Hydrograph:

Hydrographs are graphical representation of flow parameters against time. When a storm falls
in a catchment, after initial losses and loss due to infiltration, rainfall excess eventually flows to
the main stream. If the discharge Q, average velocity V and depth or stage Y at outlet point of
the stream is measured from beginning of the storm to the effect of storm in the catchment
and if they are plotted against time, they may be called hydrograph. For ex:

 If Q is plotted against time t, it is called flow or flood hydrograph

 If V is plotted against t, it is known as velocity hydrograph
 If depth Y or stage H is plotted against time t, it is called depth or stage hydrograph.

Components of hydrographs:
1. AB is approach segment
2. BC is rising limb or conc curve
3. CPD is crest segment or peak limb
4. DE is falling limb
5. Lower portion DE is called ground water depletion curve
6. P is the point of crest or peak
7. tB is time of rise
8. tP is the time of peak
9. Area under ABE is the volume of base flow. This volume is assumed to have no
contribution of storm
10. Area b/w BPE and BE is the volume of direct surface runoff (DSR)
11.OA is the value of discharge at initial time t=0, and this OA may be assumed to be the
base flow
12.C is the first point of inflexion and is the second point of inflection
13. OE1 is the base period T of the hydrograph

Rising limb or segment or concentration curve:

In the initial time of rainfall, losses cause the discharge to rise slowly. Building up of storage is
gradual. If the storm is continuous, discharge from upstream reaches the outlet as infiltration.
Absorption also decreases with time. Shape of basin and storm characteristics affect the rising
limp.
Peak limb or crest segment:
It is the most important part of hydrograph. Peak outflow is essential for design of hydraulic
structures in the catchment. When runoffs from all sources reach the outlet, peak flow occurs.
In large catchment, peak flow may even occur after the storm. Estimation of peak flow and its
time of occurrence are very important in hydrology.

Recession limb or depletion curve:

The recession limb represents the withdrawal of water from storage after all inflows to the
channel have ceased. Therefore, It is time independent of rainfall or infiltration and is
essentially dependent on channel feature alone.

No. of functions have used describe recession curve or depletion curve and the one in general
use being:

Qt = Qkr-t ------------------------ (1)

Where Q is the flow at the start of period, Qt is the flow at the end time t, and kr is recession
content less than unity.

Eq (1) can be written in the more general form as

Qt= Qe-at

Where a=-loge kr

As Q1 is the derivation of storage St with respect to time t,

dSt= Qt dt

integrating

St= -∫Qt dt

Or St= -∫(Qe-at)dt

Or St= (Qt/ logekr)

Hence discharge at any time is proportional to water remaining in storage.

Q S
Or =¿
Q1 St
Taking log on both sides of eq (1)

loge Qt = loge Q – t loge kr

Which is straight line in the form y= mx+c where y= loge Qt, m= - loge kr , x= t, C= loge Q on semi
log paper. If continuous stream flow data record is available for no of years hydrograph of
recession part can be plotted in a semi log paper.

Base flow separation:

Base flow is the initial flow of the stream before rain comes. It is the sustained or dry weather
flow of the stream resulting from the outflow of perennial or almost permanent groundwater
flow that reaches the channel. This base flow of such channel is more or less assumed to be
constant.

Straight line method: in this method separation is achieved by a straight line joining from a
point A to a point B on the recession limb representing the end of surface runner.

Fixed based method: according to this method the time base of direct surface hydrograph
should remain relatively constant for storm to storm. In using method of separation ,
this point should be kept in mind this is usually provided by terminating the direct run
off at fixed time after the peak of hydrograph as a rule of, time in days N may be
approximated by N=0.8A0.2

where A is in km2

variable slope method: here base flow curve existing prior to the commencement of surface
run off is extended till it intersects the ordinate drawn at point .D is joined with straight
line DB. The volume below ADB is the volume of base flow (fig 1).for fig 2 base flow
recession curve after depletion of flood water at B is extended backwards till it inter
sects the ordinate DB at the point of inflection. The points A and D are joined by straight
line. The volume under ADB represents volume of base flow

UNIT HYDROGRAPH:

Unit hydrograph is defined as the hydrograph of direct runoff resulting from one unit depth(1
cm) of rainfall excess occurring uniformly over the basin and at a uniform rate for a specified
duration (D hours). Unit hydrographs are named for the duration. For example, a 6–hour unit
hydrograph is one that shows the impact of 6 hours of excess precipitation.

The definition of a unit hydrograph implies the following:

  The unit hydrograph represents the lumped response of the catchment to a unit rainfall
excess of D- h duration to produce a direct- runoff hydrograph. It relates only the direct
runoff to the rainfall excess. Hence the volume of water contained in the unit
hydrograph must be equal to the rainfall excess. As 1 cm depth of rainfall excess is
considered the area of the unit hydrograph is equal to a volume given by 1 cm over the
catchment.
 The rainfall is considered to have an average intensity of excess rainfall (ER) of 1/D cm/h
for the duration D- h of the storm.
 The distribution of the storm is considered to be uniform all over the catchment
 Fig shows a typical 6-h unit hydrograph. Hence the duration of the rainfall excess is 6 h.
 Area under the unit hydrograph = 12.92 x 106 m3
 Fig

Hence, catchment area of the basin =1292km 2

Two basic assumptions constitute the foundations for the unit hydrograph theory

1. The time invariance: this first basic assumption is that the direct runoff response to a
given effective rainfall in catchment is time invariant. This implies that the DRH for a
given ER in a catchment is always the same irrespective of when it occurs.
2. Linear response: the direct runoff to the rainfall excess is assumed to be linear. Linear
response means that if an input x1(t) causes an output y1 (t) and an input x2(t) causes an
output y2 (t), then an input x1(t) + x2(t) gives an output y1 (t) + y2 (t). consequently,
If x2(t) = rx1 (t) then y2 (t) = r y1 (t). thus if the rainfall excess in a duration D is r times the
unit depth, the resulting DRH will have ordinates bearing ratio r to those of the
corresponding D-h unit hydrograph. Since the area of the resulting DRH should increase
by the ratio r, the base of the DRH will be the same as that of the unit hydrograph.

Derivation of UH from a simple flood hydrograph of isolated storm

Different steps required to derive UH are:

Step 1: from the given flood hydrograph, separate the base flow by any one of the
methods. Most commonly used method to draw a straight line without much error for
simplicity.
 Step 2: determine the volume of DSR hydrograph by the formula:

Volume of DSR= ∑Q∆t

Where ∑Q= sum of all the ordinates of direct runoff hydrograph in m 3/s

∆t= the uniform time interval in hours at which the ordinates of direct runoff
hydrograph are measured.

Step 3: divide this volume by known area of catchment to get DSR in depth in cm, i.e.,
net rainfall or rainfall excess.

Step 4: divide the ordinates of DSR by the depth of DSR hydrograph to obtain ordinates
of UH.

Step 5: plot the ordinates of UH against time to get the UH of the catchment as shown
in fig.