Engineering Hydrology Lecture Note

TABLE OF CONTENTS
8 Introduction to Urban Hydrology ..................................................................................... 2
8.1 Catchment Response Modifications ......................................................................... 2
8.2 Urban development planning .................................................................................... 3
8.3 Drainage design ........................................................................................................ 3
8.3.1 Impervious areas ............................................................................................... 4
8.4 The Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL) ........................................... 7

Department of Civil Eng’g, AKU

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Engineering Hydrology Lecture Note

8 Introduction to Urban Hydrology

Storm magnitudes and their frequency of occurrence are of greater importance than annual
rainfall totals in urban hydrology.

8.1 Catchment Response Modifications

The changes made to a rural area by the construction of a concentration of building have a
direct effect on its surface hydrology. The covering of the land surface by a large proportion
of impervious materials means that a much larger proportion of any rainfall forms immediate
runoff. In addition to extensive ground coverage by building in a city, the paved streets and
car parks contribute large areas to the impervious surface. Any slope of the land also greatly
enhances the runoff response of a paved area. In a defined catchment area, the effect on the
stream discharge is dependent on the extent on the remaining pervious surfaces, where
normal infiltration in to the soil and percolation in to the underlying strata can take place.
Thus, after major urban development in a catchment, the following differences in the river
flow from that of an equivalent rural catchment can be identified.

a. there is a higher proportion of rainfall appearing as surface runoff, and so the total
volume of discharge is increased
b. for a specific rainfall event, the response of the catchment is accelerated, with a
steeper rising limb of the flow hydrograph; the lag time and time to peak is reduced
c. flood peak magnitudes are increased, but for the very, but for the very extreme
events (when the rural runoff coefficient > 50%) these increase in urban areas are
diminished
d. in times of low flows, discharges are decreased since there is reduced contribution
from the groundwater storage that has received less replenishment; and
e. water quality in streams and rivers draining urban area is degraded by effluent
discharges, increased water temperature and danger from other forms of pollution
Many of these modifications are promoted by structural changes made to drainage channels.
It is essential to remove rain water quickly from developed areas, and surface water drainage
systems are included in modern town extensions.

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Engineering Hydrology Lecture Note

The interaction of the artificial nature of urban catchments and the need to accommodate the
changed hydrological characteristics is complex. The solving of one drainage problem may
easily exacerbate another feature of the catchment runoff, e.g. rain events on the planned
surface drainage of a new housing estate could produce higher peaks downstream than
formerly, and these might cause flooding at previously safe points along the channel.
Due to urbanization effect, the runoff volume and time distribution of the runoff hydrograph
is modified. The various hydrograph parameters such as peak discharge, Qp, time to peak, tp
and lag time are usually related to catchment characteristics including area of impervious
surfaces or proportion of area urbanized, in order to obtain quantitative rainfall-runoff
relationships.

8.2 Urban development planning

In the development of new urban centers, hydrological knowledge of the areas is required at
two stages. The first is planning stage when the general layout of the new town is being
decided. The second stage of hydrological involvement occurs at the detailing stage, the
designing of storm water drainage channels and pipes to carry the surface water in to the
rivers.
The principal objective at the planning stage is the determination of the size of flood, with its
related return period, that the developing authority is prepared to accommodate. The design
of the drainage system is dependent on a satisfactory assessment of the flood magnitude-
return period relationship and the subsequent choice of a design flood.

8.3 Drainage design

Once the broad outline of the hydrological consequences of an urban development of an area
have been determined at the planning stage and major remedial works considered, then the
detailed design of the drainage systems is required. The engineering hydrologist is fully
concerned with evaluating the runoff from sub areas to be drained in order to design the
necessary storm water sewers. The peak runoff from the selected design storm determines the
size sewer pipe which is dependent on the extent of each sub area to be drained. At the head
of the catchment sub area, the required pipe size may be quite small, but downstream, as the
sewer receives water from a growing are through a series of junctions, the pipe size gradually
needs to be increased.

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Engineering Hydrology Lecture Note

The problem of estimating the runoff from the storm rainfall is very much dependent on the
character of the catchment surface. The degree of urbanization (extent of impervious area)
greatly affects the volume of runoff obtained from a given rainfall. Retention of rainfall by
initial wetting of surfaces and absorption by vegetation and pervious areas reduces the
amount of storm runoff. These surface conditions also affect the time distribution of the
runoff. Thus the computational method used to obtain the runoff from the rainfall should
allow for the characteristics of the surface are to be drained.

8.3.1 Impervious areas

These comprises the roof areas and large expanses of paved surfaces of city centers and
industrial sites, in which there is very little or even no part of the ground surface into which
rainfall could infiltrate. The calculation of the runoff from these relatively small catchments
is the straightest forward, since the area can be easily defined and measured. Over such
limited areas, the storm rainfall can be assumed to be uniformly distributed with 100% runoff
occurring.
The response of the impervious surface is rapid, resulting in a short time of concentration of
the flow in the drainage system. The rational formula can thus provide the peak drainage.

(8.1)
Looking the simple pipe design in the figure below, the computation of the required pipe size
can be done as shown in the table.

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Engineering Hydrology Lecture Note

Figure 8.1: Simple Pipe Design

Table 8.1: Rational method Drainage Design

At the outset of the design procedure, the selected return period for a design storm will have
been decided. Storm water sewers are usually designed for 1 in 1, 1 in 2 or 1 in 5 year storm
return periods. The type of pipe will also have been chosen; the internal roughness governs
the flow characteristics, and roughness coefficient. Velocities and discharges for standard

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Engineering Hydrology Lecture Note

sized pipes can be found from published tables, assuming full bore conditions, a hydraulic
gradient equal to the pipe gradient and appropriate roughness coefficient. Design charts for
the velocities and discharges are also available and provide for easier interpolation.
Flows larger than those derived from the tables or charts would require hydraulic gradients
greater than the pipe gradient, and these could only occur by ponding (or surcharging) of
water in the manholes at the pipe junctions. The design objective is to avoid such
surcharging.
Referring to Figure 8.1, the design procedure begins with the choice of a trial pipe size for
pipe 1.0, say 150 mm is chosen (the smallest used in practice) (Refer Table 8.1). From
published tables and for ks = 0.6 for a normal concrete pipe, the velocity and discharge for a
gradient of 1 in 65 are noted, 1.26 m/s and 23.0 l/s, respectively. A flow greater than 23.0 l/s
would result in surcharging.
The time of flow along the pipe is next calculated from the velocity and length of pipe and
comes to 0.86 min. the time of concentration at the end of the first pipe is then 0.86 min plus
an assumed allowance of 2 min, for the time of entry, which is assumed to cover the lag time
between the beginning of the storm rainfall and the entry of the overland flow in to the
leading manhole. With the time of concentration of the drainage to the end of the first pipe
known, the design return period rainfall intensity (i) over this duration to give the peak flow
an be obtained from intensity-duration-frequency data. The storm peak discharge is then
calculated using equation mentioned in the previous section for comparison with the
unsurcharged full bore pipe flow. The first trial pipe of 150 mm diameter would clearly be
surcharged, so the calculations are repeated with the next size pipe, diameter 225 mm. the
calculated storm discharge, 28.8 l/s would be easily contained by larger pipe.
The calculations proceed for each pipe in turn, with the previous time of concentration being
added to the new time of flow to give the combined times of concentration at the end of
sequential pipes. The drainage areas are also accumulated. It will be noted that the 2.0 min
time of entry is also added to the flow time of pipe 2.0 since it is at the start of a branch of
pipeline. The time of concentration for the last pipe, is then the sum of the time of
concentration of pipe 1.1 and the flow time of pipe 1.2. the extra contribution from the
greatly increased area drained by the tributary pipe results in a much larger discharge
requiring the next size larger pipe, 300 mm diameter.

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Engineering Hydrology Lecture Note

8.4 The Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL)

Hydrograph Method (Watkins, 1962)
In the time-area method, the total catchment are is deemed to be contributing to the flow after
the time of concentration, Tc, the time it takes for the rain on the furthest part of the
catchment to reach the outfall. Thus in Figure 8.2, for two drains receiving uniform rainfall
from areas A1 and A2 with drain 2 joining the main channel, drain 1, a relationship of
contributing area, A, versus time, T, is constructed. From the beginning of the flow in drain 1
at T=0 there is steady increase in area contributing until T = T1 which is the value of Tc for
area A1. Drain 2 begins to contribute to the outfall flow Tc at time T = (T2+T3). Between
times T3 and T1 both drains have been flowing and the joint contributing area (at C) at T =
T1 is given by:

(8.2)
From T = (T2+T3), both areas are contributing fully. The time-area curve for the combined
drains is composite line OBCD. The principle of TRRL as outlined as in demand curve, a
catchment is divided into four sub areas, is drained by a single channel to the outfall where
the hydrograph is required. Subarea 1 begins contributing to the flow first, to be followed
sequentially by the other three subareas. The composite time-area curve for the whole
catchment is drawn by summing the subarea contributions at regular time intervals. The
incremental contributing areas after each time interval are then read from the composite
curve, a1, a2, a3, etc. from the diagram, the time of concentration for the whole area is
determined.
The effective rainfall intensity is computed for each of the chosen time unit intervals from
gauge measurements. The discharge rates after each time unit interval are given by:
q1 = i1a1
q2 = i2a1 + i1a2
q3 = i3a1 + i2a2 + i1a3 (8.3)
Etc.
The peak flow is then considered as design flow.

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Engineering Hydrology Lecture Note

Figure 8.2: Time-area method for sewer design

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