HYDROGRAPHS

HYDROGRAPHS

 A hydrograph is a continuous graph showing the properties of stream flow with respect
to time
 The term hydrograph generally means discharge hydrograph
 The hydrograph is a result of the physiological and hydrometerological effects of
watershed
Part and components OF HYDROGRAPH

Parts
1. Ground water recession curve
2. Rising limb
3. Peak
4. Falling
Components:
5. Base flow
6. DRO (Direct Runoff)
Separation of hydrograph

 Separating ordinates of HG into Base flow and DRO

Methods
1. Horizontal line method
2. Inclined line method
3. Fixed base method
4. Variable slope method
 FACTORS AFFECTING THE SHAPE OF
HYDROPGRAPH

 Climatic Factors  Topographic and geologic Factors

 Rainfall intensity  Catchment size
 Rainfall duration  Catchment shape
 Distribution of rainfall on the basin  Distribution of water courses/ drainage
 Direction of storm movement  Slope of the catchment
 Geology of the catchment
 Land use
 Land cover
UNIT HYDROGRAPHS

 Unit hydrograph is a direct runoff hydrograph resulting from one unit (one inch or one
cm) of constant intensity uniform rainfall occurring over the entire watershed.
 The concept of unit hydrograph is based on linear systems theory and follows the
principles of superposition and proportionality.
 It is incorrect to describe a unit hydrograph without specifying the duration, of the storm
that produced it
 An x hours unit hydrograph means a direct runoff hydrograph having 1.0 inch volume
resulting from an x hours storm having a steady intensity 1/x in per hour
APPLICATION OF UNIT HYDROGRAPH

 A unit hydrograph is used for the prediction of flood peak and time to peak in the stream at
a particular section due to any amount of effective precipitation
 Application of an x-hour unit hydrograph to rainfall excess amounts more than 1 unit is
accomplished just by multiplying the excess amount by the unit hydrograph ordinates
 For example, a 3 hours rain event producing 2.0” effective precipitation would have runoff
rates 2 times of a 3-hours unit hydrograph. Similarly a 3- hours storm having 0.5” net
precipitation would produce runoff rates half of the 3 hours unit hydrograph.
 This assumption of proportional flows applies only to equal duration storms
ASSUMPTIONS OF UNIT HYDROGRAPH

 Following are the assumptions while deriving the unit hydrograph:

 Precipitation amount and intensity is uniform over the entire watershed
 Precipitation intensity remains uniform throughout the storm
 Base length of the hydrograph DRO for a particular catchment resulting from a storm of given
duration is approximately the constant
 Entire watershed is treated as a single unit
 DERIVATION OF UHG
• To develop a unit hydrograph it is desirable to acquire as many rain fall records as possible
Data • These can be obtained from the published data by meteorological department
Colle
ction

• Storms occurring individually , simple storm structure

Preli
mina • Storms having uniform distribution of rainfall throughout the rainfall excess period
ry
select
ion

• Separation of the components of hydrograph i.e., DRO and Base flow

Conv • Plot DRO Hydrograph and find area under the it.
ersio • Find ER or X = Area under DRO hydrograph (Volume of DRO)/Basin area
n of
DRO
• Ordinates of UHG = Ordinates of DRO/X
to
UHG
 NUMERICAL PROBLEM

Determine 2 Hr UHG ordinates resulting from 2 hr effective rainfall over 100 km 2 watershed area using the
following data.

Time (hrs) Total Runoff Base-flow Time (hrs) Total Runoff Base-flow
(cumecs) (cumecs) (cumecs) (cumecs)
1 110 110 8 293 113
2 122 122 9 202 112
3 230 120 10 160 110
4 578 118 11 117 105
5 666 116 12 105 105
6 645 115 13 90 90
7 434 114 14 80 80
CONVERSION OF UHG DURATION

 Unit hydrograph developed by procedure outlined earlier is applicable only for a

specified duration of storm
 The application to storms of larger or smaller duration might be required sometimes
 Instead of making hydrograph for the new duration there are two more methods
 Lagging method
 S-curve Method
 LAGGING METHOD

 The method of “lagging” is based on the assumption that linear response of the watershed is not influenced by previous
storms
 one can superimpose hydrograph offset in time and flows are directly additive
 if a hydrograph of 1 hour is given, hydrograph for 2 hours duration can be obtained by plotting two 1 hour UHG with
second UHG 1 hour lagged, adding ordinates and dividing by two
 Lagging procedure is restricted to the multiples of the original duration according to the expression

D1 : possible durations of UHG by lagging method

D1=nD of UHG
D : Original duration
n : 1,2,3,….
S-CURVE METHOD

 It is the DRH resulting from addition of series of t-hour unit hydrograph each lagged by
t-hours from preceding one.
 Any duration t-hours UHG may be obtained if we have a D hours UHG
 Simply lag the first S-hydrograph of D hours UHG by a second S-hydrograph a time
interval equal to t hours
 Subtract the ordinates of second S-hydrograph by the first one
 And multiply these ordinate with a factor D/t
S-CURVE METHOD
How to obtain S-curve

 Offset Method
 Take offsets of UHG of given duration with offset lagged by given duration of UHG from
preceding one
 Minimum number of offsets = time of UHG (Tb)/Duration of given UHG (D)
 Add all UHGs (Given plus offsets to get S-Curve
 S-curve addition method
In this method S-curve is obtained directly
S(t) = U(t)+S(t-D)
t is time step, D is duration of UHG
NUMERICAL PROBLEM

 Given the following 2-hr UHG, construct a 4-hr.

Time (hours) Q (cumecs)

0 0
2 100
4 250
6 200
8 100
10 50
12 0
 4 hr UGH

4 hr UHG 250
Time (hrs) 2 hr UHG 2 hr UHG lagged by 2 hr =(Col2+Col3)/2
200
0 0 0

Discharge (cumecs)
2 100 0 50 150

4 250 100 175 2 hr UHG

100 UHG lagged by 2 hrs
6 200 250 225 4 hr UHG

8 100 200 150 50

10 50 100 75 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
12 0 50 25
Time (Hrs)
14 0 0
NUMERICAL PROBLEM

 Given the following 2-hr UHG, construct a 3-hr UHG by S Curve

Time (hours) Q (cumecs)

0 0
1 100
2 250
3 200
4 100
5 50
6 0
 S Curve (offset method)

400
Ordinates 350
UHG UHG UHG of 2 Hr S
Time (hrs) 2 hr UHG lagged by 2 hr lagged by 2 hr lagged by 2 hr Curve 300

Discharge (cumecs)
0 0 0 250

1 100 100 200

S curve
2 250 0 250 150 2 hr UHG
3 200 100 300 100
UHG lagged by 2 Hr

4 100 250 0 350 50

5 50 200 100 350 0
6 0 100 250 0 350 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
7 50 200 100 350 Time (Hrs)
8 0 100 250 350
 3 Hr UHG

400

350
Ordinates 3 Hr S-curve
of 2 Hr S Curve ( 3 hr lag) 3 Hr UHG 300

Discharge (cumecs)
0 0.00 250
100 66.67 200 S curve
250 166.67 S Curve lagged by 3 hr
150
3 hr UHG
300 0 200.00
100 2 hr UHG
350 100 166.67
350 250 66.67 50

350 300 33.33 0

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
350 350 0.00
Time (Hrs)
350 350 0.00