Unit Hydrographs

Ch-7 (Streamflow
Estimation)

Transforming the Runoff from

Rainfall
 Unit Hydrograph Theory

 Moving water off of the watershed…

 A mathematical concept (based on linearity)
 Linear in nature
Some History behind Unit
Hydrograph Theory
 Sherman – 1932(first to propose the concept of ‘Unit
Hydrograph’)
 Horton - 1933
 Wisler & Brater - 1949 - “the hydrograph of surface runoff
resulting from a relatively short, intense rain, called a unit
storm.”
 The runoff hydrograph may be “made up” of runoff that is
generated as flow through the soil (Black, 1990).
 Unit Hydrograph Components
Duration of
 Duration excess precip.
 Lag Time
 Time of Concentration
 Rising Limb
Lag time
 Recession Limb (falling
limb)
 Peak Flow Time of
concentration
 Time to Peak (rise time)
 Recession Curve
Base flow Time Base
 Separation

 Base flow
 Methods of Developing UH’s

 From Streamflow Data

 Synthetically
 Snyder (for CEE4420 – just know the formula for
calculating lag and concentration times that are in the
Gupta book
 SCS
 Time-Area (Clark, 1945)
 “Fitted” Distributions
Unit Hydrograph
 The hydrograph of direct runoff that results from 1-inch
(or 1 unit) of excess precipitation spread uniformly in
space and time over a watershed for a given duration.

 The key points :

 1-inch of EXCESS precipitation
 Spread uniformly over space - evenly over the
watershed
 Uniformly in time - the excess rate is constant
over the time interval
 There is a given duration pertaining to the
storm – NOT the duration of flow!
 Derived Unit Hydrograph

700.0000

600.0000

Note: The baseflow

500.0000
Surface
Response
shown here (and
separated in next slide)
400.0000
was identified using a
300.0000
Baseflow different graphical
method). For the course
200.0000
– keep the baseflow
100.0000
separation simple to ‘flat
rate deduction’ or the
0.0000 N=Ad0.2 approach)
0. 0
00

0. 0
00

0. 0
00

1. 0

1. 0
00

1. 0
00

1. 0
00

2. 0
00

2. 0

2. 0
00

3. 0
00

3. 0
00

3. 0
00
0

0
00

16

32

48

64

80

96

12

28

44

60

76

92

08

24

40

56

72

88

04

20

36

52

68
0.

0.

0.

0.

1.

1.

2.

2.

2.

3.

3.
Derived Unit Hydrograph
700.0000

600.0000 Total
Hydrograph

500.0000

Surface
400.0000 Response

300.0000

Baseflow
200.0000

100.0000

0.0000
0.0000 0.5000 1.0000 1.5000 2.0000 2.5000 3.0000 3.5000 4.0000
 Using a UH
• Remember what we covered in class last time on how to predict direct
runoff from a storm of given duration and depth of excess precipitation
provided you knew the UH for the same duration of the storm:
“The direct runoff from a 2 hour storm with 2 units of excess rainfall shall
be twice as much as the direct runoff from a 2 hour storm with 1 unit of
excess rainfall” Storm Hydrograph (4 inches vs 2 inches)

400

350

300

250
Flow

200

150

100

50

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Time
 Changing the Duration of UH
 Very often, it will be necessary to change the duration of the unit
hydrograph. Storms occur in all shapes (rainfall amount) and sizes
(durations)
 The most common method of altering the duration of a unit hydrograph
is by the S-curve method.
 The S-curve method involves continually lagging a unit hydrograph by
its duration and adding the ordinates.
 For the present example, the 6-hour unit hydrograph is continually
lagged by 6 hours and the ordinates are added.
 S-Curve: You
Develop S-Curve get this by
adding the
ordinates of
multiple 6 hr
60000.00
UHs below
50000.00

40000.00
Continuous
Flow (cfs)

30000.00 6-hour
bursts
20000.00

10000.00

0.00

102
108
114
120
12
18
24
30
36
42
48
54
60
66
72
78
84
90
96
0
6

Time (hrs.)
 Convert to 1-Hour Duration
1. To arrive at a 1-hour UH from a given 6 hour UH, two S-curves
are lagged by 1 hour from each other and the difference between
the two lagged S-curve (ordinates) is calculated for every
timestep.
2. However, because the S-curve was formulated from unit
hydrographs having a 6 hour duration of uniformly distributed
precipitation, the hydrograph resulting from the subtracting the
two S-curves will be the result of 1/6 of an inch of precipitation.
3. Thus the ordinates of the newly created 1-hour DR hydrograph in
step 1must be multiplied by 6 in order to be a true unit hydrograph
to get the final 1 hr UH.
4. The 1-hour UH should have a higher peak which occurs earlier
than the 6-hour unit hydrograph. Does this make sense ? You are
having the same amount of excess rainfall but in a shorter period
so the storm is more intense and hence creates runoff faster.
Final 1-hour UHG
14000.00 60000.00

12000.00
50000.00
Unit Hydrograph Flow (cfs/inch)

S-curves are
10000.00 lagged by 1 hour
and the difference 40000.00
is found.

Flow (cfs)
8000.00 1-hour unit
hydrograph resulting
30000.00
from lagging S-
6000.00 curves and
multiplying the
difference by 6. 20000.00
4000.00

10000.00
2000.00

0.00 0.00
Time (hrs.)
 Steps for Changing duration
of UH
Suppose you are asked to change the duration of a given 2 hour UH to a 6 hour UH.
Let tr=2hr (original duration) and trb=6hr (required duration).
1. First lag a minimum of tb/tr number of 2 hour UHs. So suppose, tb (time base of
flow) is 12 hours, then in this case you should lag at least 12/2=6 2 hour UHs.
Round off this number to the nearest higher integer.
2. Next, add all the ordinates as a function of time. You should get an S-type shape
where the flow will reach a steady-state and saturated value. In exam, step#1 is
very handy to save time. And the moment you get your highest flow value, that
can be your S-curve peak value that you can maintain from thereafter.
3. Now lag two S-curves (derived in step#2) by duration trb (6 hour). And then
subtract the ordinates.
4. Step #3 will give you a DRH for a trb duration storm. Multiply the ordinates by
tr/trb to get your 6 hour UH from the given 2 hr UH.
Synthetic UHs

 Snyder (this is good

enough for course)
 SCS
 Time-area
Snyder
 Since peak flow and time of peak flow are two of the most
important parameters characterizing a unit hydrograph, the
Snyder method employs factors defining these parameters,
which are then used in the synthesis of the unit graph (Snyder,
1938).
 The parameters are Cp, the peak flow factor, and Ct, the lag
factor.
 The basic assumption in this method is that basins which have
similar physiographic characteristics are located in the same
area will have similar values of Ct and Cp.
 Therefore, for ungaged basins, it is preferred that the basin be
near or similar to gaged basins for which these coefficients can
be determined.
Basic Relationships
t LAG  Ct ( L  Lca ) 0.3

t LAG
t duration 
5.5

talt.lag  t LAG  0.25(talt.duration  tduration)

t LAG
tbase  3 
8

640 AC p
q peak 
t LAG
Significance of Unit
Hydrograph
 Watersheds response to a given amount
of excess precipitation is just a multiplier
of the unit hydrograph
 Use unit hydrograph as a basis to
determine the storm hydrograph from
any given rainfall distribution
Example

 Given the following rainfall distribution

Time Precipitation
1 0.5
2 3
3 1.5
4 0.2
 The watershed will respond as follows
 Example
Incremental Storm Hydrographs

500

400
Time (hr) Precipitation
1 0.5 300
Flow

2 3
3 1.5 200

4 0.2
100

For hour 1: multiply your 1 hr

0
UH by 0.5 and plot it starting 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
at t=1hr Time

For hour 2: multiply your 1 hr

UH by 3 and plot it starting at
You get four DRHs plotted for each hour as above
t=2hr…. And so on
 Example
Incremental + Final Storm Hydrograph
Now add all your
500
ordinates to get the
final DRH – shown
400
here by the tallest
DRH.
300
Flow

This is the DRH you

will get from the 200
storm of 4 hours with
variable intensity 100

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Time