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E J Peters 2015
E J Peters 2015
Slide 2 of 65
E J Peters 2015
Necessary for a
single basin
Unit
Hydrographs
Excess Precip.
Model
Excess Precip.
Excess Precip.
Basin Routing
UHG Methods
Runoff
Hydrograph
Runoff
Hydrograph
Stream and/or
Reservoir
Routing
Downstream
Hydrograph
E J Peters 2015
Assumptions
Rainfall excesses of equal duration
produce hydrographs with equivalent
time base regardless of intensity
Direct runoff ordinates for a storm of
given duration are directly proportional
to rainfall excess volumes.( 3 times the
rainfall would triple hydrograph
ordinates)
Time distribution of direct runoff is
independent of antecedent precipitation
Distribution is the same for all storms of
equal duration (spatially and temporally)
E J Peters 2015
rd Rm t
m 1
Abstraction (losses)
Diference between total and
excess rainfall hyetographs
Phi Index
Constant rate of abstraction
yielding excess rainfall
hyetograph with depth equal
to depth of direct runof
Phi index
M # intervals of rainfall
contributing to driect runoff
t time interval
E J Peters 2015
Phi index of 2 cm
E J Peters 2015
E J Peters 2015
Graphical representation
E J Peters 2015
E J Peters 2015
Semi-log Plot
100000
10000
Flow (cfs)
1000
100
10
Time (hrs.)
E J Peters 2015
E J Peters 2015
E J Peters 2015
Unit Hydrograph
Lingo
Duration
Lag Time
Time of Concentration
Rising Limb
Recession Limb (falling limb)
Peak Flow
Time to Peak (rise time)
Recession Curve
Separation
Base flow
E J Peters 2015
E J Peters 2015
Unit hydrograph
1
T
Volumeofsurfacerunoff
=areaunderhydrograph
=volumeofeffectiverainfall
Time
E J Peters 2015
Principle of linearity
2
0.25
E J Peters 2015
E J Peters 2015
Surface
runoff
E ffective
rainfall
Principle of superposition
R1
R2
T 2T
SR 2
SR 1
E J Peters 2015
Time
E J Peters 2015
E J Peters 2015
Effectiverain
2T
Surfacerunoff
Totalsurfacerunoff
SR1(surfacerunoffduetoR1)
SR2(surfacerunoffduetoR2)
Time
2T
E J Peters 2015
Effectiverain(cm
)
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
100
90
3s1)
Surfacerunoff(m
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0
5
6
7
Time(hours)
E J Peters 2015
10
11
12
E J Peters 2015
Time
(hr)
Q(m3s-1)
Q BF (m3s-1)
(direct runoff)
100
100
300
200
500
300
900
700
1200
1100
1150
1050
950
850
600
500
450
350
10
300
200
11
200
100
12
100
13
100
EXAMPLE:
FOR AN E
The base flow is estimated as 100 m3sSubtract baseflow from column to give
column (3)
The gauge readings at the station for
the storm are shown n column (2)
E J Peters 2015
Unit Hydrograph
summary
The unit hydrograph results from 1cm, 1
in or 1 mm of excess precipitation (or
runof) spread uniformly in space and
time over a watershed a given duration.
The key points
1unit of EXCESS rain
Spread uniformly over space- evenly
distributed over the watershed
Uniformly in time
There is a given duration
E J Peters 2015
Q (m3s)
0
80
120
200
100
50
0
E J Peters 2015
E J Peters 2015
Summary
Unit hydrographs
The first thing to remember when using unit
hydrographs is that they relate effective rainfall
to surface runoff. If you are given total rainfall
amounts, you will need to determine efective
rainfall before doing anything else. In practice this
can be done either by using a constant loss (e.g.
phi-index) or by using Hortonian infiltration. (Refer
back to infiltration lecture notes.)
In this case you are provided with total rainfall
depths, and are told that the phi-index = 0.6 cm hr
-1 . So, efective rainfall is simply the total rainfall
depth (in each hour) minus the infiltrated amount
as given by the phi-index.
E J Peters 2015
Summary
The unit hydrograph ordinates are multiplied by
the efective rainfall to compute the surface runof
arising from that rainfall. This procedure is
repeated for each individual hour of rain.
Remember that the runoff amounts arising
from rainfall falling in the second hour must
be lagged by one hour, the runoff arising
from rainfall falling in the third hour must be
lagged by two hours and so on - this
accounts for the zeroes in the middle portion
of the table.
This is the second thing to remember when dealing
with unit hydrographs!
E J Peters 2015
Summary
E J Peters 2015