Chapter 4

Flood Routing

MollsF;e1d Dam, Hill Country of Texos.

The movement of a flood wave down a chann el or through II re~e rvo i r and 4.1
the llssociat ed ch:mge in tim ing or at!c ll ua lion of the IVIt"C constit ute an HYDROLOGIC
imponant topic in floodplai n hydrology. It is esse ntial \0 unders tand the AND HYDRAULIC
theo ret ical lind praclic<l l aspects of flood routing \0 predicl lhe temporal and ROUTING
spatial \'arilltions of n flood lVa'-c through II river Teac h o r rese rvoir. Flood
rOOling mC lhods can also be used \0 predict the outflow hydrograph from II
wa tershed subjected 10 II known "moun t of precipitation.
The stOMlgt' routing concept is most easily unde rstood by referring 10
Figure 4- 1. Inflow .Ind outflow hyd rogrllphs for II smalllcvcJ·su rface reser-
voir have been plolled on the same 8mph. Area A represen ts the vol ume of
water thaI fills lW,lilable storage up to time II. Inllow eXl"t:eds outnow and the
rese rvoi r is fi ll ing. At ti me II. in llow and o utflow Me equal a nd Ihe maximum
storage i5 reached. For limes exceedi ng II . out flow exceeds infl ow and the
rese rvoi r empties. Area C rcprese nls Ihe ,·olu me ofwarcr Ihat flowsout oflhe
TC5Crvoi r and llIust equal area A if the reservoir begins and ends ll tlhe same
le\·el. The peak of Ihe outnow from a reseno'Oir should in tersect the inflow
hydrograph as shown in Figure 4- 1. since. in ge neral. Ihe oulflow is uniq uely
detemlin cd by reservuir storage or level.
229
'" Cooplef 4

Ti .... 1day.I
0.'

"
2'
'.....
""
3500
'000
- 25O
'000
3000
.1S/ .1' !<hI
2'"
2""
6000

.,,.,
3.' 9750
8000
'"0
57~O
5250
2250
"00 6000 "00
6 .' 2250 5250 - 3000
1250 4250 - 3000
"8.5 2" 32'" -3000
2"" -2""
"
10.5 °° "00 "00
- '000
11.5
12_5 °° '000
730 -''''
'" ° ° °
Using 41 = I day, storage at Ihe end ofthc first day. S\. is
51 = So + (II - (l\) tJ. t

= 0+ (250d~)(1 dllY) - ,- (24 h')(3""')( 43560"' )

uay
- , -
Ir ft
,

- 4%ac-fl-
For dAy 2. cumulative 5torage becomes
52 .. SI + (12 - Q2)!\I,

S2 = 496 + (2500)(24)(3600>(4j~60)aC-fI
= 5455 ac-fl.
T he procedure is shown completed in the followmg !able and the stor<lge
curve in Figure E4- I(b).

figure EA- I (b) 5IJ,OOl,-- - - - -- - - -- - ,

o 2'> 4 5 6 7 II 9 LO I I 12 I) 14
Tim~ (d~y~)
 flood Rooting 233

r_ ""'" ..........
""'"
1
2
3 17,356

,,• 27,769
32,232
29,256

,
7 23,306
17,356
9 11,405
10
11 ""
3471
12 1488
13 0

" 0

(b) The maximum slornge, as seen from the table and figure. is 32,232
ac-tt. This occurs Ht day S for this event. as see n from ihe equal ion
d,
(II
- I Q.

Sm•• \\~11 occur when IIS/dl equals zero. At this point. I ~ Q. which
occurs al day 5 on the inflow-outflow hydrographs.

River routing diffe rs from reser\'oir rou li ng in that 510rage in a rh'cr

reach of length L depends on more Ihan just uu tnow. The peak of the Oul-
flow hyd rograph from a reach is usually 311enll3ted and dela yed compared
wilh th at of the inflow hydrograph . Reea use slOrage in a rive r rCHeh is II
funct ion of whether stages urc rising or fl111ing. storage in Ihis elise is a fun c-
tion ofbolh outflow and inflow for lhc rOUli n£ reach (see Sect ion 4.3). Also.
liS Tlllcr slages rise high enough to inundate a floodpla in beyond t he banks
of the channel, significant lIeloci ty reductions ~Te observed in the floodplain
compared wilh the main channel. Example 4-2 presents di ffe rences between
rille r and reservoir rou ting.

RMR. AND [Link] RQUnNG CONCEPTS EXAMPlE 4-2

Figure E4-2(a) illustnttes some di fferences between river and reservoir
routing. Prove thlll. for a level-pool rese rvo ir. the peak of lhe outflow
hydrograph must inte~tt the inflow hydrograp h.
234 ehople, 4

figure E4- 2(o)

I-Q
.
ill

1...:,,,1 puul rcSC""Qir IIi,.." rcncb

' -f??:::--.3o-Q

S-f(Q)
Q - 1 (11)

fallillg
Q S"/(I.Q)

IIl~o'"
OUlnuW

SOlllllON StoTOIge in II rese rvoir may be dCltrmi ucd from the height of wa ler in the
reservoir [see Fig. E4-2(b)J. For instance. in a level-pool rCSCr\'oi r, A is
II runel ion of depth such that

S = f(l-I) '" f A,(H) tiff.

Figure E4-2[b) 1'1,(/1)

 f lood Routing lJS

an d
A , == dS/(fH .
While inflow increases sto rage in a level. pool reservoir. outflow may
he detemlincd, whether or n Ol inflow is known, if th e storage is known:

Q ~ f(S)
bm
5 = j (II) ,
Rlld,lherdore.
Q ~ /(11) .
rro m th e equation or conti nuity,

I_Q=dS dH
d, A.(H )dr'

dS
1= Q when df = O.

Since S is directly pro portion al to II.

dH dS
~O whe n -d, ~ 0.
d,
and since Q is also directly proportional to II,
dQ (IH
dl = 0 when di = 0.
Th us.
dQ dS
-~O whe n . = o.
d,
11lis occurs when Q !lnd S are maxim um. or all
'" = Q [Fig. E4-2(a)J.

Routing techniq ues may be classified in two major categories: simple hydro-
logit routinl and mo re comple;\; hJdfMUlit fouting. Hydro logic rO Uling
involves the bnla nci ng of infl ow. outfl ow. nnd volume uf storage through the
usc or the continuit y equ at ion. A second rcll1lionship. the slor:lge-dischargc
relation. is also req ui red between outflow rMe and storage in the system.
A pplications of hyd rologic routing te<:hniq ues to problems of flood predic-
tio n. fl ood comrol measures. reservoi r des ign and operatio n. wa tershed
5;[Link]:lIion, an d urban design arc numero us. Man y computer models are
2,. Chapter 4

:tvail ablc that take input rain fall , co nvert it to ou lOow hyd rograph s. an d then
rou te the hydrograph s through co mplex r iver or reservoir net works using
hydrologic routing melholls. These ~pp[icalions arc presented in detail in
Chaplers 5 a nd 6.

Hydroulic Routing Methcxb

Hyd ra ulic rOUli ng is mo rc comple x Hnd aa::u [Link] tha n hyd ro logic fOllLi ng. It
is ba~cd on the so lution o f the cont inuity eq uatio n and the momentum eq ua·
lio n for unslead y nowin o pen chllnne ls. Usually solved by e xplicit or imp licit
numerical methods on a computer, these diffe ren tial equations are known
as the Saini Venanl equations. first de rived in 187 1, for wh ich nocJosed-fonn
so lu tions exist.
Unsteady fl ow in rivers , reservoirs, a nd estu a ries is caused by mo tion
of long waves ulle to lides, flood wave!), storm surges, an d dynamic reservoir
releases. These types of WiNe fo rms can be adeq uate ly described only hy t he
one-dimensional Saint Vena nt equa tions. which arc presented in detai l in
Section 4.4. In man )' cases, the governi ng eq Uluions can be simplified to a
one.-dimensional cont inuity eq uat ion and a uniform flow relationshi p.
referred to as ki nemati c wa ve routing, which implies th at d ischarge can be
com pute d as a simple function of depth alone. In 198 1. kinematic wave rout-
ing was added to the H EC-H MS flood hydrOj;rllph package with 11 numerical
solve r. as desc ribed in Seetion 4.6.
Un ifo rm now implies a balance be tween gra vitationa l an d h i-ctional
forces in the channel. Thi:;; assumption cannot always be justified. especiall )'
on vcry flat slopes whe re effects of water surface slope cannot be ignored.
CastS where at h.:!! te rms in the momentum equat ion for hydraulic routi ng
must be rctained include (I) ups trea m movemenTof ti des and sto rm surges,
(2) backwater effects from downstream rese rvoirs and ui butary innows.
(3) fl ood wa ves in channels of vcry fla t slope (2-3 f!lmi), and (4) abrupt
wayes caused b)' sudden releases from reservoirs or dam failures. For these
cases, the complete solution of the Saint Venant equations sbould be used.
Several compute r models exist to solve these eq ua tions.

4.2 As a flood wave pa ~s throu gh a rh'e r reac h, th e peak of the ou tflow

HYDROlOGIC hydrograph is usua ll y atte nuated and delayed d ue to ~ han ne\ resistance
IIIV£J1 RounNG and storage capa ~ it y. Conside ri ng a lumpe d sto rage IIp pro ach (or the
re ach. the difference between the ord inates of t he infl ow ami out fl ow
h)'drographs. re prese nted by shade d areas in figu re 4-2. is equal to the
ra te o f change of storage in the reach. as sho\\n in Equa tion (4- \ ). The
va lue of !J.S/ !J.I ill the continuity equation is positive when storage is
increasing lind nega ti ve whe n storage is decreasi ng. and S can be ploued
as a function of time. Equatio n (4- 1) can be written in finite -di fference
 Flood Rovting 237

f'og ...... 4-2

51oroge in a fiyoe.
reach.

" "

"

U nifonn now
T~'in8CU fW

11,.;ng

Q,-. Q", ..,

Di",har.t Q

for m liS Equation (4-2). where Gf i~ referred to as the routing time pe riod
and subscripts I and 2 denot e the beginn ing and end of the time period,
re.~pect i vely:

(4-2)

If storage is plolled against outflow for a ri"cr reach. the resulting cune will
generall)' take the form of a loop. as shown in Figurc 4-2. This loop efftXt
implies greater stoTllge for a given o ut now during falling stages th an during
rising stages. If one ool1$idcrs wa tcrsurfacc profiles at various limes during the
pllssage of the flood wave, th e concept of prism and wedge storage is use-
fuL This is shown in Figu re 4-3. A large volume of wedge storage may ellist
du ring rising stages before outflows hllve increased. During falling slages.
238 Cllapter 4

F'gure4-3
Prism and wedge
ilOfage cOI'\Cepr..

inflow drops morc rapidly than oudl ow, and the wedge storage becomes
negative. Hydrologic routing in rivers and channels thus requ ires a storage
rela ti onshi p that allows for we dge sto ra ge. This is accomp lished by a llowing
~Iorage 10 be 11 function of both inflow a nd outflow, as in tbe Muskingll m
method of flood routing (McCa rthy. 1938). The me thod suffers the disad-
\'anlage of assuming the uniform now rnli ng cun'c in place of the loop c urve
shown in Figure 4- 2.

[Link] Method
The Muskin gum method wa.~ developed by McCa nh y (1938) ~ n d [Link] the
conlinuity equation (Eq . (4-2)J and a slOragc relat ionshi p 1hal depends on
txxh inflow and ou tflow. The slOrage wilhin the reach 81 a give n tim e ca n be
related to inflow and outflow by (Chow. 1959)

blxf m1ft + (1 - x)Q"/ftJ

5 = aNft (4- 3)
 flood Routing

where in fl ow I and oUlfiow Q arc rela ted to aj' from Mnnning's eq uat ion.
wln:re (f ll nd II arc constants. Storage ill Ihe reach is rel a ted to bl", where
band m art constan ts fhllt depe nd on th e cross scction o f tlte cha nne l. T hc
parame ter.r defi nes the relative weighti ng of inflow a nd oUlfiow in deter.
min ing slorage volume in the reach.
The Mu skingum method ass umes that flow and storage a re bQth
relat ed 10 de pth such Ih al m/ II = I an d b/ ll = K. the travel Time, resu lt ing
in a linear relat io ns hi p o rth c form

s "" K[.~I + (1 - x)QJ. (4-4)

where
K '" tra vcl time constan t for the reac h.
.~ = weigh ting facto r. which vari es from 0 to 0.5 for a give n reach.
For Ihe elise of lineal' rese rvoir rout in g where S depends on ly o n OU lnow •
.l - 0 in Eq uation (4-4 ). In smooth uniform channels •.l '" 0.5 yields equal
wcight to inflow a nd o utfl ow. which theo re tically resul ts in pure translation
o f Ihe wa ve. A typical ra nge fo r mos t Il<l tural streams is x - 0.2 to 0.3. which
results in some allc nual io n of the flood wave.
The routing procedure uses the fi nite·d iffe [Link] fo rm of conti nu ity
EqUAtion (4- 2) combi ned with Equa tion (4-4) in the fo rm

10 produce the Muskingu m rout ing equation for a river reach:

( .... )

where

_ -Kx + 0.5 0.1

C0 - 0 . (4-7)

C, -
K.l + 0.5 4 1
D
( ....
)

C K - Kx - 0.5!:.1
2 ~ 0 . (4-9)

D - K - K.f + 0.541. (4-10)

This procedu re is idea ll y set up for a calcuilltor o r a pc~na l computer. Note

th at K na d III must ha ve Ihe same un its. and 2 K.~ < 4{ S K for num e rical
acc uracy. and thai the coeffi cients Co-Ct. lind C2 s um to 1.0. The rout ing
o pe ra ti o n is accomplis hed by so lving Equa tion (4--6) for successive ti me
increme nts. with Q2 of one ro uting period becomi ng Q I of the succeeding
period. E:ump le 4-3 illustrat es the row· by- ro w compu tat io n. and a spread·
shee t program can be easi ly wrillen in Excel.
 ctlOpler 4
''''
MUSKINGUM ROVTlNG
Rou te the inflow hydrogTlll'h tabu la ted in the rollowing table lh rough
a river reach fo r which x = 0.2 and K - 2 da~s. Usc a TOul ing pe riod
/l r = 1 day and assume that inflow equals outflow for the first day.

r_ "'" .... "'"

.000

,
2 7000
11,000
•5 17.000

, 22,000
27,000
7 30,000

." ,
8

12
28,000
25,000
23,000
20,000
17,000

""15
1".000
11,000
8000
16 5000

" 18
'000
.000

"
20
.000
'000

SOlUTION First. we dete m li nc the coefficient> CO. C 1. and C 2 fOT the reach:
C _ -K~ + O.5j./
,- D
C_KT:+05~1
, - D
K - K.T: - 05al
C, - D
f) = K - K.r + 0.5 !J.I.
For K = 2 days, !J. 1 = 1 day. and x = 0.2.
D = 2 - 2(0.2) + 0.5( 1)
= 2.1.
- (2)(0.2) + (0.5)( 1)
Co =
(2.1 )
 Flood ROl1ling 241

Co"" 0.0476.
C1 = 0.4286,
Cl "" 0.5238.
We may check. our comp Ulat ions by seeing if the coefficienlS sum 10 I:
(0.0476) + (0.4286) + (0.5238) = 1.0000.
We sub5titute these ~atues into Equation (4-6) to obtain
Q2 = (0.0476)/2 + (0.4286)1t + (0.5238)Ql'
ForI '" I day.
QI = 'I = 4000cfs.
For I "" 2 d3Ys,
Q2 ... (0.0476)(700) + (04286)(4000) + (0.5238)(4000)
- 4143cfs.
For I - 3 days.
Q3'" (0.0476)(11.000) + (0.4286)(7000) + (0.5238)(41 43)
- 5694 ds.
This proced ure is shown completed for I = I to I = 20 days in the fol·
lowing table.

T_

,1
_ 11ow "" """'- ""
J
'000
7000
11.000
""'"
4143
5694
,• 17.000
22.000
650<>
12,789
6 27.000 17.413
7 [Link] 22.121
•
9
28,000
25.000
25.778
26.693 .... Qp
10 23.000 25.792
11 20.000 24.319

"IJ 17.000
14.000
22.120
19.539

" 11.000 16.756

"
16
.000
'000
13.873
10.934
17
18
'000
'000
'0"
6127
"
20
"'00 5114

""'" ""
242 Chopkl. A

It is possible to compute outflow at any lime if the following inflows

arc known: It, h i ) . .... 1". Equa tion (4-6) can be rewri uen iiS
(4-1 1)

Q" - 1 = Ca/"_l + C./,,- 2 + C2Q,, -2'

RepeaTed calculat ions for Q,,-z. Q,, _3•... ca n be per formed so that the fol -
lowing eq uation for Qn ca n be de rived:
(4-12)
where
Kr = Co; Kl = COC2 + C 1; K3 = K 2CZ_
K j = K,-rCz fori> 2.

Determination 01 SIorfI9$ CO<1$Ion,.

The Musld ngum K is usually estima ted from the traveltime for a flood wave
through th e reach, and x a,-crages 0.2 to OJ for a natu ral stream. Howe,'cr.
if bOl h inflow a nd oU lfiow hydrograph records are availr. blc, bcttereslimatcs
for K nnd x can be mu de th rough gra ph ical met hods. Sto ra ge S is ploUed vs.
weighteJdiS(;harge,x l + (1 - x)Q, forse\'c ra!selecledvaluesof x,andthe
plot that yields the must li nea r singJe-\'alued curve provides the best val ue
for x. The Muskingum method assumes that this curve is a strai ght line wi th
rec ip roca l slope K. Figu re 4-4 lind E xam ple 4....1 illus trate th e conce pt o f
sekctingx and K . Thus, the Muskillgum method assumes thaI storage is a
single -\'lIlued function o f weigh ted in£low li nd outflow. No rmally, a rive r
must be di"ided in lO seve ral reaches fo r app lication of the Muskingum roul-
ing method in order to maintain nume rical stabili ty. This requires that the
flow changes slowly wit h time. T his met hod has been shown to work quile

Figure ......
S~ec;ljon 01 [Link] n.
gum coefficients. x .. 0.1 l" " III

•
K_ S
xl t (t - .<)Q

s
 Flood Roo ~ ng 24'
wdl for nrdinary strea ms with small slopes whe re the storage-discha rge
curve is appl'"Oximatcly li near. Ho....'C ve r, in ,ases involving vel)' steep or mild
slopes. baek ..... ater erre" s, or abrupt waves. dynamic effects of now may be
pronounced and hydra ulic rou ting me thods should be used ra ther than
hydro lvgk methods. Alternat ively. the Muskingum-Cunge method ma y be
used as II more aocurute ven;ion of the Muskingum met hod. Hydrau lic rout·
ing me thods arc described in Section 4.7.

DETERMINAnoN OF THEMU5KJNGUM ROUTING COEfflOENTS

The values listed in Table E4-4 for in now. outnow, and storage were
measured for a parti cular reac h of a river. Determi ne the coefficien ts K
and .r fo r use ia Ihe Muskingum rouling equations for this reach.

lobi. E4-4
n_
...", .....'.,..., A.,.
"'"
Ido_
'''''''
, ""'-
2
,
59
03
129
"
70
""
,,• 205
'"" "
157
210 183
'"
7 '"
325
18'
213
203
233
3"
8
9 '"
'" 397
606
83'
'20 87'
'0
II
'" '"
'" '"
12
13

"
15
. 00
388
270
'62
...""
"7

360
'87
629

'"
30'
16
'" 230 '95
157
"18 102
'" 123
19
20
81
60
51
"'03
71
90
70

To dete rmine Muskingum eoefficie nts ...... e guess a value of x and then plot SOWTION
[xl + (I - x)Q] vs. S. The one plot that comes closest 10 bei ng a m aight
line is ,hosen to determine the coefficient values. The average vll lue is
x = 0.2 for a nat ura l stream. Therefore, we assume Ihatx musllie be tween
0.1 and 0.3. Plots 0(['\'1 + (I .t)Q] vs. S are made for .f = O.1.x ~ 0.2.
and x 0.3 using Ihe values listed in Table E4-4 (see Fig. E4-4).
2.. Choprer -4

...... ld + 11 - ><IGI!eft!

""-"
17
x _ 0.1

"
72
.. =0.2

.."
4S
• • 0.3

"n
'"" '""
"
IS' ISS
'" ' 86 ".
lOS
'91
200
'" '90
'"
'" 2"
'"
.., '"
606
'36
87S
319

'" '"
." ""
'" '"S23 .,.
SI3 '"
SO,

'"." '"
"0
'" '",OJ
'"
'" '"'
"0 '"
'"IS'
lOS 219
32O
2("
'" 19'
".
., .,.
' 32 '29
12' '12 10. 'OS
90 eo 83
'0
"
 Flood Roulir.g 2.,

It can easily be seen that the plot for.r = 0.3 is the straightest line. K
is calculated as the inverse slope of thl: line:
K 490 cfs - 300 cfs
1/ = '7~50"'~"=-'d;i:,~y'---~400;;;;C,~r''---:dCC
ay - 0.543.
K ,. I.8days.
For most streams. there will be some looping effcets fo r various va lues of
x. The most lint:ar rela tionship is chosen to determine x and K_

Storug&-Indicotion Method 4.3

HYDROlOGIC
Reservoir or de tention basin routing is ge nerall y easier 10 perform than river
ItfSfR~
rou ting because storage-<lischarge reiations for pipes. we irs. and spillways
ROUTING
are single-val ued funct ions independen t o f in now. Thus. a simple storage-
indh.-atiun method or modiraed Puis mcthod uses the finite-d ifrcre nce form
of th e continuity cqua tion com bined with a storage-ind ica tion curve
(2:l/ tJ.1 + Q \'S. Q) . Equation (4- 2) can be ge ne raliled to the following
finite-difrerence equation for two points in time :

(lu + I,,,d + (2'"

~ - Q" ) (2'•• , + Q,,+I ).
= ~ (4- 13)

in which the only unk nowns arc SH 1 and Q" .. on the right-hand side. I is
known for all [Link] d S" and Qlla re know n for the initial time step: therefore.
the right-h;md side of Equation (4- 13) can be calculated. Values o f S,,+I
and Q,,+1 arc then used as input on the left-hand side. and the c.1 leulation
is repeated for the ~ol\d time interval. and so on. The storage-indication
curve is II plot of 2S/ til + Q vs. Q. as shown in Example 4-5. Thus. once the
righi -han d side of Eq uation (4-13) has been dt:\ cnnin cd. one can rcad vnlues
of Q directly from the curve. Values for 2S/ AI - Q for the left- hand side of
Equa tion (4-13) are e~ lcu lated by subtracting 2(Q ) from the right -hand side
va lues." le detai led ~omputat iOlis fire shown in Example 4-5. Other storage
reservoir routi ng examples arc includt:d in C hapters S. 6. li nd 9.

STORAGE-INDICATION ROlIT1NG EXAMPLE 4-5

The design inflow hydrograph is shown 111 Figu re E4-S(a) . developed for
a commercial area. and is to be rou ted through the rescn·oir (pond) shown
in Figure E4-S(b). Initial condi tions mu~t be known; a:.sume that ini tially
the re!>en'oi r is empty (So = 0) and there is no initial ou tflow (Qa ,... 0).
The reservoir hali a trap!:widal plan view. wilh side ~Iope of 4:1 (hori7.0n tal:
vertical) up to dept h 5 ft above the bottom. and 2:1 between 5 and 7 fl. The
crest of the emergency spillway is al 5 fl nbove the bottom of the pond.
 Chapter 4

figure E4-5(OJ ro
InRow ond outflow Inflow (d s)
hydrogrophs. SO Outnuw {ds)

-"
< ,, -",
-"
0

1 , ,f '-- "- ,
•
'" ,.- ,,
,,
W

,
'"
., 00 .,
l 1mct'nm) ""
-
"" '" ,ro

Figun E4-5!bJ
Pond details.
II .. 7 f!

"'" 10 ~. 5jt

d- O uttet
structure

"'"
, 50 ft

r Spill"~~r

'" ~" ~

-j- -1- It
, I-di ''''~:E:
 Flood Routing ><,

Tile lower outflow is an IR-in. rei nforced concrete pipe (Rep) Illat will be
assumed 10 bellave as li n orifice wil li an en lrance loss coefficient. ed,of O,9:
QoriIke ~ CdA" v'2;ih.
.... here
QonflOO = orifice outflow (cfs or ems),
e,/ = orifice entran ce I~ coefficienl,
A" = orifice IIfea = 1TD2/4 for 11 cir<: ular pi pe of diamete r D,
g = gravitational acceleration (32,2 ft/s" or 9.8 mls2), ,md
h = deplh above Ihe orifice cenlerline (fl or m).
The ogee spillway is assumed to behave like a wei r (Davis. 1952: Frenc h.
19R5) wi th equation
Qo,wir e~(2/3)v'2sL(h - ho)I.5,
where
Q_ir = spillway discharge (ds Of ems),
C~ = wei r disc harge cocfficicm,
L = we ir length (perpe ndicular to discharge) (ft or ml. and
110 = elevat iM of weir cresl (fl or m).
Fo r Ihi~ e~ampl e, D ... 1.5 rt. e,1 = 0.9. Ct ... 0.7 (Davis, 1952), L = 15
fl. a nd 110 = 5 ft . T he orifice and ",cir ou tflows are assumed 10 obey the
indicated eq uat ions e~en fo r low heads. The stage-discha rge analysis
could be relined in the Client Ihat Ihis a50Su nlption must be mod ified. The
sum of the o ri fice and ",eir outflows constitutes a Tilting curvc for the
small rese rvoir. The Tnti ng curve eQ ui d be ta bul ar or derived from ex per·
iments in lie u of equa tions such as those for the orifice and wei r.
Usi ng th e depth. storage. and o utflow rel ationships deve loped in the
table. route the hydrograph through Ihe rese rvoir. What is Ihe ma)[imum
heighl reached in the resc"'oir for this innow? Use ~f -. 10 min.

,
I., ""'""" '" ......" "'",,.,"" ,"".. ,"".. a.....""
Tm, T.... Trap T.... Inc ... m. Cum.
TOf> a... '"-' 25/.11 + Q

0 80.0 20.0 120 6000 0 0 0

idol
0
idol
0 "" 0
,, 12. 12.
""
""",SO"
889 28.9 0
"', "" 81"
97.9
'"37.9 8389 15, 161 18.0 0

,, '"
106.8 46 .8 11,064 10.148 25,310 22.1 0 22
13,038
115.8
124.7 '"55.8

''''
64.7 15,155
12,051
[Link],097
37,361
51,457
25.5
29.5
0
0
26

" ' 00
," 127.0
129.2
810
'"
'"
15.707
16,268 ""
"""
59.173 29.9 19.9 '0
'"
,'" 131.4
69.2
71.4
'" 16,837 8276
67, 167
75,443
31.3
32,5
56.2
1032
81

'" '"28'
133.7 73.7 ". 17,416 .,,' 84,006 33.9 158.9
'" '"
".s Chapter 4

SOlUllON T here UTC two steps 10 th e solutio n: In step 1. We deYelop a Siorage -

indication CUTVe fro m the indicated gconll,) try and oUinow rellllionships.
T his will io\'oll'c additiona l computa tio ns 10 de termine SlOrage 'IS. dept h.
Step 2 is the routi ng proced ure using Ihe continuit y equat ion Mid the
storage-in dica tion curve.
The geometry of the trapezoids results in Ihe su rface areas shown in
the table. Storage (volume) S is the int egral of surfllce mea A:
S= J AIlIl .
The intcgrn tion is pcrlomlCd numerically in the table. using the lrupuoi-
dal rul e. In Ihis casco increm ental volumes arc computed by ass uming the
functi on 1\ (II ) can be approxirnatc d as a series of tnlpczoids with sides
A, and A,,"'I and width ::' h. T hen Ihe inercmcll i,r] vol um e is
A-+ A,. ,
::.5 '"' ' 2 illl .

T hu s. th e increme nt al vo lume betwee n depth 2 f1 and 3 rt is

9233 fl2 + 11 064 ft!
~S = . 2 ' . 1ft = 10. 148fI3.

C um ulative vo l u m~ is simply the sum of th e increme ntal volumes.

Note Iha t the ele vati on incrt ment :llr need not rema in conslan t and
can be re duced if greater de finition of outnow:s is ncedcd-abo\'e Ihe
we ir crtS1. for instance. Also. note that t he depth" is an inte rmedi·
ate vari able in th e computat ions and is not used in th e rc mainder of
the proced ure. Fin .. lly. obser ... e the impo rtan ce of aceural e co ntours.
normall )' de ri ved from a sun·cy. in dc ... cloping Ihe stage·vs.·... olu me
relations hip.
Next. we dc ... elop a stOrage·indication curve for the pond. This is a
plot o f (2S/ ~I) + Q vs. Q (where Q is tot al oUlnow). For instance. al
Q = SO cfs. S = 59. 173 rr' and
2S 2(59.173 fI 3)
- + Q= + 50 d s" 247cfs.
!J.I (10 min)(60s/min)
These v<l lues arc tabulated ill the prcccdi ug table. and the storage·
indication curve is plotted in Figu re E4-S(e). The CUTve is simpl)' nnother
way of presenting th e hydra ul ic re lationship between storage and ou tnuw.
The meaning is Ihnl if by another mcch~nism the quant ity ZSI ~ I + Q can
be de tenni ncd. Ihen the oUl now Q can be de termined rromthis relat ion·
ship. Note Ihlltthe [Link] curve has nothing to do wi th the
inflow hyd rograph : the only link is th at the value of ~I used to develop
Ihe storage·indication CUT"\: must correspond to thc lirue incremenl of
the illnow hydrograllh.
 Flood Roofing 249

200 Figure E4-S(c)

Sloroge.indico1ion
15() [Link] •

•
~ ]00

"
'"
'00
15/.)./ + Q (dl)

Step 2 of Ihe procedure is the actual flow rouling. Equation (4-13)

states:

Q" "." + Q,,-t )-

) '"" (--:it
For In = 0./" - 0.5" "" O. and Q" = 0 (from the known initilll condi-
l ion~). At I". 1 = 10 min.I,,+! = 2Ocfs. liS seen in Figure E4-5(a) lind in
the [jow routing table Ihal follov.'li. Hence,
I" + i,,+1 ~ 20ds.
At 1"0>-] = iOmin.5" and QII = 0 and the left-hand side of Equation
(4-13) is 20 + 0 = 20. Thus. Equation (4-13) becomes

20 + (0) "" C5~;1 + Q,,+I).

By linear interpolation within the storage-indication curve, for

(~ + Q) ,. 20.
Q = 7.2cfs.
For I" = 10 min and /,,+1 = 20 min.i" = 20 cfs and i,,+1 = 4{) crs. hence
their sum is 60 cfs. (1 is not neceSl;ary to computc the slOllIgC, 51!' to com-
pUle lhe quanlity 15/ III - Q at step n. lnstelld, we subtract twice the flow
from the known value of15/ j,1 ! Q 3t time stepn (previous row). Thus.

".
~-Q,,= (".)
+Q" -2Q"
:11
= 20ds - 2{7.2cfs)
= 5.6 cfs.
2" Chapter .oj

"od
>S. - Qn ) -
In + 1,,+ 1 + ( ~ •• , + Qn+l ).
(2S-vi
20 + 40 + 5.6 = 65.0.
From the sto rage-indication curve. for

( 2S + Q) = 65.6,

" Q = 17.6cfs.
The procedure is shown com pleted in Ihe accompan ying tabl e.

r_ ,,, (I.. + .... 11 ('~

"
- 0.) ( ".11
'" • 0_ I) 0 .+ 1
...
0
'" "",0 "'"
0 "'"
0 0'' ' '' '
0
10
20 ..,
20 20
60
0
56
20
65.6
72
176
30 60 100 30..1 130.4 24.0
110
" "
SO
60
50

30
90
70
a2A
136.3
145.5
192.4
226.3
215.5
20.1
.010.4
35.5
70 20 5Q 144 ,,5 19.d 5 28.2
80 10 30 138,0 1680 26.6
90 0 10 114,8 124.8 23.5
100 0 0 77.7 77.7 19.0
110 0 0 39.7 39.7 13.5
120 0 0 12.8 12.8
130 0 0 3.3 33 "0.'
U

'"
130
0
0
0
0
1.0
0 .3
1.0
03 01
160 0 0 0.1 01 0.0
I n Ihe flood routi ng table. th e row for which we arc solYlng ror Q IS
considered 10 be III step 11 + I. and the p rcviuu~ row is step fl. Note Ihal
co mpulntions can conlinue beyond the end of the illPul hydrogra ph. If
more precise comput at ions are needed. Ihe lime step ~t rna )' be sha n-
cned andJor the vcrtical dept h increment made smaller that is used to
develop lhe slorag..: indicat ion curve,
TIle out flow hydrograph il; also 11101100 in Figure E4-5(a). The "b ump~
althe maximum now occu~ because the water level rises above the weir
crest, and the outflow relation changes. T o dd eTmi ne the maxIm um
hei ght of the reservoi r during this inflow, II depth -vs.-dischargc curve
may be developed using tbe da ta for the storage-indicat ion eun'e (first
table). or the \'alue si mply interpolated from th e table. The maximum
 Flood Rou~r>g
'"
oUln ow fou nd in rout ing is 40.4 efs. TIH:: depth corresponding to thi s now.
the max imum stage renehed by the reservoir. is al)out 5.2 n, by linear in-
IHpola lion in th e storage-indication tnb le. If peak oUlnow is deemed to
be too high in this casco then the po nd must be enlarged to ha ndle more
storage and reduce the peak.

Detenlion Basin Routing

The purpose of nood rouling for detention Imsin design is to de lennine how
the outnow from a dcte nt ion basin an d the storage in Ihe basin vary wilh
time (or n kno" 'n inno,," hydrograph. More accurate numerical rOUling
s<:hemcs fo r solving lhe con tinu ity and slOnlge eq uati on include the Runge-
KUlla methods. C hnpra an d Canale (2006) disc uss Runge-Klltta (R- K)
m elhod~ in detail fo r solving ordi na ry differen tial eq uat ions. T hey can be
developed to solve the following eq uations wi th various orde rs of aocurncy,
where the first-order method is called Euler's method. the sccond-ord er
method iseallcd Heun's method. and the fourth-order method is referred to
as Runge-KUlla.
T he con tinuity cq Ull lion is expressed
<IV
-, = Qin(l) - Qout(H). (4-14 )

where "
v = vol ume of wate r in ~torage in the basin.
Qon(f) = inn ow into the deh:: ntion basi n as a function of time.
Q""I( fI) = outflow frolll a dete ntion basin as a funct io n of head (f/)
in the b:Jsin.
The change in volu me elV due to a change in dc plh elH ca n be exp ressed as
(IV = A ,(H ) (J/l. (4- 15)
wheTI.' A,(II) is the surface area rela ted t(l H. The continuity eq uation is
then expressed as

_ = ~Q~;.~
_<lH ( '~
) ~-"Q~oo"",
, (~Hc). (4-16)
(il A,V/)
Figure 4-5{a) ili ust nUes the first-orde r method. Equation (4- 16) can be rep-
resented by
,IH
- ,- = f(fI.,. I~).
where "
H = the depend",n l variable.
I "" the independen t \·ariablc .
 Chapter 4.

-- ~';"-711
Figure 4-50
H~",
Firsl-order
RU!l1le-l(ulto (Eule~ t f '"
IOChnique.
--' -;Ll-l all

!I I Trucsalut ionl
I I
.! I ~ I
rl'l+ 1
"
n", ~
(.,

In Ihe first-orde r sol ulion, a fini le lime inc reme nt tl l is chosen. Then
!J.N ;; f( Hn.1n) tll,
(4-17)
assuming thall he initial head ll~ is known. However, since !:J.H is nOI con-
Slant bul is continually changing with time, erro r is introduced . The second -
order R-K tcchniq ue (Huen method) alleviat es some of t h i~ error. as shown
in Figure 4-S(b), where tlH is calcula ted al the begi nning and end of th e
chosen time increment !:J.r, an d the two values of !:J.H are ave raged.
NOle Ihatthe line for step 1 is tangent to f{ Hn' In) al (n' The li ne for
step 2 is tangcnlto ! (H n , f~) at f~"' l ' First, tJ.H, is found from
!J. lh ... !( H M, 1M) !J.I.

Figure 4-5b
5e<:and-order ,",
Runge-Kutta IH uen)
techn ique .

1i .....

'"
 flood Rooting

Since N""I has not yet been calculated. [Link] can nOt be fou nd at that
point. But ,11'/ 2 is estimat ed by evaluating El:j ual ion (4-17) li t H" + tJ. f/1
a nd I~ + :lor:
IHh = f( N" + :lo N t.l" + :lot)ll.l.
Then

il. 1l = il.H I
,
+ il.U2
.
H~ ~I .. 11" + J.1l. (4-18)
Appl ying Ihis techni q ue to Eq uat ion (4- 16). wc li'lI'e
Q in(I,, ) - Q"u,(H,,) il.
A,( II,,) I.
(4- 19)
- "e(o"c'C·-';.";<)'u--:
ill/! "" ,Qc Q,~",,( "H
'._+.... ,"',..,) :lof.
A,{N~ + :loH I)
The second·mder H ue n solu tion of Equation (4-- 19) is mo re lIecUTll te tha n
the fi rM -orde r me th od.
Dy re asoni ng sim ilar (0 th at used in the a bove sol ution , th e fourth -
orde r !(·K solu tions anempt 10 imp rove the accuracy of the estill1l1 te of !J.H.
In the class ical fourt h-o rde r R-K techniq ue.

(4-20)
where

(4-2 1)
kJ =/(1" + ~'.HH + kk!t:.r).
k~ = f(l" + il.1.1I" + k Jil. I).
The fou n h-order R·K seheme is considered to be the most accurat e of the
va rious orders. Homework proble ms illustrat e the use of lhe R-K solution.
and an Execl program can be eas il y wrillen (see Lie ngmc. 201XJ).

Hyd ra ulic rOUling differs from hydrologic rou ting in th" l bot h lhe equati o n
of continuity and the momen tum eq uation arc solved sim ultaneously rather
••
GOVERNING
Ihll n t hrough the use of a n e m pirical storagc-discharge rcla tio n. Si nce EOOAllONS FOI
closed-form solu ti ons do nOI exist for the Saint Venll nt equations. va rio us HYORAWC RIVER
num erical methods have bee n developed for the compuler. ExplidC methods 'OU11NG
calculate \'nlu es of"clociry anll ll cpth over a grid syste m based o n previousl y
 c_.
known data for the river reach. Implicit m.... thods SCI up 11 se ri es of sim ult ane-
o us numerical eq uat ions OVt r II grid system for the entire river, and the
equll tions a re solved al each time step. ChulIl-'ierislic melilOds employ the
concep t of [Link]\crislic curves in Ihex/-plane. produced by converting pa r-
linl diffe re nt ia! cqu ation~ inloordi nary differen ti al equations. T he equations
can be simplified und e r certain cond itions to 111101'1 for the use of II uniform
now equat ion in place of th e full mome nt um eq uation. This method is
re ferred \0 as the [Link] cmalic wan' model.
The general eq ua tion of continuity slates that inflow minus Qu tfl ow
eq ua ls rat e of chan ge of storage. For the ri ver element shown in Figure 4-6,

inflow "" ( Q _ ' ; ~x } )./ + qillt! l.

ou tflow "" ( Q + ~ ~x )~I. (4--22)

ilA
sloTlIge change:: -;-4xtH.
where
q '" nile of lale rdl inflow per uni llength of channel,
1\ '" cross-sectional area.
T he eq uatio n of conlinu ity becomes, after dividing by axand 41.
ilA i1Q
- + - = q. (4-23)
~ '"
figul'Cl4-6
Continuity Gnd
,
momentum elements
lor 0 rive. reach. Q - ~. ;r
 Flood Routing
'"
For a un it width b of cha nnel wit h I' = average velocity. the continui ty equ a-
tion ca n be wrillen
iN ay iJy '/
y- +t.- +- = -. (4-24)
dr ax in b

The momentu m eq uation in th e x-direction is produced from a force balance

on the river clement. accord ing to Newton's second law of mo tion.
Thc following thrce main external fo rces are acting on area A as shown
in Figure 4-6:
iJ(yA)
hydrostatic: FI/ = - y- iU
-'x.
gravi ty: FG = yASOdx.
frictio n: Fj = - ,),ASf lU.
where
y = specific weigh t of water (pg).
y = dista nce from the wa ter surf<lce to the l'en troid of the pressure
prism.
Sf = fr iction slope. obtai ned by solvi ng for the slope in a uni fo rm flow
equ:lIion. such as Man ning'S equat ion.
So = bed slope.

T he hydrostatic force is the net pressure force acti ng on eac h end of t he

reach. T he gravity force is along the channel and d ue to the weight o f wate r
in the control volume. The friction force acts along the boltom an d sides of
the con trol volu me. Ot her forces th at could he ind uded are wi nd ~heilr and
expansionlcontraction. T he ra te of change of mome ntum is expressed from
Newton's second law as
d
F = -, (mv ).

Ii(mv)
" "I' tim t i l'
-- = m - + 1' - = pA~x - + pl'q 8x. (4-25)
dl dl (/1 (/1

where Ihe total de rivative of v wit h rcspel'tto I can be l'x prl'ssed

<iI' iIv ill'

-= - + 1'-.
iii al (}I"

Equating Equati on (4-25) to the ~u m of the three exte rn al fo rces above

results in

ill' ill' g il(yA ) W{

- + 1'- + - -- + - = g(50 - 5f) (4-26)
iJl ilf A (Ix A
256 Coopler 4

For negligible late ral inflow a nd a wide channel, the equation can be rear-
ranged to yield (Henderwn. 19(6)
iIy 1'8v lil\l
5, =50 - - - - - - - - . (4-27)
ax gib: gar
The full d ynam ic wave eq uat ions (Saint Ven a nt equations), presented
as Equ ations (4-23) an d (4-27), requi re numerical tech niques for solu tion
and large q uant iti es of measured hydra ulic data. incl ud ing detailed stream
cros§·~cct inn {Iescripl ions. These tln' wbllck~ CliObe ove rcome by simplifyi ng
the equations under certain condi tions. For overland flow an d many channel
flow sit uations. some of Ihe terms in Equation (4-27) can be neglected
(E,aglc50n. 1970). In a typical sha llow stream. if th e bed slope is 0.01. the ra tc
of c hange of wat cr depth (dy/ dx) will probably not exceed 0.001 ; the longi-
tudinal \'clocity gradienllerm (v / g)(lJ<'/ax) and the time-ra te of change-of-
velocity term (l / g)(iIv/ iJI) will t)'Pically be less than 0.001. Th us. the last three
tenns on the right- hand side of Equa tion (4-27) can often be neglected. In
ovc rland now conditions, the three ter ms will be two o rders of magni tude
less t h~m those for the bed slope. Va rious now roUlin g methods will result.
dependi ng on the terms neglected (Ta ble 4_1).
Th~ two approache5 that hav~ found the widest applicatio n in e ngi neer-
ing practice 8Te the ki nematic wave model and the diffusion model. (Table 4-1).
The kinematic wave model further ass umes that the press ure te rm is
negligi ble. resulting in
So .. Sf.
which means that a simple un iform now fomlU lo such as Manning's equat ion
can be used. The diffusion anal ogy results in the conti nuity equa tion [Eq.
(4-23)] and the simplified fonn of the mome ntum equation [Eq. (4-27)] as
dy
dx - So - S
"
The diffusion model is desc ribed in mo re det ail in Section 4.7. The effect of
the diffusion te rm. compared with the kinematic wave. is to make depth y
dec rease ill the vie w of an observer moving at veloci ty c. Thus. atte nuat io n of
the nood wave is included in the diffus io n model, but not for the kill ematic
W!lI'e. The dynamic wave model, whic h uses the full unsteady no nuni form
version of the mo mentum equation, is o nly uscd when both pressure and
ine rtial forcCI) are important.

raY. 4-1 f o"[Link]!he [Link] Equation

Type 01 Flow
)(,,,.,.,,(11;'; _1'1eOdy "nilorml , - S,
Diffu>iOfl l-"..oial model 51- So ity/~
Steody .,.,.,unrfotm 51 = So - i1y/~" - (y/g)iW/~
Unlleody nOflunilo.m Sf - So - ity/')>< - (y/ g)iW/ aJ< - ( l f g}a<;/dl
 Flood Routing

O ne of the simplest of all waveforms is Ihe monocli na l flood wave shown in 4.'
Figure 4-7(a). It is sim ply a step increase in discharge that movcs down- MOVEMENT Of
stream at W8\'C celerily 1/ = c :md with no cha nge in sha pc. The kine ltUllic A flOOD WAVE
WI"C is a stable version o f the mo nod inal wave and u5u311)' occurs O\'e r
sc"eral kilometers so Ihal. to the omen'er on the ban k, now appears unifonn
(Ghos h. 1997). Applying the contin uity eq uatio n (i nnow minus out flo w
eq uals change in storage) wi thin thc reach and ncglecti ng changes in wave_
shnpe results in
(4-28)
",11O::rc II and v are ve locities of th e wave and water, respective ly. and A is
cross-sectional area of the channel. Th us,
A ,vt - A2"l Q, - Q2
/I = - .
A ,-A 2 A, -A2
whe re Q is measured relative 10 the bank. For the wave of small heigh' in a
wide recta ngular channel. velocity is called th e WI\"(' a:1t:rity c and is equal to

, -----.
dQ
riA
I dQ
B ely
(4-29)

where B ischanne ltop wi dth. $cudoll ( 1900) first de\'clo~d Eq uation (4-29)
for the Mississippi River.
The argument leading to Equa tion (4-29) im plies thai Ihc wave profile
is permanent with out any cha nge in shape nnd th at Q is 8 single-valued fun c-
tion of dep th or area. The Mann ing formu la describes ave rage ve locity in 1111
open chann el:

kill ~I " r-
,--Fr·vS. (4-30)
whe re "
R = AI P,the hydrau lic radillS (ft ).
P = wett ed perimeter ((I).

Figure 4-70
Monoclinof ri $ing
f....-.-- ......-----_. Rood WO\'(> .

.. W80.., ...,Ioc"y
• It .....

'--,ltIA! - A ,) ~ A, V, A ,V,
A,
V,
---'-+ W31<" ~clooly
258 Chapter 4

A = cross-sectional area (ft 2).

5 ... energy slope (flIft).
II : roughness <.:ocfficicnt (Manning's),
k", '" 1,49 for units of ft and 5, and 1.0 for uni ts of m and s.
Th en. for a widt: r~ct allguJar chan nel w here R .. Y aDd A '" UY. 1lluhipl ying
by area gh-es lhe flow Tale

Q _ k", BY fl Vs. (4--31)

"
Differentiating, we ha\'e

,iQ =
(1)'
(~)km lJjIlVs
3"
= ?.O
3
v, (4-32)

and sUbstitu ting in lo Equat ion (4- 29) gives

S
< "' 3 1'· (4-33)

The ralio of C 10 v is always greater Ihan un ity; that is. wave codcrity exceeds
vdocity for Ihe mODocli na! flood wave (Fig. 4-7(bl).
It can he shown (Chow, 1959) that dynHlllk waves (i.e., <I graduall y
va ried rJood wa ve that 811cnuaiCS as iIIIlUYC:Z ,[Link] ll ~tn;<ltl1) in tJl IC Il c ha nn..: Is
or tidal bol'es iHlYe wave velocities of
c= I' ± VgA/ B. (4--34)
measured re lat ive to the bank. Thus. an oDscr\'cr on the bank moving at
velocity C "'ill sec a ste3dy profile (Le .. the wave will :appear to not ( hange
in time). III EqulItion 4-34. the eross·secti onal area. A . divided by the top
width, B . is eq ua l to the hydraulk depth. D. In wide, rectlingul:lTchannels.
the hydra ulic depth is eq ual to the now depth. This type of dy nll mic wave
has a di fferent \'elocity th,1Il the une preSC lllcd in Equ;Ltion (4- 28), and it
can propagate in either di reCtion. A single-valued relation betwecn Q and

f"'!Iure 4-7b H
Areo-dhchorge
,elation For ,tToo ms . Slop.; 0,01 - Velocity OCCI"'" I
Slope 08 • [Link]<ity ""ct;on 2
Q StO[lC AIJ - Wa¥e .. el oci l y

;\n:a
(')
 Flood Rou~n9

A is not assumed. and th e momentum equation must also be solved fo r the

'"
dynamic wa\'e.
Waves of the fornl presented in Equation (4-29) are term ed kinematic
wnes b&ause they arc b.'lSCd on theoolllinuity equation an d imply a unique
function between Q antl y (Light hill and Whit ha m. 1955) based on a un iform
now eq uat ion. Kin ellllllie waves imply that Sf = So and thai all other lerms
in the gove rning mome ntum equat ion [Eq. (4-27)] arc negligible.
An nl leroativ.:: derivation of Equation (4-29) comes directly from the
con ti nuity equation for a prismat ic channel:
il(} IIii)'
-+ - = 0 (4- 35)
ill .. .
0'

I (IQ il)' .ly

- - - + - =0 (4- 36)
o dy ilf ;/I •

but when moving with the wave speed ~'.

IIv d.1 .1y .ll'
. s_ + -'- =0. (4-37)
ril til ill ilf

,Ix I dQ
= c= - (4- 38)
(il fJ II)'

since Equations (4-36) and (4- 37) arc both equal to [Link]. It follows from
Equ ation (4---37) Ihallo an ob5crver moving with velocilY (' rel", ive to the
ri\'er bank gi~ en by Equation (4-38). y and Q will appear to be constant.
Figu re 4-8 shows what a stationary observer on th e bank ~es in the case of
dynamic and kil1 cmalic waves. Kin-cmatic waves appear as uniform. unSleady
now \\~ t h waler surfaces paraUel lo the bed and energy gnlde line.
In a na tural flood wave. both kinemati c and dynamic waves may be
present. The speed of th e ma in flood wave is ap pro:\imately that of a
kine matic WIIVC . wit h dy namic waves moving ahead of and behind at
speeds v ± \/gA / IJ. T he speed of th e kine mat ic wave is th e same as th at
of the monoelinal wave. Equation (4-29). If the kinematic wnve moves
accordi l1g to Equation (4-33). c will be less Ihan the leading dyna mic wave
speed . prov ided tha ' the Froude number is less Ih a n 2. where
Fr "" I'/VgA/ B. This condit ion occurs in most n<t turn l rive rs except
extremely stee p mountain torren ts. G ive n a wave celerity of 10 fils and II
rate of rise of 5 ftlhr. iJy/a,· = 1/ 7200 fro m Equa tio n (4-37). This implies
th nl onl y for c:\trcmely n('1slop,,"s or c:\tremely large rales o f rise (as for
a dam break) are the kine matic flSsumpl10ns violated lind thc w<ttcr surface
$Iopc (iJy /ik = 1/ 7200) becomes imporlan t (G hos h. 1997 ) (I.e .. dynnmic
waves arc present). However. il tu rns out thn t. for normal noods in nu tu·
ral rive rs. t he dyn amk wave (ronts attenua te ve ry rapid ly as long ns
260 Chapter .4

,
,,
,-
,,
What an oMc,ver
Qn , be ban~ ..,u
A d)"lJ(Jrn~ WD..., a ppears •• gradua ll y A k;"m","c wa oc appears '" uniform, unsleldy
,.,.,ied. urulCady nu"~ Jlll'amiioc! and flow; waleT l urfl~' and t..-d arc parallel \Q
"".,t, JUtf.~ profiles a .~ 00\ por.U.. L
1_ 4~ A B
, . l,u A
,
each OI her and 10 Ihe .Rel'!)' guile line.

:,~-~ l'. ~'"" ,, ,

'~-~~±=k
,,
I

,
J=±=
, ,, ,,,
,, ,- ' \,
, ,,

n
, n /

figure 4--8
m",~, n
ViJuolizolion 01 dynamic: <;md kinematic waves.

Fr < 2. and kinematic waves domin ate the flood rCSJ>O nse ( Henderson,
19(6) . More details on !cinematic and dyna mic nood WIiVes can be found
in Chow et :11. (\988) and Singh (1996).

4.' The kinematic wave assumption is that ine rtial nnd pressure effects are
KINEMATlC WAVE unimportant and that the weight or gravi ty force of flu id is approximately
ROUTING balanced by th e resisti ve (orces of bed fric tio n [Eq. (4-30) and Table 4-1] .
Kine matic waves win nOt acce le rate appreciably lind can flow only in a
do wnstream direction without any crest subsidence. Hence, kinemat ic wave
met hods cannot account for backwater. 'nlc flood wave will be obse rved as
II un iform ri se and fall in water surface O\'er II re latively long period of ti me.
Thus. kinemlllic waves represent th e characteristic changes in discha rge.
ve lOCi ty, and water surfaec elevation with Time at anyone location on an
ove rland flow plane or along a stream channel. Kinematic waves lire often
classified as uniform. unstead)' flows.
The kin ema tic wave method of TOuling overland and river flows is
incl uded in the HEC-HMS progra m. lIS described in deta il in Chapter 5. The
following di scussion and numerical solutioM are based on the HMS program
because of the wide 3crcptance and availabil ity (Hyd rologic Engineeri ng
 Flood Routing 261

Center, 21X16). Kinemat ic wave routing is also an importa nt 35pect of the

Stonn Wa ter Ma nagemen t Mode l (H ube r and Dickinson. 1988), a5 ~bed
in Chapter 6, and the Vflo model described in Cha pter I I ,
The concep t incorporated into HECHMS uses various clements such
as overland flow planes, collector channels, and mai n chan nels to rout e ki ne-
matic waves (Fig, 4-9), T hese various clements are combined to describe
basin and su bbasin responses to storm cve nt s. Ove rland flow is handled

Ovcrl.1nd now element! Figure 4-9

(o~rla"d now strips) Relot;on,hips be.
tween now elamtlflt' ,

I~ows from .... c. tand

11 ..... ele",ent l
/

Q,.
Su",,"'i n inflow

------------
, / ' ,,
,,, ,,,
,, ,
,, ,,
, ~"'-----.,"'C:::" Inn (>w. froll.
,
1/ collc<torohannol

,,,
,,
,, ,
, ', ''
\
Q.,
Suhll.,in outnow
26' Chapter 4

separately from open-channcl flow because of the assumptions in herem in

developing the kinemat ic flow equation for ove rland Oow planes.
Overlanu fluw in Iii..: model;s distribut ed (/\fcr:l wid.., arca ",''' lit n:ry
shallow average d epths until it reaches II we ll-defi ned collector churmel. Pervi-
ous and impervious flow surfaces UTI:l allowed in HECHMS with unique slopes,
flow lengths, rough ncsscs, and loss rates. Afterovertand runoff ill rouled down
the length orlhe overland flow strip. il is then routed along the collector system
and eventually inlO a main channe L R unoff moves through the collector sys-
tem. picking up lIdditional1aterai inflow frolll adjacem strips uniform lydistrib-
uted along the: system. Collector and main channel kinematic W3\'C rouling are
similar in theory and differ only in the shape of the collector.

~nin9 fquolion lor Kinemotic; ()yetlond Flow Routing

For the oonditionsof kinemat ic flow. and with no appreciable backwater effect.
the discharge can be described as a function of area ollly, for aUx and r.
(4-39)
where
Q = disc ha rge in cfs,
A "" cross-!iCctional area
a ,m = kine mat ic wave rou ting parameters.
Henderson (1966) I)rescnts the normalized momentum equa tion [E q. (4-
27>1 in the form

Q = QO(I- ~a(~+~ : +; : +:;)y12, (4-40)

where Qo is the flow under un iform co ndi tions. T his eq uation desc ribes the
cond ition of ki nematic flow if the sum of te rms to the right of th e minus sign
is mueh less than] . Then
(4-4 ] )
It has been shown previously thai Ihe kinema tk wave form dominales only
if Fr < 2. Woolhisc r and Liggett (1967) analyzed characteristics of the rising
overland flow h)'d rograph and found thaI the dynamic terms can generally
be neglecled if

k=:~~ > 10 or ·~g > lO. (4-42)

..... here
L = the Ic ngth of the plane.
Fr - vl ViY with v = O\'crland \·clocity.
y = the depth at the end of the plane.
So - the slope.
k = th e dimensionless kine matic flow numbe r.
 Flood Rouling

.,,.
'.8
,_. Figure 4-10
Eifecl 01 kiroemolic
wove number k on
Ihe rising hydrogroph.

6
0'
O,(j
(From Woolhiser ond
\'ggeli. 19071

"o.
OJ
F _ U)

.,
0.2

'0 01 OA 0.6 O.H 1.0 1.2 IA I~ 1.8 2.0

••
The~ results are best summarized in Figure 4~\O. whc rc Q. (dimensionless
flow) is ploued vs. f . (dimensionless lime) fo r various val ues of k in Equation
(4-42). 11 can be !iCcn that for k :s 10, large errors in cakulaled Q. result by
deleting dynamic lerms from the momentum equation for overland flow.
The killemalic wave eq uation for an overland flow segmenl on a wide
plane wilh shallow fl ows can be derived fro m Equatioll (4- 39) and Man-
ning's eq ual ion for overland !low:

q = k",
.. v'sOi"'. (4-43)

Values of Manning's" for overland flow are typically grealer Ihan Man-
ning's n for channels and are prese nled in Ta ble 4-2. based on field and
laoorn tor)' invC$ligalions.
Rewriting equations in terms of flow per unit width for ovcrland flow
qf). we have
(10 "" (ra>~l'''. (4-44)
wh ere
k,.,. ~
.
.. = - v So = conl'eyance factor .
"'0 = 5/ 3 (rom Man ning's equ al ion.
So '"" average overland flow slope.
Yo - mea n dept h of ove rl and now.
The oonl inuit y equal ion is

(4-45)
whe re
i = rate of gross rai nfall (ft/s).
f - infilt ral ion ra te (ft/s)
qn = now rate pe r unit wid th (cfslft).
Yo - mea n de pth of overland now (fl).
264 Chopler <1

TobIe ....2 EsT'_oes of Mooon ing'. Rough"'$! CotI/ic;enl'l lor CNerlond flow

Crawford and
_""C-
Smoolh o.p ..... h
o

0.01 2
'"""
lin~ey 119MI· Alphoh 01 cor.;"" poving 0014
Pocked doy 0.03
light ",.I 0.20
Den ... rurf 0.35
Dense .... ubbe.y and Iore.t Ii"'" 0.'
Eng""'" /19861' Concr~e Of o'flhoII 0.011 0.0 1-0.013
Bo... sand om 0.01-0.0 16
~Ied ....foc. 0,02 0012-0.03
Bo •• doy-loom I"odod) 0,02 0 .012-O.Q33
Rongeloo luJ"I) 0,13 0.01-0.32
B1ue9r(111 [Link] OA5 Q.)9...(l.63
~.o .. ptcid. O.\S 0. 10-020
[Link] 9ra" 0" 0.30-0.4 8
'Qbo:,;...d by eoIbOlio.. '" ~ Wa!onhed McxIoI
' Compuood by fftgmon (1 986) by k_ _ <WId -.........,.... oI............d ro , ~do",_

Finally. by suhsti lUtion of Equ;lt il)ll (4-45) in Eq uation (4-44), we have

<ryo - 1,)Yo-
-;- + £WoI1'Q)-f'l ax = I - f, (4-46)

which can be solved num e rically for Yo - f(x. I. i-f). Once )'0 i5 found , it
is substilUh:d into Equat ion (4-44) 10 give a value for {Jf}. Equat ions (4-44)
and (4-46) form the com plete kinematic wave equalions for ove rland flow .
Analytical solut ions for run off from an impermeable plan e su rface are pre-
se nl ~d in more advanced texts (Si nSh, 1996). and will nol be prese nted here.
NUlllerical techniques for solving these equat io ns are described in more de tail
in the section on finite differences.

Kinemati( Channel Routing

Simple cross-5I;!cti onal shapes such liS trinngles, trapezoids, nn d ci rcles lire
uscd liS re presentative collec tors or stream cha nnels. These arc com-
plctely characterized by slope, le ngth . cross-sectional dimensions, shape.
and Manning'S II val ue. The bas ic fo rms o f the equ at io ns arc si milar to
the overland no w Equations (4-44) Dnd (4-45). For strea m chan nels o r
co llectors,
<Me iJQc
- + - = qrr (4-47)
~ "
Qc '" cr"",;", (4-48)
 Flood ROUlir>g ,.,
where
A, = cross-sectional flow area (fI 2),
Qr = discharge (cfs),
(10 ~ ove rland inflow per lInit length (cfslft),
(J(,... In, .. tin ematit: wave parameters for Ihe particular chnnnel.

The values of (J(., and me nrc derh-ed fOf II simple triangular S<..'C tion in Example
4-6,and rcsulls arc then presented only for rectangular, trapc:roidal. and cin:ular
shapes in Table 4-3, Figure4-1 1 PTeiCnl'Uhape [Link] for typical channels.

•
Circuta r

,.,
With .-O

1
\ . /
,~ . A' I" T"e='""
. LW=:11
1:=1

I
WillllV . () - - _

<',
F"tgUre .4-11
Bosic chonnel shop.n and their variations uled by the HEC-HMS flood hydrograph
pockagc to.. kinematic wove str80m rOlJling ,
'66 Chapter <I

"""""I,e C"",,," PoramM...

U.S. C....-y Units

Sho,. m,
"
0.72 Vs
Sq~.
" 'I'
RecIor>g1e U9 VS( W 1J)j 51'
Tropoozoidol
•
Variable, n.n<;t1Ofl of A ond W
C'rc:ular
.
O.8G.4 Vs (DI I~
' 51'

KINEMATIC CHANNEL PAiAMETERS

De termi ne (Ie and m e for the case of 1\ triangu lar prisma tic channel.

'OWOON The geometry of the channel cross section is shown in Figure E4-6.
area = A ~ = l.y~ and y, = cha nnel de pth.
welled pe rimeter = Pc - 2)" Vi'"+"?
hydrau lic radius = R = A cl P r-

Figure EA-6

Substituting these into Man ning's equation for U.S. Customary Uni ts
IEq. (4-3O)J. wt: ha ~c
 Flood Routing 2"

From Equa tion (4-48). Q, - a,A:"'. Therefore.

a.. = Q'~'{~C , , )';'.

+ <:-
"'r = 4/3.

Finite-DiHerence Apptoximotionl
Fin i te- differen~ approxima tions must be us<:d to solve th e ki nema tic wave
e q uations for actual wa ters hed s and vnria ble rai nfalls a nd can be de rived by
considering a eontinuous function y(x) a nd its deriva tiVes (Chapra and Canale.
20(6). A Taylor series expansion of )'(x) al .l + h . whl're Jr = Ax. is
h2 1,3
y(x + h) = y(.l ) + I.y'(x) ..,. 21 y'(x) + 3T Y-(x) + (4-49)

a nd the Taylor series ex pansion !lt .r Jr is

h2 h3
y(.l - II) = y(x) - IIy ' (.I') + 2!Y'(x) - 3!Y ~(x ) +. (4-50)

where )" (x), y "(x). and y"'(x) nre the finil. seco nd , a nd Ihi rd d ~riva t i ves of
y(x), respecti ve ly,
A ce n tral -d ifference app rox imat ion is defined by su btr a cti ng th e
e xpansion Equat ions (4-49) and (4-50),
210'
y(x'" II ) - )'(., - h ) - 2I1y' (x) - ~)'-(x) + (4-5 1)

and then so lving for y'(,, ), assuming [he third - and higher-o rd e r forms are
negligibl e (I,.-(x) 1« I ), so that
. ,.(r + II) - )'(.1 - Ir)
y(x) = 211 . (4-52)

which has om crror of a pp roximation ( tru nca tion error) of order ,,2,
A forward d iffe rence is de fi ned by considering the e xpans ion, Equa-
tion (4-49). as
,.(x + II) ;;z y (.I') ... "y'(.r) +. (4-53 )
Sol\'ing for y'(.l) an d assu nll ng the second- an d higher-order terms a re neg-
ligible, we have
y(x + II) - y(x)
y'(x) '" II - (4-54)

wh ich hillj an c:rror o f app r01d mat io n of orde r Ir.

2.. C!.opte' 4

Figure 4-12
IlluSlra!ion 01 linil&-
j -t 1
difference grid Qnd ~/ + I
method.
; A <;
; - I.i i + 1.j

~1 "
; i.j- 1

"

Cominuous fUnCTion y
,.(x - h)
/ y (.r)
,(.:.- + h)

""
• .1
"
The backward-diffcrence approx ima tion can be dete rm ined consider-
ing the expansion, Equation (4-5{). and solving for y'(x):
,(x) - y(.t - II)
y '(x) = II . (4-55)

An xI-plane (Fig. 4-12) consisting of a recta ngular net of disc rete

points is used 10 rep resent the con tinuous solution domain de fine d by the
independe nt variables (.1" and /) in the govern ing now cqunt ions rEqs. (4-44)
a nd (4-46)1. The lines parallel 10 Ihex-axis are spaced by the li me increment.
The discrete poinlS in the solution domain are defi ned by the SUbscript i for
the x-position and the subscri pt j for the lime line. More details on fi nite-
di fference approxi mations ca n be found in ChapTa and Canale (2(X)6).

Explicit Solution for Kinematic Wgye

The govern ing kinematic W iiVl: eq uation to be solved is or the fOfm
iIA~
-
. + If'''''..A~'
" q().
_ IM e
- =

whe re Eq ua tion (4--48) has been substitute d into Eq uation (4-41). These
methods il rc induded into the HEC- H MS Flood Hydrugra ph package
(4--56)
(Hydrologic Engineering Center. 1981. 1990). and coding informat ion and
Flood Rooting .
,
boundary conditions are presented there. Furt her deta ils on numerical meth·
ods fo r kine matic " 'ave rou ting are contai m:d in Oven on and Meadows
(1 976). Stephenso n and Meadows (1986 ). 13r(tS (1 990). and Singh ( 1996).
T he governi ng equations arc similar in form for ove rland now. eollee·
tor clemen ts. and main channels: therdore. sol ution details are prese nted
only ror the collcctor elements. si nce t he ot hers are basica ll y the same.
Finite-difference approxi mations (tre made for the various derivatives in
Equat ion (4-56) over a grid space in .r and I. Explidt computa tions advance
along the x-dimcnsion downstream for each time step fl l unti l all the flows
and stages are calcula ted alon g the ent ire distan ce L. The time inc rement is
advanced by Ill. 8m! th e procedure is repeated once aga in. Figure 4-12
shows the grid space in .r a nd lover wh ich the solutio n is fo und.
The standard form of the equation solves for the val ues of Ar (md Q
at point A in Figure 4-1 2 as a fU nction of known va lues at pre\'ious points in
.r and I. Thus. using backward differe nces and an explicit !SOlution results in

X (Ai.;- t + A I_I.;_ t)
01.1'

(4-57)

wltcre IWO of the te rms are a\'eragcd over IWO points in space or time. We
solve for A;J (direclly as a function of other known values) an d then compute
Qi.; from
(4-58)
We can also com pute y for a givcn now. time. and locat ion. knowing Q
:Illd A.
Th is method rc q u i n::~ the Co uran t co nd ition 10 be mel. tha t is.
c Ili/ Ilx :s I to maintain numerielll stability (Hydrologio;: Engineering Cen-
te r. 1981). where c is the kinemalic wa\'e celerity defined earlier in Equ8lion
(4-29). Howeve r, if the Courant condition is violated , or c > t:..rj !J.f. the
numerical scheme must be modified to main tain nu merical stabilit y. The
conso::rvati\'c form of Equatio n (4-47) sol\'es firs l for Qjl as
QjJ - Qj- I'; + q fl .l· - l!J.x/ fllJ[Ai-l J - A'- t.f-t l.
where

(4-59)

Know ing QjJ. we find Ai'; by !SOlving

(4-60)
270 Choplfl' "

Some numerical instabili ty can occur under cerlai n conditions using

the above explicit method. si nce c may vary in space and lime. C how et al.
(1988) pres<: nl an alternative scheme that solves for Q as the only dependent
variab le by combi ning Iht:l roll iin uily Hnd momen tum e q ua tio ns toge lher.
They solve the following governing equation using II fin itc-di rrerence !;Cherne
similar to the o ne above ,

aQ + [!]l/m~ Ql/"- 1 aQ = , (4-61)

.n um iJi q
whe re

A a
[Q
-
"
]'"
for the momentum equation.

.., lbe application of the Saini Ve nan t equations IEqs. (4-23) and (4-27)J in
HYDRAULK RIVER nood rOUl ing in volve s solving the m sim ult aneousl)' down the le ngth o f II
ROUTING stream channeL An excellent revie w of methods is given hy Price ( 1974).
who compares fou r o f the more importa nt numerica l mt: lhods (o r hydra ulic
[lood fOUli ll g with e xact analytica l so luti ons for the monoc li na l wave (Sec·
tion 4.5). Price found tha t the fo ur. po in t im plicit numeri cal sche mcof A mein
and Fa ng ( 1970) was the mos t e ffi cie n t of the me thods a nd is most accura te
whe n /l:(/ !J.r is ap proximately eq ual to the speed of the monoclinal wave.
the k inematic wave speed. In the nume rical schemes. the stagc was de fined
at the upstream bound a ry. and rating cu n 'c con ditions were specified at the
d ownstrea m oounda ry .
T he objec tive o f the n umerical nood routin g me thod is to $imul <lte the
propagaTion of II fl ood down strea m ill a river, give ll n STage or discha rge
h yd rograp h at an u ps trea m sectio n. The preced ing me thods provi de th e
most accu rate sol u tion a vaila ble for p re dicting noods down stream in a large
rive r o r (o r consideri ng effects (If chan nel a lteration or reservoi r stora ge.
Beca use the co mpu tat ional e ffort is rcla ti\'el y large (o r any numerica l solu-
tion. careful cOmiid erat ion should be gi \'en to selecting one of the available
hydraulic methods ¥s. o ne of the simp ler. a pproximate me thods such as k ine-
mlltie WII\'C o r the Muskingum method.

The early a pproaches to nume rical flood routing were bn.o;ed on Ihe charac-
te ristic form of the governing equations. Thi~ fonn basically re places thc par-
tia l diffe ren tial equations wi th fo ur ord inary d ifferen tial equa tio ns, which arc
then solved numerically along the chnracterist iccurves. He nderson (1966) and
O ve rto n lind Meadows (\976) present details orthe oonve~ion . However, the
characteristic met hod is cu mbersome because o r rcqui red inte rpolation ovc r
 flood [Link] ~ ng
'"
the variable grid mesh in space and time. The met hod involves integrat io n
along two seu; of characteristic curves. a nd a net ...·orl: of va riable poi n ts is
located in the xI-plane by the in tersection o f the forward and backwa rd c har-
acteristic curves. With the ad ve n t of the more e Hiclen! implicit methods
dcsI;ribed in the sectio ns tha t follow. the characteristic me thod otTers no addi-
tional accu racy wi th re latively com pic)!. interpola tion p roblems.

Explicit Methods
E)!.plicil mct luxl.<; are pri marily the outcome of the pioneering wor k of Stoke r
( 1957) and issacson et a1. (1956). A network of nodes. as shown in Figure 4-13,
is defined for solving the gove rn ing equations in x an d t. T he vari ables are
known at po int$ L. M. and R. Th e cente red diffe rence solution i$ used tosolvc
Equa tions (4-23) and (4-27) for ve locity ,,(P) and depthy(P) at point P. The
init ial cond it ion ami bound .. ry conditions (upstream a nd downstream) must
be known from inflow hyd rographs and stage-outllow rela tions. The major
disadvantage of the explicit approach L~ the requircmcnt of using sma llt ime
stcps. known as the Courant cond ilion. toavoid stability prob lems I 0.1 ~ ~x/c.
where c is de fined in Eq. (4-34)1.

kTl p~cil Melhocb

Impl icit met hods ha ve receive d the most inte res t in rece n t ye ars beca use
they O\'e rcome the sta bility p ro blems of e xplic it me thods and a llow fewe r
time steps for flood rOUl ing. T he four-point implici t me th od o f Ame in And
Fang (1970) has the feature of so lving Ihe nonl inea r simultaneous finite·
d iffe renc.:: e q ua tions usi ng the Newto n iteration techn ique. In this me thod ,
a se t of N equa tions wi th N un knowns resu lts from writing the 1:q ual ions in
space a nd time a nd inco rpoTlIting upstream 11 nd downstream boundar)' con-
di tions. The details of the ite ration p rocess a re give n in A rnei n and Fa ng
(1970) with relevan t boundary cond itions. T he me th od wa$ applied to se v-
eral actual flood p red ictions in North Ca roli na a nd was fou nd 10 be accurate
and mo re efficie nt than the e xplicit or c ha racte ristic me thods. Comp ute r

figure 4-13
Grid [Link] for explicit

I I KIIulion.

L M
•
I
-
.1.\
 Cflop"" 4

(4-71 )

D = K(l - x) + 2'
.,
Thus. com putationally, the MuSking um and Muskingu m-Cunge meth ods
are iden tical. The advantage o f the Ja tle r is as an aid in parameter selec-
tion (K. x. ~(. ~t) balled on stream cha racteristics. Cunge ( 1969) shOYied for
numerical stabi lity it is required that 0 < x < 1/ 2. A complete exa lllple of
the Muski nguln-C unge rou ting proced ure is p rescn t ~d in Example 4- 7, as
adapted from Raudki vi (1979).

EXAMPlE 4- 7 MUSKINGUM-OJNGE METHOD

T he hyd rogmph at the u pstr~ mn ~n d of a ri"cr is given in the followi ng
table . The rCllch of in terest i~ 18 km long. Using a subreach length a. ...
o f 6 km, determine the hydrognph at the end or the reach using the
Muskin gum-Cunge method. Assumc c = 2m/s.B = 2S.3 m,So = 0.00 1.
and no latcral innow.

Time (hrI Flow (In'/ $]

,
0
""
,
2
3 "
28.S

5 ""
6
7 '"
134.5
,• '"
'SO
"" '"
'"
"" '"
"" ""
"
33
""" ""
" "
'" "
 Flood Routing 275

ScI SOlunON
K = !:-xlc
6km·IOClOm/km
2 mts
K = 30011 sec.
Then Equalion (4-68) gives
1 Qp 3
X - 2 - [Link]· whc reQp = lSOmls

150 m~/~
= 2" - C-2("CZ)-C(2CC5.CC3)(.OOI)(""""=)-m"IC'
x 0.253.
No lateral inflow means q = O. j.l is found from Figure 4-14 for
x = 0.253:
ax/(c !:-I) :so O.!S2,
!J.I >
ax/(c)(O.82).
A 6 km . ]()oo mlkm
a'>
2 liltS' 0.82
..11> 3658s.
u~

..11 = 72oosec(l20min).
Then Equations (4-70) and (4-71) give
I
0 = K(l-x) + 2"!J.1
= 50(1 0.253) 0.5(120)
o = 97.33 mi n.
Kx + .11/2
C. = -
D
[511(11.253)
=: + 0.5(120)J/97.33
Cl = 11.7466.
C2 = 11.4863,
C.l ." -0.2329.
CJ J.I ,h
C~ "- - - -
D
o.
Check
~CI = 0.7466 + 0.4863 0.2329 = 1.0.
27, Chopte< 4

Then
(4-69)
For j ~ 0, ax = O. and tJ.1 - 2 hr. Thus, the hydrograph for j = 0 i~
give n in wlumn 3 of the follo\\ing table. For any J and II = 0 (lime 0).
the now is assum ed 10 be 10 m)/s. For i = 0, /I = 0:

QI = C1QS + C~Q6 + C."C!?

= (0.7466)(10) + (0.4863)(18) + (-0.2329)(1 0)
QI = 13.89 mJIs.
For j = O,n = 1.
Q1 = c1QlI + C 2or. + C3Ql
= (0.7466)(18) + (0.4863)(50) + (0.2329)(13.89),
3
Qi = 34.51 m fs.
The process is com inued through j = J, /I "" 14. \0 obtain the following
values. where at 2 hr and .d.x = 6 1;111.

i j,,, !kml
" "',
"" 0
• 12 18
0
2 "
18 "
l J.89 "
11.89 "1092
•6 " 3451
81 32
24.38 18.1 9
42.96
8 '"
"7 132.44
59.63
111.23 88.60

"" ".
'OS
149.91
125. 16
1"5.88
138.82
133.35
145.37
117.94

"" "
33
77.93
4 1.94
9901
55.52 7345
18
20 "" 23, 14
12. 17
29.6]
1629
3815
21.02
22
"" 9..019
)0. 12
9.91 12.09

""28
9.70 930

"" '"
10.01
10. 15
9 .115
10.01
10.08

Rating Cu...... $
Rating curves are plots of wa te r Ie~·el (stage) Vll. discha rge. These Hre devel-
o ped from continuous rcC()rds of water level coupled wilh discrete di scbargt:
measurements made a1 times o f various river stages 10 produce 11 unique
relatio nship betwee n th e two for a pa rticular loca tion and cross section.
Howc\·cr, unless flow can be approximated as un iform ( Sf = So), discharge
 flood Routing

will be grcatcr during the rising stage of ~ nuod hydrograph than duri ng the
fall ing stage. leading to a loop roting curvc. as shown in Figure 4-14. If the
h)'drograph has multiple peaks. the curve can be \'ery complex. as shown in
Figure 4-14(a). A theorctkal ~hape for a smooth. single. peak hyd rograph is
shown in Figure 4-14(b).
T he physical ex pla nation for the hys lcrcsis prese nt in lhe ra ting curve
lies pri marily with the walc r surface slope. It is the nex t mos t significanl
term in the moment um equation [Eq. (4-27)1: if it is retained. it leads to
diffusion or nonineTiial rou ling IEq . (4-62)1. Whe n the momcntU I11 cqua-
lion is rearranged inlo thc form of Equation (4-40). il is seen thalthc now

~r-----------------------------' figure .... lla

Loop ro~ng curves.
~ Obscn'~d SIoga-dilchofse f&-
Compu1ed [rom mom':nlUm <qu,,;on lotion For Red R i~ef.
ro A1e~ond ria, lou~
5iooo. {Ft'OfII f r..,.!,
1978 )
"

'"
.,"4-~~. ~~
XI "" 60 III uXl 11II

to 20 30 40 60 70 80 90 100 110
j()
t)~[Link] Q ( I IXKI cl1)
(. )
FigullI 4-14b
loop rotins curves.
Theoretic;cl rating
cur~e.

IHende.-.on, F. M.,
Open Chonnol Flow,
hi ed_. 0 19b6.
Reptinled and EIec.~oni­
colly reproduced b.,.
permi..i."... 01 Pearson
Educolion, Inc .. Upper
$odd!.. R....., New
-.)
278 Chapte r .4

equals uniform now multiplied by II factor that depends o n the wate r su r-

fllce slope, a late ral inflow term (the last ter m), and 11"0 inertialtcrms of
lesser significance. D uring the rising portio n of the flood wave, the wat e r
surface slope is in the sa me dir«tion as the slope of the bed So and aclS to
accelerate the flow (the slope appean; as wedge storage in Fig. 4-3(a)].
Dur ing Ihis ti me, the slope iJy/ax is negative and adds 10 the fl ow in Equa.
tion (4-40). A fu: r the flood crest has passed, the wa ter surface slo pe is
posilive (Fig. 4-3(c)\ and acts to decrease the flow in Eq ua tio n (4-40).
PhYSically. the posili\'c water surface slope acts to move wa ter in the reverse
direction, th us dece lerating tht: positive fl ow.
The water sur face slope effect ca n be approximated using depth vs.
time data in the following manner. Retaining o nly the slope te rm in Equa-
tion (4-40) gives

R
Qo
= J I - So
l. §}'.
at
(4-72)

The kinematic wa\'e equa tion (Eq. 4-37) can be used to al'pro)(im8le the
slope as

" - --
-,""

ilxI" c at"
(4-73)

where c = kinema lic wave celerity. SlI b:stiluling Equation (4-73) inlO Eqlla-
lio n (4-72) leads \0 thc Jones formu la (Henderson, 1966):

(4-74)

Hcre it can be ~ee n Ihal fl ow is grealer than uniform during periods of

rising slage ("rId( > 0) and less than uni form du ri ng periods of fa lli ng
slage, leading to hyS leresis and the loop rat ing curve. The advant age of
Ihe Jon es formula is Ihal it involves only terms Ihat can be measured at a
sing le gaging location, whereas com put:ltion of iJy/ar muSI in volve al lenst
Iwo locations. Add itional co rrcctions to Equatio n (4-74) can be made 10
account for subsidence of the flood wave (Henderson, 1966; Stephenso n
and McadolO.'S, 1986).
Inte resting features of the loop rating curve are describe d by Hender-
son (1966). Poi nt C in Figure 4-14( b) is the poi nt of maxi mum flow. and
point A is t he poi nt of maximum stage. T hus, an observe r o n the ba nk
watching a flood will experience the maximum flow rate beforc experienc-
ing th e maximum 5Ia~c. T he kinematic wave me thod u~s the un iform flow
re lationship shown in Figure 4- l4(b) and thus can not simu late the loop
rating cu rve.
The USGS com putes rat ing curves for all of its gaging stali ons; these
8re usually plolled on logari thmic scales, which tend to ·'straigh len ~ the fi t
( Ken nedy, 1983). Fonunatel)', moSl gagi ng dala lend to produce rati ng
curves that ca n be represented as single valued, thus avoiding the complex
 flood Routing '79
proble ms of hyste resis just discussed. The USGS website listed in Append ix
E con t:lins d:lla on ra ting curves at sd ected sites.

Unsteody or Dynamic Models

Hydrologic routing techniques arc not adequate for modeling unsteady nOVo'S
su bject to bac kwater or tidal effects and cha nnels wi th \'c ry mild bottom
slopcs. Chapter 7 discusses the unstcady state version of HEC- RAS which
uses UNET as the internal program for compu tations. The St. Ve nant equn-
tions. as described earlier. arc typically used to solvc unstC:ldy now prob-
lems. As a result of the development of computer hardw:.re :Ind softwa re
technology. simolation software became .... idely available IOsolve the full Sf.
Vcnmlt equations in the 1980s and 1990s. [n the United States. there arc two
widely u$Cd dynam ic models using the 51. Vena nt cquatiolls. FLDWA V and
UNET. T ilt: FLDWAV model that cvolvcd from its earl ier versions DAM-
8RK (1984) and OWOI'ER ( 1978) was developed by D. Fread and h:ls been
mainly applied to the national river forecast; wh ile the UNET model was
de,·eloped by Barkau and has hcen incorporated into the U5ACE Hyd ro-
logic Enginee ring Ce nter's Rh'er Anal)'Sis S}'Slcms (HEC·RAS) in orde r to
simulate one-dirn ensiomll unsteady now through a fu ll ne twork of ope n
channels (Bnrkau. 1992: HEC. 2010).
Discrete solution over a grid and iteratio n an: the two major processes
in the compUlational process in solving the St. Vcnan! Eq uat io ns. HEC-RAS
uses an implici t fin ite-diffcre nce scheme in the stage of [Link] to
determ ine the new \'al ues of ..... ater level and discharge at a discrete point
based on all discrete poinTS and wil h alleast IWO time Sleps sol ved si multane-
ously. This implicit scheme is roun d more stable than othcr explicit schemes.
Both HEC· RAS and DWOPER use the four-point numcrical scheme. Solv·
ing the implici t equations requires an iteration approach. which means tha t
at a gj\'en time stcp. successivc solutions o f waler le\'el and discha rgc are
obtained until the difference of the latest values and the values from the
previo us ile ration is small enough. Thus. it is regnrded to havc converged on
the carrect value. For insta nce, HEC-RAS uses 0.02 ft and 20 as thc defa ult
water-level co nvergcnce amI the maximum numhcr of iteratio ns.
The unsteady flow component in HECRAS wru; developed primaril y for
subcritical flow regime calculations. But with [Link] (4.1) of HEC-RAS. Ihe
model is able to pcrfOflll mixed flow regime (subcri\[Link] r-critical. hydrau -
lic jumps. and draw downs) calculations in the unsteady flowcomput!llion mod-
ule. The hydrilulic calculations for cross sct1ions. bridges, cul\'ert.s. and othcr
hydra ulic structures that were developed for the steady flow com pon",nt were
incorporat",d into the unsteady flow mod ule. Add itio nally. the un steady flow
component is capable of hand ling dam brea k analysis. levee breaching and
overtopping, pumping. stntioru;. navig<1tion dllm ope rations. nnd pres.~uri1;ed
pipe systems. Fun her details of the unsteady flow component can be found in
Ihe manua l provided with HEC-RAS (HEe. 2010).
280 Chopler 4

SUMMARY Chapter 4 rovers hydrologic (slOTag.;:) and hydraulic routing met huds to predict
flood movement for rive", and res<rvoirs. Hydrologic TOuting requi res soluli on of
the lumped coo tin ui lYequation and II sloTHge-<ltJI fiow relation. The relation mD}' he
a fUllCIion of both inflow and OIItf!ov,· for a river. but for a reservoir. storage is related
onl y to outflow. Simple numerical methods ar" presen ted fo r solving the flood rout-
ing c'l uations t hrough lime.
Hydrau lic river rouling is more oomple.'( thKn hydtologic rouling in that bolh
Ihe one-di mensional continuity Ind the mome nt um equations must be solved. In
many cases. the mom entum cquatinn may be simplHioo to Manning's equatiOf1: lhe
procedure is ca Ued kine matic wave routing. MO:;l practica l ki nemalic Wave solutions
rcqui r..: numerical methoW; to Ct!l1Iputc actu al h~drographs, such liS those that are
current ly included in the H EC- HMS (l IM S) Flood Hydrograph package or the Vflo
model (View:. 2()().l).
Full hyd ra ul ic (dynamic) ro uling retj uires solut ion of t he Sain I Venant
equH tio ns. fo r which adva nccd n u m ~rical sehemes mu st be employed 10 maintain
mathe mat ica l stllb ili ty Hnd provide acc urate solutions. tmplicit finitc-diff(: r" ncc
methods arc the most common ly used te.::hniques. One of the mast Iccurat e com-
pu ter models for dynam ic rouling is DWO PE R. whk h llSt."'S the four-point implicit
method. DWOPE R (as well a~ the newer NW S FLOWAV) has been extensivel~
tes ted for floods on thc Mississippi. Ohio. and Colum bia Ri vers with excelle nt
results.
I ll" UNET model was deve loped by Barbu ( 1992) and h&5 been in corpo-
rated into the USACE HEC- RAS model in o rde r 10 simu late one·dime nsion1l1
unsteady flow Ihrough a fuJI network of open cha nnt ls (!-l Ee. 2010). This model
is cu rrent ly widely used fo r applic atio n' to flood ev alua tion and anal)"is lit all
se al e levels.

CONCEPT 4. 1. How does river routi ng differ from reservoi r routing?

CHECK 4.2. Compare and contrast hydrologic and hydraulic routing methods.
4..3. What are the lIssumptions nlade for Kine matic Wave Rou ting'! As a resul t of
these llS!iumpl ions. wha t are the shortcomings of the met hod?
4.4.. How does the me thod in Problem 4.20oompitll: ....ith the kinemalic wave rout-
ing method de$Cribi:d in this chapter? What hydraulic CQndi lions are neccs-
~ " ry for kinematic wave assumptio ns to be va lid for ove rland flnw? What arc
advantages ~nd d i ~ad,"a n lages of usi ng kinema tic channe l rout ing compared
with sol"inS tile Saint Venanl «I uatinns?
4..5. What is a rO ling curve? How Uocs a loop rating CUT\'e occur?

PROBlEMS 4.6. An inflOW h~drogra p h is meas ured for a crou sect ion of a strea m. Compute
the OUlnOw hydrograph at a poi nt 5 mi l¢!; downstream ming the Musl.:i ngum
method. A»ume K - 12 hr. x '" 02. and thai outflow equals inflow initian)·.
Plot the inflow and OUtflo\\' h>·drugrapm.
 Flood Rou~ng 28'
Tim.1bi
, ...... "'"
50
12 75
" 150

30" "0
1000
..0
"" 750

",.
00
000
300
100

" '0
4.7. Usin!: t he Muskingum method. route the followrng inflow hy<J rogra ph ass um·
ing (a) K - 4 hr. x '" O. L BOld (b) K - 2 hr ..r - 0.3. Plot the inflow and out·
flow hydro&mpll5 for ~3ch ease assumi ng in itia l outflow equ als initial ",flow.

r""" !hoi Wiawlml/sj

0
2 ,
0

,,• 25
'0
JS
10 21
12 IJ

"2.'
""" 0
4JL Develop n Muskingum routmg progrnm m Excel. and repea t Problem 4.7.
Compare the rcsulLs.
4.9. 1-1 000 rou te the given input hydrogno ph thrOll!:h ~ linea r reservoir (S = KQ).
given K - 2.5 hr and 11.1 = 1 hr. Sol...: one step beyond the peak outflow by
developing II. simple relation for computin g outflow Q2. as II. function of Q I.
and inflo..-, ' I arnlil . Assume Ihat storoge and outflow arc iniliftlly 20:<0. Use
the fact that S - K(.d ... ( I - .r)Q) and I - Q ~ .lS/ !J.I. (Ilim: Use the fact
thal lhe reservoir is li near to de termi ne x ).

rlTlM (hoi InIIow (ds!

0 0
100
2 250
3 .co
•
,,,
350
300
200
, 100
50
9 0
282 Chaptef A

4.10. 1\ detent ion p·ond needs \0 be designed wilh a tot~1 ~apac jl y of 30 ae_in. ofslor.
age. The innow hydrogra ph for the pond ill gi,"C n in Figure P 10. Assume tha t
Ih.a! pond i$ ini tially 50% full and ou tflow ",ill ~ when the polld i$ again
50%0 full. Graphkally dw:rmine the peak outflow from the pond a5SUmi ng a
li near rise and fa ll in the outflow hydrograph. Draw the Qutnow h)'drograpb.
A l whal lime d~ outflow ceuc'l ( Hin/: The out flow hyd rograph wiU pea k at
lhe imcrsection or lhe inflOW and Ihe outflow hydrographs. A lso. ma~ c use of
Ihe fact thaI the .,·ailable volume for storage i1 eq ual eo the Irca between the
\\\"0 triangular hydrographs and must be equal 10 50% of the 5tOl1lge.)

Figure P4- 10

,"
i ,
•
~
2

" 2 , , • " "

TIme (hr)

4.11 . A n infl ow hydrogra ph is givc o for a rest: rv" ir thai has a wcir-spillway om flow
s\ruo:;l l1re. l "e flow through Ihe spi ll"'ay is gO\'emcd by Ihe equa lion
Q - J.7SLylil (tfl).
where L is the le nglh of Ihe weir and )' is Ih e hei ght of Ihe WilIer abo"e Ihe
spi llway ~rcst. The slorage in Ihe reservoir is governed by
S _ 3(0)' (ae·h).

[Link] ~I - 12 hr, L = 15 fl. and So - Qo - 0, rOUle Ihe innow hydrograph

Ihrough lhe TCservoir using Ihe ~Io ra gol indicalio" me lhod.

lime (Iwj

"
.,...
,""'-

"" "
37

"
60 '"
'"
72

" '"
'"
10.
96
'"
67'
'20
"2 '"25'
'"
'58 '"10
 Flood RooIillg 283

4.12 A r!!$entoir has a linear S-Q relatiomhip of

!i - KQ.
where K _ 1.2 1 hr. The inflow h)'drognll'h for a ~ I orm event is give n in the table.
(a) Develo p Hsimple rccur.;ive re lat ion us in g the continu ily cqu aL ion an d S-Q
rcl ~tionsh ip for the linear re~ "'oi r li.e .. IIQ2 = hQ, + cT. whe re II. b. and
c IrcconstanlS and I = (I, + /2)/ 21·
(b) SlOrage rolJle lhe hydrograp h through the r!!$ervoir using :lr _ I hr_
(e) Explain " 'hy tIM:: shape of sLorage-discharge re lations is usually not liflCar
for aClual reser. airs.

fi,... (hrl Inflow (mJ/J)

0 0
1 100
2 200
,
3 '00
300
,,
5 200
100
, 50
0

4.. l l. O i"en the r«ervoir wi th a slor~gc·d isch argc relat ionsh ip 1I0\'e rnc d by the
eq uahon
S _ KQV"!-.

route the innow hyd rograph for Problem 4.5 using Slorage roUlmg ledmiques and
a value of K '"' 1.21 for Q in n?hi alld Sin mlls-h r. Di= the differe nces in lhe
outfl ow h)'drogmph for this rescl"\'Oir and for Ihe [Link]"\'Oir of Proble m 4. ]2. Use
,),/ - ] h•.

4.14.. A stor m event oc.:cu rred on Fal ls Cree k Walc r~hcd thai prod uee ll a rainfall pal ·
tern of5 crnlh r (or Ihe first 10 min . lD em/hr in the scrond 10 min. and 5LTnlhr in
the nc~ t 10m lO. ·1lIe IIo'atershed is dividell imo IhrL'Csuhbasins (sec Fig. P4-14).
wil h the Unil hydrog,raphs given in lhe fol lowing table . Subbasins It and B had
IIIuss rate \If 2.5 cmlhr for the first ]0 min and 1.0 cnlfhr t hereMlcr. Suhbasin
C had a los!; rMlC of ].0 cmlhr fur lhe first 10 min and Ocmlhr therenfl cr. Usi ng
8 simple lag TOllling method (time Shl{t Ille hydrograph b>' K ), dele rmine Ihe
storm hyd rograph 81 poin t 2. Assu me a lag lime K of 30 mm .

,, figure P4-14
A - _ _, "

--: _-_-_-_-~:;;-~-,;'-"--'C'"-_2::,.. ,
---
.
, Chopter .4

,
s..bbasin ... S..bbolicl • [Link].. C
r... lminl Q (m]/fl li_ (min) Q (m3,,) lime lmInI Q!mJ/ s)
0 0 0 0 0 0
>0 5 '0 5 >0 16.7
20
30
>0
"
20
20
30
>0
"
20
"
30
33.4
50.0
33. 4
'0
50
00
25
20
"
50
00
25
20 "
'0
00
16.7
0
70 70
.0
90
"
'0
5
80
90
"
'0
5
"lO 0 >00 0
4.15. Repe al Probl ~rn 4.14 m in g Muddn gum rouling methods instead of sim ]Jle
lag routing. Discuss the differe nces b.:t.... ecn lhe IWI) ~lOJm hydrographs. Use
x - 0.2. K - 30 min. aoo!J,1 = 10 min. The hydrographs in each suba rea arc
found in Problem 4.14.
4.16. Develop D spreadsheet for Muskingum rouling usi ng Ihe given inflow hydro-
grap h lllrough the river rc~cll. where K '" 2 hr. x - 0.15. and tor - 2 hr.
Ti_ (h-) InAow (m'/sI
0 00
,
2 "lO
200
6 300
•
>0
000
1310

""
1930
"00
"" 930
650
20 «0
,.,
300

""26 '20 .,
"
30 60
4.1 7. A .esc,,·oi. has Ihe s!orage·diso; harge relationship below. Route the innow
hydrograph in Problem 4. 16 th rough lhe reservoir, assumi ng an initial storage
0( 52 x l(J6m l ofwate r.

20
"
"3
..
56
67.5 « 0
"00
2000
'20
 Flood Rooting
'"
4.18. Th .. [Link]-~ge equation has been gi''Cn as
Si = Klxl; + ( I - x)O, 1
and Ihe conli nuity eqoation a5
7= 0 + [Link] o.l.
Glvcn Ih ~t I and 0 are Iheav.;:mge innow ~nd oullWw within lhe lime period and
<l.S iii the (hange in the storage. derive the Muskingum river muting equat ion:
O2 = Crh + el / l + C20 1.
where h and O~ rd.::r to li>c innow and OtI tllow 3lth(" (" nd mthe time pcriotJ.
'I
and and 0 1 refe r 10 those " alue5 al the begi nning of the ti me pe riod. Verify
thc eq uDtiom; for Cg• C I• and C2 g;"c n in Section 4.2.
4.19. Delermine the out fl ow hydrograph given the innow hydrograph be low. Usc
Muskingum TOU ling. taking K = 2 hr . .,. - 0.2. and :11 = I hour.

r_ M
, InIIaw ""'/sl

2 "'"
'"
,
3 200
320
,,
5
'"
560
"0
9
• 700
600

"" 500
'00

""
300
200

"""
'00
'00
'00
'00
"" '00
20" ' 00
'00
[Link]. Develop h lie'" nood TOuting method for r('Clangular cross scclions based on
the MU$ki ngom and storage indication tcch niques. InSlead of using the Musk-
ingum storage equation S - ! ( K. .r. l. QJ. use Manning's eqoation ill the fom1
wh~ r.., 11 and m are constants. Assume plism31ic ch annel c'Ontlit;om at eac h
lime step. ~ nd de ri ve th e nec'."»ary equation for flood routmg m a given reet -
angular channel wit h lengt h L, in fl o,,'S ' I Bnd f~. channel width 8 , and outno","S
Q I and Q2- Manning"s equatioo take~ t he form

Q "" ay"',
4.21. Equatioo (4-047) aoo Mannins'sequal,nn (Eq. 4-48)oon bcrombincd tudcvelop
a second form of th~ kinematic wave equation !Eq. (4--56»). but III terms of Q.
286 Chapter 4

.
(a ) Prove Ihal the equalion

i1Q ... al3~- laQ - q

"
,5 anolher form of Ihe kine malic wa,'C equallon.
(b) What are the val ues of D and fJ from Manning's equation?
4.22. Repeat Pro blem 4.J1 for lilt: case thHt the reservoir is partia lly fu ll of walcr
wilh initial height ahove Ihe we ir of y - 3 fl. A"",umc vc rlical waUs (i.e .. con _
Shllll surfacc area for all depths).
4.23. The hydrograph at the upSlrea m end of R r iver is give n in Ihe following ta hle.
Develop Ihe hyd rograph for Ihe downslream cnd of Ihis river reach acoording
In Ihe Muskingum-Cunge melhod. The reach of in le rest is 4 km long. The
channel is trapezoidal (2:1 side slope) "" llh bollom widl h of 10 m. Assume
So ., [Link] I. :h - 2 " m. flr = 30 mi n. c - 1.47 mIs. and no lateral 'nnow.
T_~ flow ""II ,]
0 0
JO ,
60
"
"
'"
27
JO
2Q
'"
'"0 27
2>0
"0 "'"
270
'00 ",•
330
'60
.,.
''''
3
,
0
4.24. Tilt: innow hydrograph 10 a n:clangular channel IS labulated below. The chan·
nel has II. width of 100 fl. a boltom slope of 0.001. and Manningn of 0.03.'1. The
lenglh of the chan nel is L ~ 30,00(') fl. Usiullihe Kinematic Wave. obta in Ihe
oUl now hydrogJaph.

Time (mini Innow ldJ)

0 2300
20 2300
'0 3300
60 "00
.0 5500
,,.
'00 6500
SOOO
"0 ' 000
' 60 3000
'"0 2000
200 2000
220 2000
 Flood Routing 2"
4.1.5. Using o nly the inflow hydrograph from Example 4.7 (i.e .• no predpilation).
use HEC HMS· ([Link].u$[Link] lolod.
hlml) 10 route the h) drogn. ph through a channel u5ing tl><: Muskingum-Cungc
rout ing method. The channel has a trapezoidal cross section wi th a 3:1 side
§Iape (horizontab·crtical). a Manning 's roughness (n) of 0.039. and a bono",
.... id th of 8 meters. Assume there is no 101.~ in the channel. What is tile value of
pe ak no w and when docs il occu r? (-Rrfu 10 Chopl..' 5 for dem;lcd ;IIformmioll
011 IIEC· HMS.)
4.16. Repeat Problem 4.25 fo. reac h lengths of 6. 12. and 32 tm. What happens to
th e liming and "allle of the pea k flo....·! EJc plain.
4.27. Bull Creek Watershed has a reservoir with storage relationsh,p

S = All.

where" ;s the area (300 ac) Mnd H is Ihe depth OJ head of lhe rese rvoir in
feel.
For simplici lY . the area is assumed to be constant with depth. The outflow is
gO"erned by the eq Llatioo

.... here 0 is in d s. Route Ihe storm hydrograph represented in the follo.... in g

tahle through the reser"oir. using the fouMh-order Runge- Kuua method.
The governing equation is

.lH Q..{t) - Q_{H)

T, - /(1. H ) - A,(lJ) .

The fourt h-«der R · K eq uation will be used as shown in Equa tions (4-20) Bnd
(4--21). The a$l;umption is maae Ihat 1If} - 0 ft and Q"",(lIo) _ 0 ds. Values
of Q;" are lOtcrpolatcd as necessary. and values of Q_ arc found from the
equ~rion Q= j6.25 I1~.

Tim. (hrl Inflow (dol

12

"" "
35

" '""
00
'"
'75
"" '"
90
'08 '"
6"

...
12"
132

156
"6
25'
'"10
288 Chcp~r A

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