seconds).
Tp

7/5/2019 CVE 308 53

 484 ?

484 A Q
qp=
Tp

Comes from the initial assumption that 3/8 of the volume

under the UHG is under the rising limb and the remaining 5/8
is under the recession limb.

General Description Peaking Factor Limb Ratio

(Recession to Rising)
Urban areas; steep slopes 575 1.25
Typical SCS 484 1.67
Mixed urban/rural 400 2.25
Rural, rolling hills 300 3.33
Rural, slight slopes 200 5.5
Rural, very flat 100 12.0

7/5/2019 CVE 308 54

 Duration & Timing?

Again from the triangle

D
T p= +L
2
L = Lag time
L  0.6 * Tc

Tc  D  1.7 T p

D
+ 0.6 T c = T p
2

For estimation purposes : D  0.133 Tc

7/5/2019 CVE 308 55

 Time of Concentration

• Regression Eqs.
• Segmental Approach

7/5/2019 CVE 308 56

 A Regression Equation

L0.8 (S  1) 0.7
Tlag 
1900(%Slope) 0.5

where : Tlag = lag time in hours

L = Length of the longest drainage path in feet
S = (1000/CN) - 10 (CN=curve number)
%Slope = The average watershed slope in %

7/5/2019 CVE 308 57

 Segmental Approach

• More “hydraulic” in nature

• The parameter being estimated is essentially the time of
concentration or longest travel time within the basin.
• In general, the longest travel time corresponds to the longest
drainage path
• The flow path is broken into segments with the flow in each segment
being represented by some type of flow regime.
• The most common flow representations are overland, sheet, rill and
gully, and channel flow.

7/5/2019 CVE 308 58

 1
A Basic Approach V  kS 2

K Land Use / Flow Regime

0.25 Forest with heavy ground litter, hay meadow (overland flow)
0.5 Trash fallow or minimum tillage cultivation; contour or strip
cropped; woodland (overland flow) McCuen (1989) and SCS
0.7 Short grass pasture (overland flow) (1972) provide values of k
0.9 Cultivated straight row (overland flow) for several flow situations
1.0 Nearly bare and untilled (overland flow); alluvial fans in (slope in %)
western mountain regions
1.5 Grassed waterway
2.0 Paved area (sheet flow); small upland gullies

Flow Type K
Small Tributary - Permanent or intermittent 2.1
streams which appear as solid or dashed
blue lines on USGS topographic maps.
Waterway - Any overland flow route which 1.2 Sorell & Hamilton, 1991
is a well defined swale by elevation
contours, but is not a stream section as
defined above.
Sheet Flow - Any other overland flow path 0.48
which does not conform to the definition of
a waterway.

7/5/2019 CVE 308 59

 Triangular Shape

• In general, it can be said that the triangular version will not cause or
introduce noticeable differences in the simulation of a storm event,
particularly when one is concerned with the peak flow.
• For long term simulations, the triangular unit hydrograph does have
a potential impact, due to the shape of the recession limb.
• The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (HEC 1990) fits a Clark unit
hydrograph to match the peak flows estimated by the Snyder unit
hydrograph procedure.
• It is also possible to fit a synthetic or mathematical function to the
peak flow and timing parameters of the desired unit hydrograph.
• Aron and White (1982) fitted a gamma probability distribution using
peak flow and time to peak data.

7/5/2019 CVE 308 60

 Fitting a Gamma Distribution

t a e t b
f (t; a, b)  a1
b (a  1)

500.0000

450.0000

400.0000

350.0000

300.0000

250.0000

200.0000

150.0000

100.0000

50.0000

0.0000
0.0000 1.0000 2.0000 3.0000 4.0000 5.0000 6.0000

7/5/2019 CVE 308 61

 Time-Area

7/5/2019 CVE 308 62

 Time-Area

100%

Time
Q % Area of conc.

Time Time

7/5/2019 CVE 308 63

 Time-Area

7/5/2019 CVE 308 64

 Hypothetical Example

• A 190 mi2 watershed is divided into 8 isochrones of travel time.

• The linear reservoir routing coefficient, R, estimated as 5.5 hours.
• A time interval of 2.0 hours will be used for the computations.

7/5/2019 CVE 308 65

 Rule of Thumb

R - The linear reservoir routing coefficient

can be estimated as approximately 0.75
times the time of concentration.

7/5/2019 CVE 308 66

 Basin Breakdown

Map Bounding Area Cumulative Cumulative

Area # Isochrones (mi2) Area (mi2) Time (hrs)
1 0-1 5 5 1.0
2 1-2 9 14 2.0
3 2-3 23 37 3.0
4 3-4 19 58 4.0
5 4-5 27 85 5.0
6 5-6 26 111 6.0
7 6-7 39 150 7.0
8 7-8 40 190 8.0
TOTAL 190 190 8.0

7/5/2019 CVE 308 67

 Incremental Area

40

35

Incremental Area (sqaure miles)

30

25

20

15

10

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Time Increment (hrs)

7/5/2019 CVE 308 68

 Cumulative Time-Area Curve

Cumulative Area (sqaure miles)

6

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Time (hrs)

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 Trouble Getting a Time-Area Curve?

TAi  1.414Ti1.5 for (0  Ti  0.5)

1  TAi  1.414(1  Ti )1.5 for (0.5  Ti  1.0)

Synthetic time-area curve -

The U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers (HEC 1990)

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 Instantaneous UHG

IUH i  cI i  (1  c) IUH ( i 1)

2t
c
2 R  t

 t = the time step used n the

calculation of the translation unit
hydrograph
 The final unit hydrograph may be
found by averaging 2
instantaneous unit hydrographs
that are a t time step apart.

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 Computations

Time Inc. Inc. Inst. IUHG 2-hr

(hrs) Area Translated UHG Lagged 2 UHG
(mi2) Flow (cfs) hours (cfs)
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
0 0 0 0 0
2 14 4,515 1391 0 700
4 44 14,190 5333 1,391 3,360
6 53 17,093 8955 5,333 7,150
8 79 25,478 14043 8,955 11,500
10 0 0 9717 14,043 11,880
12 6724 9,717 8,220
14 4653 6,724 5,690
16 3220 4,653 3,940
18 2228 3,220 2,720
20 1542 2,228 1,890
22 1067 1,542 1,300
24 738 1,067 900
26 510 738 630
28 352 510 430
30 242 352 300
32 168 242 200
34 116 168 140
36 81 116 100
38 55 81 70
40 39 55 50
42 26 39 30
44 19 26 20
46 13 19 20
48 13

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 Incremental Areas

90

80

70
Area Increments (square miles)

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
0 2 4 6 8 10
Time Increments (2 hrs)

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 Incremental Flows

30000

25000
Translated Unit Hydrograph

20000

15000

10000

5000

0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Time Increments (2 hrs)

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 Instantaneous UHG

16000

14000

12000

10000
Flow (cfs/inch)

8000

6000

4000

2000

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time (hrs)

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 Lag & Average

16000

14000

12000

10000
Flow (cfs/inch)

8000

6000

4000

2000

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time (hrs)

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 Geomorphologic

• Uses stream network topology and probability concepts

• Law of Stream Numbers N 1
 RB
range: 3-5 N

• Law of Stream Lengths

L
 RL
range: 1.5-3.5 L 1
• Law of Stream Areas A
 RA
range:3-6 A 1

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 Strahler Stream Ordering
1
1
1 1
2
2 1
1 2

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 Probability Concepts

• Water travels through basin, making transitions from lower to

higher stream order
• Travel times and transition probabilities can be approximated
using Strahler stream ordering scheme
• Obtain a probability density function analogous to an
instantaneous unit hydrograph
• Can ignore surface/subsurface travel times to get a channel-
based GIUH

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 GIUH Equations
• Channel-based, triangular instantaneous
unit hydrograph:
0.55
1.31 0.43 0.44L W  R B 
qp  RL V tp    R L0.38
LW V  RA 
• LW in km, V in m/s, qp in hr-1, tp in hrs

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