6.

0 Unit Hydrographs:
A Hydrographs a stream’s response to rainfall in its catchment but ideally one would like to have
some predictive value. Detailed analysis of hydrographs is usually important in flood damage
mitigation, flood forecasting, or establishing design flows for structures that convey floodwaters

We’d like to be able to say “if this much rain falls, we’re going to get a flood this big,” or
“changing the catchment will change flooding in this way.” In order to do this, and in order to
compare two catchments, we need some uniform system.
This would be called a unit hydrograph and it allows researchers to compare the response of two
different watersheds to the same runoff, or allows for investigating changes in one watershed.

A unit hydrograph (UH) is the hypothetical unit response of a watershed (in terms of runoff
volume and timing) to a unit input of rainfall. It can be defined as the direct runoff hydrograph
(DRH) resulting from one unit (e.g., one cm or one inch) of excess rainfall occurring uniformly
over that watershed at a uniform rate over a unit period of time. As a UH is applicable only to
the direct runoff component of a hydrograph (i.e., surface runoff), a separate determination of the
base flow component is required.

The unit hydrograph is the unit pulse response function of a linear hydrologic system. The
concept was first proposed by Sherman (1932). Sherman originally used the word “unit” to
denote a unit of time. But since that time it has often been interpreted as a unit depth of excess
rainfall. Sherman classified runoff into surface runoff and groundwater runoff and defined the
unit hydrograph for use only with surface runoff.

A UH is specific to particular watershed, and specific to a particular length of time

corresponding to the duration of the effective rainfall. That is, the UH is specified as being the 1-
hour, 6-hour, or 24-hour UH, or any other length of time up to the time of concentration of direct
runoff at the watershed outlet. Thus, for a given watershed, there can be many unit hydrographs,
each one corresponding to a different duration of effective rainfall.

The unit hydrograph is a simple linear model that can be used to derive the hydrograph resulting
from any amount of excess rainfall. The following basic assumptions are inherent in this model;
1. Rainfall excess of equal duration are assumed to produce hydrographs with equivalent time
bases regardless of the intensity of the rain

2. Direct runoff ordinates for a storm of given duration are assumed directly proportional to
rainfall excess volumes.

3. The time distribution of direct runoff is assumed independent of antecedent precipitation 4.

Rainfall distribution is assumed to be the same for all storms of equal duration, both spatially and
temporally.

In the real world, none of these assumptions are strictly true. Nevertheless, application of UH
methods typically yields a reasonable approximation of the flood response of natural watersheds.
The linear assumptions underlying UH theory allows for the variation in storm intensity over
time (i.e., the storm hyetograph) to be simulated by applying the principles of superposition and
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proportionality to separate storm components to determine the resulting cumulative hydrograph.
This allows for a relatively straightforward calculation of the hydrograph response to any
arbitrary rain event.
6.1 Derivation of a Unit Hydrograph:
Terminologies
1. Duration of effective rainfall: the time from start to finish of effective rainfall

2. Lag time (L or tp): the time from the center of mass of rainfall excess to the peak of the
hydrograph

3. Time of rise (TR): the time from the start of rainfall excess to the peak of the hydrograph

4. Time base (Tb): the total duration of the DRO hydrograph

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Notice that we’re starting to include hyetographs on the hydrograph. This is important, because
the volume of direct runoff rainfall and the volume of the unit hydrograph have to be the same.
They also aid in finding things like lag time.

6.2 Main uses of UH:

•Once a unit hydrograph for a duration tr has been developed for a basin, the storm hydrograph
for that basin for any other storm of different intensity but the same duration can be easily
developed.
•The unit hydrograph may be used for the development of the maximum flood hydrograph from
the maximum rainfall for the design of spillways and other hydraulic structure.
•The available stream flow records can be extended using the rainfall records which are generally
available for a longer period.
•The unit hydrograph can be used for flood forecasting and flood warning based on the observed
rainfall in the basin.

6.3 Essential steps for developing UH from single storm hydrograph

1. Analyze the hydrograph, separate base flow and compute the direct runoff ordinate (DRO).
2. Measure the total volume of DRO under the hydrograph and convert time to inches (mm) over
the watershed
3. Compute run off depth (excess rainfall). Depth (in) = Runoff volume /Watershed area
4. If depth ± 1 in or 1 cm, divide the DRO ordinate by depth giving the unit hydrograph
Time base Tb is assumed constant for storms of equal duration and thus it will not change
5. Check the volume of the UH to make sure it is 1.0 in (1.0mm), and graphically adjust
ordinates as required

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6.4 Separation of Base flow:
The hydrograph is divided into two parts
1. Direct runoff (DRO) and
2. Base flow (BF)
DRO include some interflow whereas BF is considered to be mostly from contributing ground
water or other delayed sources. Base flow separation is performed to determine the portion of the
hydrograph attributable to base flow.

There are three types of base flow separation techniques

1. Straight line method
2. Concave method
3. Constant slope method

1. Straight line method :

Assume base flow is constant regardless of stream height (discharge).
Draw a horizontal line segment (A-B) from beginning of runoff to intersection with recession
curve

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 2. Concave method:
The method attempts to represent the assumed initial decrease in base flow and delay in aquifer
recharge. Assumes base flow decrease as stream flow increases (ie to peak of storm hydrograph)
 Draw a straight vertical line of peak hydrograph.
 Draw line segment (A-C) extending base flow recession to a point directly below
hydrograph peak.
 Draw line segment (C-D) connecting a point of N time periods after the peak.

Where:
N is time in days after hydrograph peak N= 0.83A0.2
A (km2) is watershed area

3. Constant slope method

Connect inflection point on receding limb of storm hydrograph to beginning of storm hydrograph
Assumes flow from aquifers began prior to start of current storm, arbitrarily sets it to inflection
point
 Draw line segment from A connecting to a point of N, time periods after the peak.

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Example 1:
Find the effective runoff (Qe) and baseflow (Qb) for coordinates of hydrograph as shown in
table. Calculate the volume of base flow.

1. Plot the hydrograph.

2. Draw line (constant discharge method) to separate the baseflow
3. Identify baseflow coordinates, Qb and calculate value of Qe

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Volume of Qe = 28.2×3600 =101520 m3
Volume of Qb = 21.3×3600 = 76680 m3

6.5 Rainfall Excess:

The distribution of gross rainfall can be given by the continuity equation as:
Gross rainfall = depression storage+ evaporation+ infiltration+ surface runoff
In case, where depression storage is small and evaporation can be neglected, we can compute
rainfall excess which equals to direct runoff, DRO by:
Rainfall excess (Pn) = DRO = gross rainfall – (infiltration+ depression storage)
The simpler method to determine rainfall excess include
1. Horton infiltration method
2. Ø index method
Note: In this, the initial loss is included for depression storage

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 a) Horton infiltration method
Horton method estimates infiltration with an exponential-type equation that slowly declines in
time as rainfall continues and is given by:
f= fc + (fo – fc) e-kt (when rainfall intensity i>f)
Where f = infiltration capacity (in./hr) fo = initial infiltration capacity (in./hr) fc = final
infiltration capacity (in./hr) k = empirical constant (hr-1)

b) Ø index method
It is the simplest method and is calculated by finding the loss difference between gross
precipitation and observed surface runoff measured as a hydrograph

Example 2:
Rainfall of magnitude 3.8 cm and 2.8 cm occurring on two consecutive 4-h durations on a
catchment area 27km2 produced the following hydrograph of flow at the outlet of the catchment.
Estimate the rainfall excess and φ-index

Baseflow separation: N = 0.83 A0.2 = 0.83 (27)0.2 = 1.6 days = 38.5 h

So the baseflow starts at 0th hour and ends at the point (12+38.5) hours = 50.5 hours which is
approximately 48 hours from hydrograph and this is an approximate of 5m3/s constant base flow

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DRH ordinates are obtained from subtracting the corresponding FH with the base flow i.e. 5 m3/s

Area of DRH = (6×60×60)[1/2 (8)+1/2 (8+21)+ 1/2 (21+16)+ 1/2 (16+11)+ 1/2 (11+7)+ 1/2
(7+4)+ 1/2 (4+2)+ 1/2 (2)] = 1.4904 × 106m3 (total direct runoff due to storm)

Run-off depth = Runoff volume/catchment area

= 1.4904 ×106/27× 106 = 0.0552m = 5.52 cm = rainfall excess
Total rainfall = 3.8 +2.8 = 6.6cm
Duration = 8h
Φ-index = (P-R)/t = (6.6-5.52)/8 = 0.135cm/h

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Example 3:
A storm over a catchment of area 5.0 km2 had duration of 14 hours. The mass curve of rainfall of
the storm is as follows:

If the φ-index of the catchment is 0.4cm/h, determine the effective rainfall hyetograph and the
volume of direct runoff from the catchment due to the storm.

Example 4:
Suppose we want to convert this hydrograph to a 2- hour unit Hydrograph given that the base
flow is 100 cfs and the phi index is 0.5 in/hr

It means that the 1 inch of direct runoff rain fell over the course of two hours. We could as easily
construct a 1-hour unit hydrograph, and the assumption there would be that the 1 inch of direct
runoff fell over the course of an hour. Note that in this rain fell uniformly over the watershed,
and also uniformly in time
The base flow is 100 cfs and is constant during the storm (the problem does this so we won’t
have to worry about DRO separation).

The Φ index for this storm is given as 0.5 in/hr (the problem does this so we can easily separate
the direct runoff rain from the infiltrated rain). First, take the hyetograph for this storm:

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We need to separate out the amount of rain that infiltrated vs. that which run off. The Φ index for
this storm is known, and it’s 0.5 in/hr. With that subtracted, the rain involved in runoff is:

The result is two inches of excess rain in two hours, and it fell at a constant rate (note that what’s
important to us is that the excess rain fell at a constant rate).

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Next, we have to remove base flow from the hydrograph. Because we’ve been told that base flow
is a constant 100 cfs, just subtract the 100 cfs from every measurement, and you have the
required DRO hydrograph.

At the moment we have a hydrograph representing two inches of excess rain in two hours. We
wanted ONE inch of rain in two hours. Well, unit hydrograph theory makes this easy for us, we
divide all ordinates in by two inches, and we’ll end up with the results that depict when one inch
falls in two hours.

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All that’s left is to attach the hyetograph to the upper corner so that we can visualize both
together:

Example 5:

a) Obtain a Unit Hydrograph for a basin of 315 km 2 of area using the rainfall and stream
flow data tabulated below.

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  Empirical unit hydrograph derivation separates the base flow from the observed stream
flow hydrograph in order to obtain the direct runoff hydrograph (DRH). For this example,
use the horizontal line method to separate the base flow.

 From observation of the hydrograph data, the stream flow at the start of the rising limb of
the hydrograph is 100 m3/s. Hence subtract 100m3/s from each ordinate of the observed
hydrograph

 Compute the volume of direct runoff. This volume must be equal to the volume of the
effective rainfall hyetograph (ERH)

VDRH = (200+600+900+700+500+300+200+100) m3/s (3600) s = 12,600,000 m3

 Express VDRH in equivalent units of depth:

VDRH in equivalent units of depth = VDRH/Area of the basin = 12.600,000 m3/ (315000000 m2)
= 0.04 m = 4 cm

 Obtain a Unit Hydrograph by normalizing the DRH. Normalizing implies dividing the
ordinates of the DRH by the VDRH in equivalent units of depth

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(b) Determine the duration D of the ERH associated with the UH obtained above.

In order to do this:
1. Determine the volume of losses, VLosses which is equal to the difference between the
volume of gross rainfall, VGRH, and the volume of the direct runoff hydrograph, VDRH .
VLosses = VGRH - VDRH = (0.5 + 2.5 + 2.5 +0.5) cm/h ×1 h - 4 cm = 2 cm

2. Compute the phi-index equal to the ratio of the volume of losses to the rainfall duration,
tr. Thus, ø-index = VLosses/tr = 2 cm / 4 h = 0.5 cm/h

3. Determine the ERH by subtracting the infiltration (ø-index) from the GRH:

As observed in the table, the duration of the effective rainfall hyetograph is 2 hours.
Thus, D = 2 hours, and the Unit Hydrograph obtained above is a 2-hour Unit
Hydrograph.

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