HYDROGRAPHS
HYDROGRAPHS
A hydrograph is a continuous graph showing the properties of stream flow with respect
to time
The term hydrograph generally means discharge hydrograph
The hydrograph is a result of the physiological and hydrometerological effects of
watershed
Part and components OF HYDROGRAPH
Parts
1. Ground water recession curve
2. Rising limb
3. Peak
4. Falling
Components:
5. Base flow
6. DRO (Direct Runoff)
Separation of hydrograph
Separating ordinates of HG into Base flow and DRO
Methods
1. Horizontal line method
2. Inclined line method
3. Fixed base method
4. Variable slope method
FACTORS AFFECTING THE SHAPE OF
HYDROPGRAPH
Climatic Factors Topographic and geologic Factors
Rainfall intensity Catchment size
Rainfall duration Catchment shape
Distribution of rainfall on the basin Distribution of water courses/ drainage
Direction of storm movement Slope of the catchment
Geology of the catchment
Land use
Land cover
UNIT HYDROGRAPHS
Unit hydrograph is a direct runoff hydrograph resulting from one unit (one inch or one
cm) of constant intensity uniform rainfall occurring over the entire watershed.
The concept of unit hydrograph is based on linear systems theory and follows the
principles of superposition and proportionality.
It is incorrect to describe a unit hydrograph without specifying the duration, of the storm
that produced it
An x hours unit hydrograph means a direct runoff hydrograph having 1.0 inch volume
resulting from an x hours storm having a steady intensity 1/x in per hour
APPLICATION OF UNIT HYDROGRAPH
A unit hydrograph is used for the prediction of flood peak and time to peak in the stream at
a particular section due to any amount of effective precipitation
Application of an x-hour unit hydrograph to rainfall excess amounts more than 1 unit is
accomplished just by multiplying the excess amount by the unit hydrograph ordinates
For example, a 3 hours rain event producing 2.0” effective precipitation would have runoff
rates 2 times of a 3-hours unit hydrograph. Similarly a 3- hours storm having 0.5” net
precipitation would produce runoff rates half of the 3 hours unit hydrograph.
This assumption of proportional flows applies only to equal duration storms
ASSUMPTIONS OF UNIT HYDROGRAPH
Following are the assumptions while deriving the unit hydrograph:
Precipitation amount and intensity is uniform over the entire watershed
Precipitation intensity remains uniform throughout the storm
Base length of the hydrograph DRO for a particular catchment resulting from a storm of given
duration is approximately the constant
Entire watershed is treated as a single unit
DERIVATION OF UHG
• To develop a unit hydrograph it is desirable to acquire as many rain fall records as possible
Data • These can be obtained from the published data by meteorological department
Colle
ction
• Storms occurring individually , simple storm structure
Preli
mina • Storms having uniform distribution of rainfall throughout the rainfall excess period
ry
select
ion
• Separation of the components of hydrograph i.e., DRO and Base flow
Conv • Plot DRO Hydrograph and find area under the it.
ersio • Find ER or X = Area under DRO hydrograph (Volume of DRO)/Basin area
n of
DRO
• Ordinates of UHG = Ordinates of DRO/X
to
UHG
NUMERICAL PROBLEM
Determine 2 Hr UHG ordinates resulting from 2 hr effective rainfall over 100 km 2 watershed area using the
following data.
Time (hrs) Total Runoff Base-flow Time (hrs) Total Runoff Base-flow
(cumecs) (cumecs) (cumecs) (cumecs)
1 110 110 8 293 113
2 122 122 9 202 112
3 230 120 10 160 110
4 578 118 11 117 105
5 666 116 12 105 105
6 645 115 13 90 90
7 434 114 14 80 80
CONVERSION OF UHG DURATION
Unit hydrograph developed by procedure outlined earlier is applicable only for a
specified duration of storm
The application to storms of larger or smaller duration might be required sometimes
Instead of making hydrograph for the new duration there are two more methods
Lagging method
S-curve Method
LAGGING METHOD
The method of “lagging” is based on the assumption that linear response of the watershed is not influenced by previous
storms
one can superimpose hydrograph offset in time and flows are directly additive
if a hydrograph of 1 hour is given, hydrograph for 2 hours duration can be obtained by plotting two 1 hour UHG with
second UHG 1 hour lagged, adding ordinates and dividing by two
Lagging procedure is restricted to the multiples of the original duration according to the expression
D1 : possible durations of UHG by lagging method
D1=nD of UHG
D : Original duration
n : 1,2,3,….
S-CURVE METHOD
It is the DRH resulting from addition of series of t-hour unit hydrograph each lagged by
t-hours from preceding one.
Any duration t-hours UHG may be obtained if we have a D hours UHG
Simply lag the first S-hydrograph of D hours UHG by a second S-hydrograph a time
interval equal to t hours
Subtract the ordinates of second S-hydrograph by the first one
And multiply these ordinate with a factor D/t
S-CURVE METHOD
How to obtain S-curve
Offset Method
Take offsets of UHG of given duration with offset lagged by given duration of UHG from
preceding one
Minimum number of offsets = time of UHG (Tb)/Duration of given UHG (D)
Add all UHGs (Given plus offsets to get S-Curve
S-curve addition method
In this method S-curve is obtained directly
S(t) = U(t)+S(t-D)
t is time step, D is duration of UHG
NUMERICAL PROBLEM
Given the following 2-hr UHG, construct a 4-hr.
Time (hours) Q (cumecs)
0 0
2 100
4 250
6 200
8 100
10 50
12 0
4 hr UGH
4 hr UHG 250
Time (hrs) 2 hr UHG 2 hr UHG lagged by 2 hr =(Col2+Col3)/2
200
0 0 0
Discharge (cumecs)
2 100 0 50 150
4 250 100 175 2 hr UHG
100 UHG lagged by 2 hrs
6 200 250 225 4 hr UHG
8 100 200 150 50
10 50 100 75 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
12 0 50 25
Time (Hrs)
14 0 0
NUMERICAL PROBLEM
Given the following 2-hr UHG, construct a 3-hr UHG by S Curve
Time (hours) Q (cumecs)
0 0
1 100
2 250
3 200
4 100
5 50
6 0
S Curve (offset method)
400
Ordinates 350
UHG UHG UHG of 2 Hr S
Time (hrs) 2 hr UHG lagged by 2 hr lagged by 2 hr lagged by 2 hr Curve 300
Discharge (cumecs)
0 0 0 250
1 100 100 200
S curve
2 250 0 250 150 2 hr UHG
3 200 100 300 100
UHG lagged by 2 Hr
4 100 250 0 350 50
5 50 200 100 350 0
6 0 100 250 0 350 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
7 50 200 100 350 Time (Hrs)
8 0 100 250 350
3 Hr UHG
400
350
Ordinates 3 Hr S-curve
of 2 Hr S Curve ( 3 hr lag) 3 Hr UHG 300
Discharge (cumecs)
0 0.00 250
100 66.67 200 S curve
250 166.67 S Curve lagged by 3 hr
150
3 hr UHG
300 0 200.00
100 2 hr UHG
350 100 166.67
350 250 66.67 50
350 300 33.33 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
350 350 0.00
Time (Hrs)
350 350 0.00