Unit Hydrograph

Sharad K Jain
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
[email protected]
 Rainfall-Runoff Process
 Stream flow occurs in a
river in response to
precipitation.
 Generation of runoff
from rainfall requires
partitioning of rainfall
inputs at the earth
surface into
components:
 that infiltrate and
 that flow on land and
streams
 Unit Hydrograph - Introduction
 Sherman (1932) proposed concept of unit hydrograph
(UH) to determine direct surface runoff (DSRO)
hydrograph from effective rainfall hyetograph (ERH).
 UH concept is based on linear system theory which
means that DSRO is (assumed) a linear function of
rainfall.
DSRO = a * ERH linear system
DSRO = a * ERHb b  1, non-linear system

 Unit hydrograph: generated by rainfall excess of one unit

for a specified duration  by continuity  volume under
hydrograph is also one unit.
 Unit Hydrograph - Concept

1
1

1 1

1 + 1

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 Unit Hydrograph - Definition

 UH is the DSRO resulting from one unit (typically, 1 cm)

of effective rainfall (ER) occurring uniformly over the
catchment at a uniform rate during a unit period of time.
 UH for a watershed is identified by the unit period.
 Thus a 1-hour UH is the direct surface runoff hydrograph
(DRH) resulting from one unit of ER falling for 1 hour;
 Unit period is the period for which the UH is determined;
UH will change as this period changes.
 Unit period can be any finite duration up to the time of
concentration.
 Typically, unit duration is an integer factor of 24 hours.
 Unit Hydrograph
 We normally determine and use 1-hour UH, 2-hour UH, 3-
hour UH, 4-hour UH, 6-hour UH, 12-hour UH, or 1-day UH.
 Effective Rainfall = total rainfall - losses (abstractions).
 Unit excess RF is typically 1 cm or 1 mm; some other
value (e.g., 5 mm) can also be selected, depending on
catchment size and typical RF magnitudes.
 Unit time is selected taking into account duration of storm
and size of catchment.
 Short periods - 1 or 2 hours - are used for small
catchments.
 Larger periods - 3, 4, 6, or 12 hrs - for larger catchments.
 Unit duration cannot be more than TC.
 Unit Hydrograph
Uniform and non-
uniform rainfalls

• As effective RF is uniform over its duration, intensity =

1/duration.
• Shape of a UH depends on physiography of catchment, viz.,
shape, slope, vegetation, soils, etc.
• If catchment size > 5000 sq. km, sub-divide in smaller
basins before UH is developed,
 UH method is widely applied in hydrology for a range of
tasks  design flood estimation, flood forecasting, ...
 ASSUMPTIONS IN UH THEORY
1. Fixed duration of runoff
For a given catchment, duration of surface runoff is essentially
constant for all uniform-intensity storms of same duration,
regardless of total volume of surface runoff.
Rainfall or Discharge

qPE2

SRH due to PE2

qPE1
SRH due to PE1

PE2
PE1

TIME
 2. PROPORTIONALITY OF ORDINATES

For a given catchment, if two uniform-intensity storms of the same duration

produce different total volumes of surface runoff, then the rates of surface
runoff at corresponding times t, after the beginning of two storms, are in
the same proportion to each other as the total volumes of surface runoff.

q100 PE100 100

q100    2
100 q50 PE 50 50
DISCHARGE

SRH due to PE = 100 mm

q50
50
SRH due to PE = 50 mm

TIME
3. Principle of superposition: Time distribution of surface runoff from a given
storm period is independent of concurrent runoff from antecedent storm
periods.

PE1 PE2 PE3

Discharge
q1 = PE1U1
TIME
q2 = PE1U2 + PE2U1
q3 = PE1U3 + PE2U2 + PE3U1
q4 = PE1U4 + PE2U3 + PE3U2
q5 = PE1U5 + PE2U4 + PE3U3
q2 q6 = PE1U6 + PE2U5 + PE3U4
q7 = 0 + PE2U6 + PE3U5
q1
q8 = 0 + 0 + PE3U6
0 1 2 3
TIME
UH – Multi Period Storm
 ASSUMPTIONS IN UH THEORY

4. CONCURRENT FLOW
Surface runoff hydrograph (SRH) resulting due to a particular rainfall
event is not affected by the concurrent runoff resulting from other rainfall
events.

Total SRH is sum of SRH due to other events

Qt = (qPE1 + qPE2 + …………..qPEn)t

5. Excess rainfall is of uniform intensity

Not strictly valid. Usually intensity not uniform for even 10 minutes.
Small changes in case of large watershed – no major impact on UH
shape.
 ASSUMPTIONS IN UH THEORY

6. Excess rainfall is uniform in space (size limitation)

Not strictly valid. Rains are seldom uniform over a watershed of
reasonable size.
Rainfall variability increases with size of watershed. Storm movement.
Upper limit on watershed size for applicability of UH.

7. Linearity Assumption
All watershed are non-linear – some more, some less.
UH features – peak, time base, rise and recession – change with
intensity.
As a practical tool, UH concept is useful, linear system theory.

8. Catchment characteristics do not change with time

Catchment features change – rapidly in some places, slowly in others.
Update UH after significant changes.
 DERIVATION OF UNIT HYDROGRAPH
CONVENTIONAL METHOD
• Collect data of rain gauge stations in catchment.
• Compute average RF for major storms (e.g. RF >20 mm).
Select storms that have produced single peaks and extract
discharge for these events.
• Separate baseflow from observed hydrograph to obtain
DSRO hydrograph ordinates, QDR, and compute its volume
VDR. Convert VDR in depth units (e.g. mm).
• Select unit period of UH; determine average RF for this unit
period.
• Determine loss rate by subtracting volume of DSRO from
total rainfall to estimate the excess rainfall (PE).
• Compute proportionality factor to obtain UH ordinates QUH
from QDR as ratio of excess RF (PE) to VDR or F = PE / VDR
 ∅-index
∅-index: the average rainfall over which the rainfall volume
equals volume of runoff

If a storm has N
pulses of t hours
then the duration of
storm D = N t and
total RF
𝑁

𝑃 = ෍ 𝐼𝑖 ∆𝑡
1
Let duration of RF
excess be te, then

𝑃−𝑄
∅ =
𝑡𝑒

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 Determination of UH
Example: A thunder-storm of 6-hr duration with
rainfall excess of 154 mm produces the following
surface runoff hydrograph:
Date June 15, 1988 June 16, 1988 June 17, 1988
Time (Hrs) 0600 1200 1800 2400 0600 1200 1800 2400 0600 1200 1800 2400

DSRO (m3/s) 10 500 1600 3500 5200 3100 1500 650 250 0 0 0

Find the ordinates of 6-hour UH of unit volume equal

to 100 mm.
 Determination of UH
Since PE = 154 mm and QUH = 100 mm, ordinates of
UH are obtained by dividing DSRO ordinates by factor
F= 154/100 = 1.54.
Date Time Direct surface runoff 6-hr 100 mm UH (m3/s)
(Hrs) (m3/s) Q Q/F
June 15 0600 10 7
1200 500 325
1800 1600 1039
2400 3500 2272
June 16 0600 5200 3377
1200 3100 2013
1800 1500 974
2400 650 422
June 17 0600 250 162
1200 0 0
1800 0 0
 Use of UH to Compute DRH
Example: Two storms, each of 2-hour duration and with excess RF
of 2.0 cm and 3.0 cm took place on a catchment, back-to-back,
whose 2-hour UH for 1 cm ER is available. Compute the surface
runoff hydrograph. Assume constant baseflow of 9 cumec.

Given UH

Time 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
(hour)
UH 0 30 55 75 57 30 15 7 4
(m3/s)
 Use of UH to Compute DRH
DRH for 2 cm DRH for 3 cm Baseflow @ 9
Time UH (m3/s) DRH (m3/s)
ER ER m3/s
0 0 0 - 9 9
2 30 60 0 9 99
4 55 110 90 9 264
6 75 150 165 9 399
8 57 114 225 9 405
10 30 60 171 9 270
12 15 30 90 9 144
14 7 14 45 9 75
16 4 8 21 9 42
18 0 12 9 21
 UH – Convolution
n Equation
1 QDR,1 = P1 U1
2 QDR,2 = P2 U1 + P1 U2
3 QDR,3 = P3 U1 + P2 U2 + P1 U3
… …
M QDR,M = PM U1 + PM-1 U2 + … + P1 UM
M+1 QDR,M+1 = 0 + PM U2 + … + P2 UM + P1 UM+1
… …
N-1 QDR,N-1 = 0 + 0 + PM UN-M + PM-1 UN-M-1
N QDR,N = 0 + 0 + 0 + PM UN-M+1

M = # of PE pulses; nUH = # of UH ordinates.

DSRO hydrograph will have N = M+nUH – 1 nonzero terms
𝑄𝐷𝑅,𝑛 = σ𝑛<𝑀
𝑚=1 𝑃𝑚 𝑈𝑛−𝑚+1 for n =1, 2, …N,
 Determination of UH – Multi Storm
• In catchments, hydrographs with a single and sharp
peak caused by an intense and uniform RF event are
uncommon.
Often, observed hydrographs have multiple peaks of
various magnitudes, resulting from several RF spells.
In such cases, UH can be derived by

• Collins' Method
• De-convolution
method
• Optimization
Technique
• Instantaneous Unit
Hydrograph
 Derivation of UH by De-convolution of
Direct Runoff Hydrograph

Chow, Maidment, and Mays (1988). Applied Hydrology, McGraw-Hill, page 221
Derivation of UH by De-convolution of
Direct Runoff Hydrograph
 Average UH
• It is recommended that several UHs be derived from
data of individual storms.
• Average UH be derived from these UHs:
– Compute average peak from different UHs.
– Compute average time-to-peak from different UHs.
– Compute average base length from different UHs.
• Plot the UHs that are to be averaged.
• Sketch average representative UH, retaining above
three and ‘average’ shape.
• Average UH must have a volume of unity (1 cm) for the
basin.

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 S(ummation) Hydrograph
• Assume that the unit ER is continuing for an indefinite period.
• Resulting hydrograph is obtained by summing individual UHs -
Summation Hydrograph (SH).
60000.00

50000.00

40000.00
Flow (m 3/sec)

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.)
 S(ummation) Hydrograph

To determine S-curve hydrograph:

• Plot UH of unit period T-hour at time t = 0.
• Plot a number of such UHs, successively lagged by T-hour.
• Add ordinates of each UH at a given time, account for time lag.
• At time tb (base length of first UH), sum of ordinates becomes
constant.
• Sometimes, S-curve has small fluctuations near constant value -
“hunting effect” – draw best-fit curve.
• Max. ordinate of S-curve - equilibrium discharge:
0.2778 AQUH
Qmax 
T
• A = catchment area (km2), QUH = unit volume (mm), T = time
duration of UH (hr).
 S(ummation) Hydrograph
Example: Using given UH, determine S-curve hydrograph by incremental
method.

Original UH S-curve ordinate at S-curve ordinate (m3/s) =

Time (m3/s) previous period (m3/s) (Col-2) + (Col-3)
Col-1 Col-2 Col-3 Col-4
1 0 0 0
2 500 0 0 + 500 = 500
3 1600 500 1600 + 500 = 2100
4 2400 2100 2100 + 2400 = 4500
5 1700 4500 4500 + 1700 = 6200
6 1200 6200 6200 + 1200 = 7400
7 600 7400 7400 + 600 = 8000
8 150 8000 8000 + 150 = 8150
9 0 8150 8150 + 0 = 8150
10 8150 8150
S(ummation) Hydrograph
 UH – Change in Duration – S-Hyd Method
• Plot S-Hydrograph derived from D-hr UH  S(t)
• Shift S-Hydrograph by T hour  S(t-T)
• Take difference = S(t) – S(t-T)
• T-hr UH = [S(t) – S(t-T)]/T
UH – Influence of RF Intensities
 Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph (IUH)
t
• Unit period of excess RF is
P gradually reduced but
amount is kept same
• Peak of DSRO hyd will
increase, base length will
decrease.

TIME
 Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph (IUH)
• If unit period of excess RF is gradually reduced but
amount is kept same, peak of DSRO hyd will increase,
base length will decrease.

• In limiting condition, if duration of excess RF becomes zero

but volume of RF excess remains the same, intensity of RF
excess tends to infinity.
• Resulting hydrograph is instantaneous unit hydrograph (IUH).
• Instantaneous application of RF, only catchment properties
45
important.
Synthetic UH – Ungauged Catchments

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Synthetic UH (Subzones of India)

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Synthetic UH (Subzones of India)

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Synthetic UH (Subzones of India)

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Synthetic UH Parameters

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Synthetic UH - Example

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Synthetic UH - Example

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Synthetic UH - Example

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Synthetic UH - Example

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