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Department of Civil Engineering

University of Malaya

Course Code :KAEA 2155/ KIA 2005 

Course Name :Water Resources
Losses
Chapter 7 :Hydrograph

Prepared By :AP. Dr. Lai Sai Hin What r the differences compare to chapter 6 ???

Introduction Stream Flow

Precipitation – (evapotranspiration + initial loss + Infiltration + detention storage)
Excess rainfall (overland flow) smaller channel Surface runoff outlet • Stream flow refers to hydrologic process that
transfers water falling as precipitation onto a
watershed from the land surface to the oceans.
• Quantitatively, streamflow refers to the flow rate, or
Move over
land surface discharge of water in m3/s across a stream channel
cross-section.

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Stream flow is formed by a combination of : Continuous and intermittent stream flow

1. Surface runoff, Perennial Intermittent
2. Interflow (rapid subsurface Direct
flow through seepage zones) Runoff
3. Rainfall on surface of stream
4. Base flow (groundwater runoff);
Based on the characteristics of stream flow, a
Ephemeral
stream may be categorized as
1. Perennial (continuous stream flow)
2. Ephemeral
In Malaysia, all rivers are perennial rivers

Hydrograph • The base flow is the slowly varying flow in the stream during
• The watershed or catchment or drainage basin is the area of the rainless period. The sources is the water stored in the banks or the
land draining into a stream at a given location. groundwater storage in the basin.
• Excess rainfall (ER), or effective rainfall, is that rainfall which is • ERH and DRH are key component of the rainfall runoff
neither retained on the land surface nor infiltrated into the soil. relationships.
• After flowing across the watershed surface, excess rainfall becomes
direct runoff (DR) at the watershed outlet.
• The graph of excess rainfall vs. time is called excess rainfall
Stream Flow Hydrograph Direct Runoff Hydrograph
hyetograph (ERH). (DRH)
• The graph of direct runoff vs. time is called direct runoff hydrograph
(DRH).

Peak
flow
Peak
flow

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• Time base of hydrograph : It is the time from the beginning to Factor Affecting a Hydrograph
the end of the direct runoff, Tb.
• Lag time of a basin (tp) : It is the time between the centre of
mass of the net rainfall and centre of mass of the runoff (or
peak rate of flow).
• Time of concentration (tc): It is the time from the end of net
rainfall to the point of inflection on the recession limb of the
DRH. It is also defined as travel time of a water particle from the
hydraulically most remote point of the basin to the outflow
location.
tc

tp

Effect of Shape

tb

Base Flow Separation Effective Rainfall

Method 1: Straight line method • Also known as excess rainfall
• Draw a line from the point of rise to meet the recession limb. The line - the part of rainfall that becomes direct runoff at the outlet of the
divides the stream flow hydrograph into base flow and DRH watershed.
N = 0.83A0.2 N is in days • Effective Rainfall Hyetograph
A is in sq. km. - Rainfall hyetograph is pruned by deducting losses
Method 2 - required to develop Direct Runoff Hydrograph (DRH)
• Most widely used method
• Extend the base flow curve prior to the commencement of surface
runoff to point C, then connect to point B by straight line

Method 3 Point
of rise
• The base flow recession is
extended backward to point F.
• Point A and F are joint by an
Arbitrary smooth curve.
• Realistic if groundwater contribution
is significant.

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Example:
Solution:
• Using Simple Straight Line
Method:

• By inspection, DRH is assumed to

exist from t = 0 to 48 hr

Example: Solution:

• Total effective rainfall

= (0.7+0.8+0.35+0.45)x2 = 4.6 cm

• Volume of direct runoff

= total effective runoff x area
= (4.6/100) x (5x10002)
= 23000 m3

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Unit Hydrograph Solution:

• Defined as:
The hydrograph that results from 1-inch of excess
precipitation spread uniformly in space and time over
a watershed for a given duration.
• Sherman had first proposed the concept of UH in 1932.
• The basic concept of the UH theory is that river basin responds
linearly to the effective rainfall.
• The key points :
1-inch or 1cm 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
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Example: Solution:

Solution:

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Example:
UH Application
Direct application of UH is to determine the DRH and therefore the
stream flow hydrograph from a series of rainfall events. Procedure
used would generally be as follow:
• A rainfall event is selected, abstractions assumed or estimated Solution:
to determine ERH.
• Time interval used in defining ERH must be the same as
designated time duration for the given UH.
• *DRH is then computed by discrete convolution of the ERH
and UH
• Stream flow hydrograph is then determined by adding
assumed base flow to the DRH ordinates

* If the time ordinates of the ERH hyetograph are not the same
as the designated duration of UH; then ordinate of the UH to
be changed, before the discrete convolution the ERH and the
UH.

Solution: Example:

0
3
6
9
12
15

18
24
30
36
42 Solution: Assumed
48
54
60

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Solution:
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Derivation of Unit Hydrograph
Assumed ?
1. Select a number of isolated hydrographs, with approximately
same duration (0.90-1.1D hr) from gauged runoff of the stream
0.90(4)-1.1(4) = 3.6-4.4hr for 4-hour Unit Hydrograph
2. Perform base flow separation for each event.
3. Evaluate the area under each DRH, obtain the volume of direct
runoff
4. Divide volume of direct runoff by catchment area to obtain the
depth of ER
5. Divide each ordinate of the DRH by ER to obtain the ordinates
of unit hydrograph.
6. Derive a number of unit hydrographs of a given duration, and
plot on a common pair of axes.
7. Calculate the average peak flow and time to peak
8. Derive the mean unit hydrograph
9. Evaluate the area under the mean unit hydrograph, any
departure from unity is corrected by adjusting the value of the
peak.

Example:
Given a basin with area of 557.3 km2. Stream flows measured for a 6-hour rainstorm
3 Solution 2 5

of uniform intensity are given below. Assume a constant base flow of 15 m3/s. ER= (860x6x3600x100) Ord. Streamflow Base flow DRH UH
Derive the 6-hours UH for the basin. All stream flows are in m3/s (557.3 x 106) (m3/s) (m3/s) (m3/s) (m3/s/cm)
Hour Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 4 1 15 15 0 0

= 3.33 cm 2 20 15 5 1.5
Midnight 15 145 55 15 3 255 15 240 72
5
4 190 15 175 52.5
6 A.M. 20 115 40 UH = DRH/3.33
5 145 15 130 39
6 115 15 100 30
Noon 255 85 30
7 85 15 70 21
8 70 15 55 16.5
6 P.M. 190 70 20
9 55 15 40 12
10 40 15 25 7.5
11 30 15 15 4.5
12 20 15 5 1.5
13 15 15 0 0
∑DRH = 860 m3/s

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Example: Study at Home

Derivation of Unit Hydrograph

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6

Solution: Solution:

- By Equation:
Why ???

- Base flow separation:

Draw line AB

- Obtain ordinate of DRH by substrating

base flow from ordinates of storm
hydrograph.

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Assignment Unit Hydrograph of Different Durations

Two storms of 6 hour and 3 hour durations and having rainfall excess values of 5.5 cm and
3.5 cm respectively occur successively. The 3.5 cm ER rain follows the 5.5 cm rain. The • To develop unit hydrograph with different duration
3-h unit hydrograph for the catchment is given below. Calculate the resulting DRH. e.g.: 2-H, 4-H, 8-H ???
• 2 method:
Time 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 24 30 36 42 48 54 60
(h)
- Superposition Method
UH Ordinate 0 8 22 41 67 92 98 71 48 32 21 13 5 0 - S-Curve Method
m3/s)

Unit Hydrograph of Different Durations Example:

• Superposition Method
- This method allows the conversion of an D-hour unit
hydrograph into a nD-hour unit hydrograph, in which n is
integer.
- by superposing n unit hydrographs with each graph separated
from the previous one by D hour.
- If Tb is the time base of D-hour hydrograph, the nD-hour
hydrograph is equal to Tb + (n-1)D.

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Solution: Solution:

Thank You

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