Watershed hydrology and

catchment response
 Motivation
Studying stream response to water input events (catchment response) is
important for:

Water supply: Precipitation falling in the ground and then moving through
stream networks represents a resource for agricultural, municipal and
recreational water use.

Flood prediction and forecasting: Flood forecasting, the design of dams,

bridges and levees, and developing floodplain management plans
requires knowing how streams will respond to precipitation events.

Water quality: Water quality is strongly influenced by chemical and

biological reactions as water moves over the land surface and then into
streams.
 Watershed hierarchy

Small watersheds (e.g., a few

km2) can be part of bigger
watersheds, and bigger
watersheds can be part of even
bigger watersheds. The example
at right is the Patuxent river
watershed, which drains into
Chesapeake Bay. The biggest
watershed in the U.S.A. is the
Mississippi watershed; our own
Boulder Creek watershed (or
drainage) is part of the South
Platte drainage, which is part of
the Missouri drainage, which is
part of the Mississippi drainage.

http://www.uvm.edu/giee/AV/PUBS/HYDRO2/Pap_Hydro2.html
 Watershed hierarchy (cont.)
Viewed with respect to the
Mississippi drainage as a
whole, the Boulder Creek
drainage seems very small.
Boulder Creek is itself
comprised of a number of
smaller watersheds.

http://www.salemstate.edu/~lhanson/gls100/gls100_hydro.htm
http://czo.colorado.edu/html/sites.shtml
 Stream order

Streams can be defined in

terms of their order. The joining
of two first-order streams
creates a second-order stream.
The joining of two second order
streams creates a third-order
stream, and so forth. This
system was developed by
Strahler (1952), modified from
Horton (1945). The Ohio River
is an 8th order stream, the
Mississippi is a tenth order
stream. The Amazon, the
worlds largest river, is a 12th
order stream. Anything 7th
order and up is typically viewed
as a river, but this is not a hard
and fast rule in practice.
http://www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/wacademy/acad2
000/stream/stream11.html
 Drainage patterns

Dendritic: The most common form. It develops in regions underlain by

homogeneous material (the subsurface geology has a similar resistance to
weathering so there is no apparent control over the direction the tributaries
take). Tributaries join larger streams at acute angle (less than 90 degrees)

Parallel: Forms where there is a pronounced slope to the surface. A

parallel pattern also develops in regions of parallel, elongate landforms
like outcropping resistant rock bands. Tributary streams tend to stretch
out in a parallel-like fashion following the slope of the surface. A parallel
pattern sometimes indicates the presence of a major fault that cuts
across an area of steeply folded bedrock.

Trellis: Develops in folded topography like that found in the Appalachian

Mountains of North America. Synclines form valleys where the main
channel of the stream is found. Short tributary streams enter the main
channel at sharp angles as they run down sides of parallel ridges
(anticlines) Tributaries join the main stream at nearly right angles.

http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/ritter/geog101/textbook/fluvial_systems/drainage_patterns.html
 Drainage patterns (cont.)
Rectangular: Found in regions that have undergone faulting. Streams
follow the path of least resistance and thus are concentrated in places
were exposed rock is the weakest. Movement of the surface due to
faulting off-sets the direction of the stream. As a result, the tributary
streams make shape bends and enter the main stream at large angles.

Radial: Develop around a central elevated point. This pattern is common

to conically shaped features such as volcanoes. The tributary streams
extend the headward reaches upslope toward the top of the volcano.

Centripetal: The opposite of the radial as streams flow toward a central

depression. Pattern is common in the Basin and Range province of the
United States where many basins exhibit interior drainage.

Deranged: Develop from the disruption of a pre-existing drainage

pattern, such as when a dendritic pattern is overrun by a glacier.

http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/ritter/geog101/textbook/fluvial_systems/drainage_p
atterns.html
 Measuring streamflow
Measuring streamflow (discharge) generally
involves four steps:

1) Measuring stream stage: This involves

continuous measurement of the height of
the water surface at a location along a
stream with reference to some established
altitude (close to the stream bed) where
the stage is defined as zero.
2) Measuring discharge: Instruments are
used to measure stream discharge
3) A relationship is formed between measured
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/measureflow.html
stage and measured discharge
4) Once the relationships is formed, then one
can use stage information to get discharge.
One must monitor the stage/discharge
relationship as it may change.
 Measuring streamflow (cont)

A typical USGS stream

gauge that measures stage
(http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu
/streamflow1.html)
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/streamflow2.html
Measuring streamflow (cont.)

http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/streamflow3.html

http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/streamflow3.html
 Rain /
Daily Snowmelt
Snowmelt
Input
 Streamflow
response is rapid in
small catchments.
Not all event
precipitation
becomes runoff
Response to event
is variable.
 Basic aspects of stream response

Consider a small upland

watershed. Precipitation may
move into a stream from overland
flow or as a groundwater flow. The
streamflow (the flow that would be
gauged at a particular point) is a
spatially and temporally integrated
response to: (1) spatially and
temporally varying water input
rates; (2) the time it takes for a
given drop of water to travel from
where it strikes the surface of the
watershed to where it enters the
stream network; (3) the time it
takes for the water to travel from
where it enters the stream channel
to the point of measurement.

Dingman 2002, Figure 9-1

Flowpaths
 A typical storm response
The figure at the right shows a typical
hydrograph of a stream in response to a
isolated precipitation event of significant
magnitude and areal extent. At the
gauging site, one is measuring the
passage of a flood wave. The nature
of the this wave (shape, amplitude,
duration) depends on precipitation
intensity, extent, duration (as seen in
the hyetograph) and form, topography,
soils (which affect infiltration), and the
density of the stream channel network.
In a small (less than 50 km2) watershed,
the travel time of water to a watershed
outlet is primarily a function of the
hillslope travel time; for larger
watersheds, travel time in the stream
network is more important. If the
precipitation event is snowfall, there
can be a long lag (even seasonal) in Dingman 2002, Figure 9-2
streamflow response.
 Some terminology
Watershed, catchment, drainage basin: three names for the same thing

Hydrograph: A graph of stream discharge at a point (x axis) by time (y axis)

Hyetograph: A graph of water input (y axis) versus time.

watershed
Peak discharge: The value
hydrograph
of maximum streamflow in
response to a water input
event that follows the
hydrographic rise and is
then followed by the
hydrographic recession.

hyetograph

http://water.me.vccs.edu/math/tabular.htm
commons.wikimedia.org

http://echo2.epfl.ch/VICAIRE/mod_1b/chapt_2/main.htm
 Contributing area

The water in a stream identified as the

response to a given precipitation event
can originate from only a small fraction
of the watershed,; this fraction is termed
the contributing area. For an event
such as an isolated thunderstorms, the
contributing area could be small (several
km2); for a more general precipitation
event, the contributing area can be much
larger (hundreds of even thousands of
km2 ), which, depending on the size of
the watershed being considered, may
cover most or all of the watershed. The
extent of and location of the contributing
area may change during the course of a
precipitation event. https://www.meted.ucar.edu
 Hydrograph response

The figure at right shows hydrographs for a

series of gauging stations progressively
downstream along the Sleepers River in
Danville VT in response to a intense rainfall
event (hyetograph at the top). Note how the
hydrograph shape for the smallest (top)
watershed is closely allied with the shape of
the hytograph. Lower downstream, the
hydrographs are increasingly affected by
tributary inputs and storage effects of the
stream channels , leading to an increase in
the lag time between precipitation input and
the hydrograph peaks, as well as smoother
hydrographs.

Dingman 2002, Figure 9-3

 Hydrograph separation
Streamflow can be separated into the
contribution from event flow Qef taken to
be the direct response to a given water
input, and a base flow Qb not associated
with a specific event, commonly (albeit
not always correctly) assumed to be due
to ground water inputs. The figure at right
shows a hyetograph for an isolated
rainfall event of about 24 hours duration
(Sleepers River, Danville VT) and the
corresponding hydrograph. In this case,
Qb could be estimated as the low flow
before the rainfall event. However, in
practice, separating Qb from Qef can be
very difficult. For example, a stream
might be still responding to a past
precipitation event or series of events at
the time when a new precipitation even
occurs. Graphical separation methods
and chemical tracers provide ways of
separating base flow from event flow.
Dingman 2002, Figure 9-4.
There are several
ways to separate
Event Flow from
Base Flow

Event Flow
 New Water
(Event water)
vs
Old Water
(Pre-event water)

Environmental isotopes:
16O, 18O, 1H, 2H

(Deuterium), 3H (Tritium)
Geochemical tracers:
2+Ca, 2+Mg, +Na, -Cl, -

HCO3, 2-SO4
 Event flow

For most regions, the ratio of

event flow Qef to total rainfall
W is considerably less that 0.5
and often less that 0.1. The
figure at right shows the ratio
expressed as a percentage for
the southeastern United
States. Note the strong spatial
variability. These results
indicate that much of the
streamflow travels to streams
via delayed routes as base
flow, in large part due to
regional groundwater flows

Dingman 2002, Figure 9-6

 Event flow (cont)
The ratio Qef/W also varies
strongly from event to event
for a given watershed. The
figure at right shows
hytographs and corresponding
hydrographs for two similar
summer storms on a small1.6
km2 watershed at Barrow, AK.
For the first event, Qef/W is
0.63; for the second event,
Qef/W is 0.012. The first event
was during a very wet summer
while the second was during a
very dry summer. Much of the
precipitation went into soil
moisture recharge in the
second case. Dingman 2002, Figure 9-9
 Event flow (cont)

The analysis and modeling of

event hyetographs and response
hydrographs involves a dedicated
terminology

Dingman 2002, Table 9-1 Dingman 2002, Figure 9-10

 Hydrograph shape

Hydrograph shape and the terms describing

hydrograph response in the previous figure are
determined by storm size, watershed size, soils
and geology, slope and land use. Consider the
two situations at right. The lag time (the
centroid lag TLC in the previous figure, taken as
the time difference between the centroid of
effective water input and centroid of the
response hydrograph) is smaller over an urban
watershed than over the agricultural
watershed (we are considering response to the
same hytograph in each case). This reflects
the low hydraulic conductivity of the urban
watershed (water falls on pavement, allowing
for rapid surface runoff) compared to the
agricultural watershed. In turn, the peak
discharge is greater over the urban watershed.

http://web.cortland.edu/barclayj/hydrograph.jpg
 Overland flow
Overland flow is produced by two basic mechanisms

http://www.meted.ucar.edu/
1) Infiltration excess, or Hortonian
Overland Flow (panel at left) results
from saturation from above where
the water input rate w(t) exceeds the
saturation hydraulic conductivity K*h
of the surface for a duration
exceeding the time of ponding tp.
2) Saturation (or Dunne) Overland
Flow (panel at right) results from
saturation from below; water is
added to the top, but the soil is
saturated so that overland flow
occurs. Saturation overland flow
also includes return flow contributed
by the breakout of ground water from
upslope.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/15157983@N00/211869881
 Overland flow (cont).
Hortonian overland flow tends to be associated with conditions of
high precipitation intensity (e.g., a decent thunderstorm), low soil
permeability (clay, asphalt) and sparse vegetation. It appears a thin
sheets of water (sheet flow), small threads of water, or rill erosion.

The figure at right illustrates

idealized relationships
between the rate of Hortonian
overland flow qho (t) and the
infiltration rate f(t) with a
constant water input rate w(t).
Note that:

qho (t) = w(t) f(t)

Dingman 2002, Figure 9-19

 Overland flow (cont.)
Compared to Hortonian overland flow, saturation
excess overflow tends to occur with lower
precipitation intensity and longer-duration
precipitation events. It is favored with more
permeable soils (along with lower precipitation
intensity, this means that ponding is less likely) as
well as in moist soils where the water table is near the
surface.

At the onset of precipitation, overland flow is absent

and only regional ground water flow is occurring (top
panel of figure). With continued precipitation, the
water table rises and the surface becomes saturated.
Once the surface is saturated, direct precipitation can
no longer infiltrate and becomes runoff (bottom panel
of figure). There can be a contribution to the
saturation overland flow by a return flow contributed
by breakout of groundwater from upslope regions.
Return flow is usually, but not always, a fairly minor
contributor to stream flow event response.

In humid regions, saturated overland flow is the Dingman 2002, Figure 9-21
major mechanism producing event response.
 Overland flow (cont).

While saturated overland flow

tends to be most apparent near
stream areas (where the soil is
most likely to be saturated) it can
also occur where subsurface
water flow lines converge in slope
concavities (hillslope hollows)
(panel a at right), along slope
breaks where the hydraulic
gradient is reduced (panel b),
where soil layers are locally thin
(panel c) and where hydraulic
conductivity changes (panel d),
resulting in perched zones of
saturation that reach the surface.

Dingman 2002, Figure 9-22

 Overland flow (cont.)

Within a given watershed, the

extent of areas saturated from
below varies widely with time,
which is in large part responsible
for the large variability of storm
runoff observed in many regions.
This is important for
understanding and modeling
event response. The example at
right is for a drainage in central
Vermont with gentle slopes and
moderate to poorly drained soils.
As is the area that is saturated.
Dingman 2002, Figure 9-23
 Subsurface storm flow

Regional groundwater flow is usually

the source of most streamflow (base
flow) between event responses. While
residence times of groundwater are
generally too great to contribute to event
flow, conditions may occur in which
such subsurface flow enters a stream
quickly enough to make a contribution.
This in termed subsurface storm flow.
The figure at right shows a situation
with subsurface storm flow above http://www.meted.ucar.edu/
impermeable bedrock.
 Subsurface storm flow (cont.)
As the water table adjacent to streams in humid regions is near the surface,
percolation recharges groundwater near stream areas before upslope locations,
producing a mound in the water table, steepening the hydraulic gradient both
towards and away from the stream. The steepened streamward gradient can give
a sustained contribution to streamflow. In some situations, pressurization of the
capillary fringe from percolation can rapidly produce a groundwater mound. The
figure below shows the simulated response of the near-stream water table to
pressurization of the capillary fringe from a rain event on sandy soil. The lines
show the position of the water table at successive times after the onset of rain.

Dingman 2002, Figure 9-25

 Subsurface storm flow (cont.)

In many regions, hillslopes have a thin layer of

permeable soil, overlying relatively
impermeable layers. Infiltration and percolation
commonly produce a thin saturated zone
unconnected to the regional groundwater flow,
and downslope flow in this zone can contribute
to event response. This is referred to as a
sloping slab; this is the basic situation
depicted in the previous slide in which the
permeable layer is underlain by bedrock. As
seen in the figure at left, the depth of the
saturated zone increases downslope, in some
cases (see bottom panel) the sloping slab is
attended by a breakout near the stream,
producing saturation overflow along with
subsurface storm flow.

Dingman 2002, Figure 9-26

 Role of drainage density

fao.org (Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations)

Drainage density is the total length of all streams in a watershed divided by the total
area of the drainage basin. It depends upon climate and the physical characteristics of
the drainage basin. Impermeable ground or exposed bedrock will lead to an increase
in surface water runoff and higher density. Areas of steep topography also tend to have
a higher drainage density than areas with gentle topography. Watersheds with a high
drainage density have a shorter response time to a precipitation event and a sharper
peak discharge.
 Modeling runoff with TOPMODEL
http://iflorinsky.narod.ru/ti.htm
TI derived from a DEM of the Kursk
region, Russia.
TOPMODEL (Box 9-3) is a framework for
modeling runoff in humid areas by
identifying the time-varying portions of a
watershed that can produce saturation
overland flow. The watershed is taken to
be covered by a uniform thin layer through
which downslope saturated flow occurs
below a water table parallel to the soil
surface (the sloping slab). At each point in
the modeled watershed, the production of
saturation overflow is proportional to the
tendency to collect subsurface flow from
upslope areas and inversely proportional
to the tendency to transmit that flow
downstream. These opposing tendencies
are expressed in a topographic index (TI):
TI = ln(a/tan)
Where tan is the local slope and a is the
areas draining to a given point per unit
contour length; these terms can be
computed from a DEM
 TOPMODEL (cont.)
The saturated hydraulic conductivity decreases exponentially with depth to near zero at
the base on the soil. Subsurface flow qi at each location (i) in the watershed is treated
using a modified version of Darcys law:

qi = To.Si.exp(-di/M)

Where To is the transmissivity of the soil when saturated to the surface and M
characterizes the rate at which the conductivity decreases with depth.

The local soil water storage deficit di (the value of the difference between the current
soil water content and the saturated content) is linked to the watershed mean storage
deficit <d> as

di = <d> + M.(<TI> - TIi)

Where the angle brackets denote the watershed mean

The value of <d> is calculated at each time step by keeping track of the watershed
water balance (precipitation, evaporation and outflow). At each time step, points
capable of generating overland flow are those for which di equals zero.
 TOPMODEL (cont.)

di = <d> + M.(<TI> - TIi)

Points with a large drainage and small TI for the Kursk region, Russia
slope have high TI values these tend
to correspond to near-stream areas and
swales where water flow will tend to be
convergent hence likely to produce
saturation overland flow

Points with a low TI (e.g., steep terrain)

will tend to have divergent flow and not
produce saturation overland flow

TOPMODEL was developed in 1979 and

has seem many developments and http://iflorinsky.narod.ru/ti.htm
versions.