Hydrograph Week 5

Hydrograph analysis
Sources of streamflow
Separation techniques

Streamflow
Previously,
Hydrologic cycle
Precipitation, (gains = input)
infiltration, evaporation, transpiration
(losses=output)
Streamflow occurs throughout the
year
Magnitude (flow) varies
Procedures to estimate flow depending
on data availability

Hydrographs

What are they

Types
Components
Effects of physiography and
meteorology
Groundwater
Recession curves
Separation techniques

Hydrograph
[hydrograph] - A graphical representation of stage,
flow, velocity, or other characteristics of water at
a given point as a function of time .
McGraw Hill Professional Sci Tech Dictionary

Source:
Oxford Press
Geography Dictionary

Hydrograph

Streamflow occurs throughout the year=>Magnitude (flow)

varies
Procedures to estimate flow depending on data availability
The runoff estimation methods from previous lectures
Consider assumptions/ limitations at each step

Hydrograph
A hydrograph is the result of the physiographic
and hydrometeorologic effects of the
watershed
Physiographic size, shape, length of main channel,
slope, soils .
Hydro-meteorologic- rainfall intensity, duration,
direction of storm, soil moisture

Hydro meteorologic and Physiographic => just

think precipitation and watershed features

Hydrograph
Precipitation and watershed features

Watershed topography and geology (i.e. bedrock permeability)

The area of a basin receiving rainfall
Land-use (e.g. agriculture, urban development, forestry
operations)
Drainage density
Duration of rainfall and precipitation intensity and type
Evapotranspiration rates
River network
The season
Previous weather
Vegetation type and cover
River conditions (e.g. dams)
Initial conditions (e.g. the degree of saturation of the soil and
aquifers)
Soil permeability and thickness
Source: Wikipedia

Hydrograph
Relevant properties of the hydrograph
Rising limb
Peak flow
Recession curve
Time base
Basin lag
Peak runoff
Time to peak runoff
Base flow
Important to know these- how do they relate to inputs
and outputs

Hydrograph

Hydrograph

Types of Hydrographs
Consider different ways to look at information

Surface water hydrograph (stage and

discharge)
Subsurface water hydrograph
Unit hydrograph
Instantaneous unit hydrograph
Geomorphologic instantaneous unit
hydrograph
Synthetic unit hydrograph
Hourly, Daily, Monthly, Yearly hydrograph

Types of Hydrographs
Surface water hydrograph - Time record of the water level or flow for
the stream (point of interest)
Stage hydrograph- A specific type representing water level
Discharge (streamflow) hydrograph A specific type representing water
flow
Main input is precipitation
Main output is streamflow
Representation of how watershed responds to rainfall- these are natural

Discharge hydrograph is what is usually referred to as a hydrograph

Types of Hydrographs
Subsurface water hydrograph

In subsurface hydrology a hydrograph is a record

of the water level below the ground surface
Typically, recorded for monitoring of heads in
aquifers during non-test conditions (e.g., to
observe the seasonal fluctuations in an aquifer).
Source: Wikipedia

natural hydrograph

Types of Hydrographs
Unit hydrograph- hypothetical unit response
of the watershed to a unit input of rainfall

In other words, it is a typical hydrograph for

that particular area. It correlates rainfall
with runoff and indicates the runoff (and
timing) associated with one unit of rain falling
evenly over watershed

Important tool - much more later (next

week)

Types of Hydrographs
Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph- similar to
the unit hydrograph, BUT it is the flow
sequence that corresponds to an
instantaneous application of the unit rain

Consideration of instantaneous leads to

mathematical tools => Calculus

Important tool - more later (next week)

Types of Hydrographs
Geomorphologic Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph
similar to the instantaneous unit hydrograph, BUT it
considers only the topologic information

Only the number of streams of a given order, the mean

length of streams of a given order, and the mean land
area draining directly to streams of a given order are
absolutely required (and can be estimated rather
than explicitly calculated if necessary).
Source: Wikipedia

For interest only -No more later

Types of Hydrographs
Synthetic Unit Hydrograph- similar to the unit hydrograph,

BUT it is an estimate for a location for which streamflow data

is not available

In other words, when no hydrograph is available for your point of

interest, (or time of interest), you must synthesize (build) one.
Can be based on

hydrograph/ watershed characteristics

dimensionless unit hydrograph

model of watershed storage

Important tool - more later (2 weeks)

Types of Hydrographs
Hourly, daily, monthly, yearly Hydrograph-

only difference is the time scale as applied to

types of hydrographs

Simple, but balance data needs with availability

and computing. Consider watershed size and
reaction time
Appropriate time scale.

Components of Hydrographs
Four components,
1.
2.
3.
4.

Direct surface runoff

Interflow
Groundwater (base) flow
Channel precipitation
1

2
3

2
3

Components of Hydrographs

Components of Hydrographs
Majority of cases, two components are of
interest,
Direct runoff
Groundwater

Interflow usually minor why?

Channel precipitation usually minor why?
When could these be important?

Precipitation and Watershed

Characteristics
Rainfall intensity
Consider how hard it has to rain to overcome
infiltration (phi index), depression storage,
interflow movement

Infiltration/ depression
=> no runoff,
Only direct channel precip

Interflow and groundwater

apparent

Runoff apparent

Precipitation and Watershed

Characteristics
Rainfall on different areas
Longer distance to travel means longer time to peak

Precipitation and Watershed

Characteristics
Watershed shape
The longer it takes for
water to travel,
the longer the time
of concentration,
etc

Precipitation and Watershed

Characteristics
Storm direction
Consider that as storm moves across a
watershed, the rain is not falling uniformly
over entire watershed (as many models
assume)
If rain system moves from far reaches towards
outlet, the rising limb may be steeper than
compared to uniform

Groundwater
Groundwater hydrology is not within scope of
this course, BUT, some understanding of how
groundwater and surface water interact is
useful
Consider subsurface as variable, nonhomogeneous
Understanding of detailed flow is difficult often
unnecessary for surface water investigation
Surface and GW interaction occurs when and
how?

Groundwater
Surface and groundwater are connected.
Consider gradient required to have flow
(water can move uphill!)
Groundwater gains from rain, snowmelt , river
losing reaches,
Groundwater losses from movement out of
watershed, river gaining reaches, seepage
faces, artesian wells

Groundwater
Interaction between GW and surface water, and
relationship to hydrograph,
Rain/snowmelt soaking into ground lost as runoff
may become GW where else could it go?
Rivers/lakes may gain or lose or likely both
through the watershed
Surface water moves quickly and changes from
precipitation easy to identify
GW moves slowly, and precipitation has little
impact in short term

Groundwater Recession
To relate rainfall to runoff, we need to separate
out the other 3 components (groundwater,
interflow, channel precipitation)
But, if we assume that channel precipitation and
interflow are minor, then only need to
separate out groundwater component
Consider cases where channel precipitation and
interflow may be important?
When you assume they are minor, where are they
(in the GW or runoff component)?

Groundwater Recession

streamflow

Separate out groundwater (or baseflow)

time
Streamflow Hydrograph

Groundwater Hydrograph

Direct Runoff
Hydrograph

Groundwater Recession
Techniques available to separate surface runoff
and groundwater flows in hydrograph
Based on groundwater depletion curve,
Qt=QoKrt
Qt=QoKr-t
Qo=flow at some time initial time
Qt=flow measured t days later
Kr=recession constant (includes surface, interflow
and groundwater)
What happened to channel precipitation?

Groundwater Recession
Based on groundwater depletion curve,
Qt=QoKr-t
Qt=QoKrt
Let t=1 for both cases, (how convenient)
:. Kr=(Qo/Qt)
:. Kr=(Qt/Qo)
Since Qo>Q1
:. Kr<1

Since Qo>Q1
:. Kr>1

Groundwater Recession
Slope of semilog plot represents value of K
K is function of baseflow (groundwater),
interflow, surface runoff
Kr=Krb + Kri + Krs
Typical values
Surface runoff.0.05 to 0.2
Interflow...0.5 to 0.8
Baseflow (GW)..0.85 to 0.98

Groundwater Storage
Over time, with groundwater flow into the river, the groundwater
becomes depleted
This change in storage for groundwater, dS, may be of interest
If qtdt= volume of water coming from groundwater
But -dS is equal to qtdt (water out of storage =water coming into river
from storage)
Let qt=qoKt, then integrate,
qtdt= qoKtdt = - dS
S= (qt-qo )/(logeK)

Groundwater Storage
Consider red line as time
increases, flow decreases
approaching some limit
Green line is quantity
released from storageincreases quickly then
approaches a limit at that
point S =~constant and
consider what that means
for groundwater flow and
hydrograph

break

Review on Wednesday previous day

Flow vs time => hydrograph
Components of hydrograph flow
How watershed shape etc effect the hydrograph
Importance of groundwater to hydrograph
Basic shpae of groundwater flow
Seperation of groundwater or baseflow
Now some techniques to seperate

Baseflow separation techniques

For the streamflow hydrograph interest often to
separate the surface runoff from the
groundwater flow component
Many subjective techniques
Straight line
Bent line
Extension of recession curves
Master curve
Important to know basis for making subjective
decisions

Baseflow seperation techniques

Straight separation line
Basically drawing a straight line from start of surface
runoff to end of surface runoff
Most basic is horizontal line
Trick is where to
Start and where to
Stop
Once start/stop known
straightforward

Baseflow separation techniques

Bent line
Account for change in base flow >how is base flow
changing?
Trick is where to
Start and where to
Stop and where to bend

Baseflow separation techniques

Identify start (start of surface runoff)
Usually sharp rise (from the depletion curve
existing before start of surface runoff)
Rainfall shows sharp increase at or before rise
in hydrograph (why ? Consider rain needed to
overcome abstractions infiltration, phi index,
ET.

Baseflow separation techniques

Identify stop (end of surface runoff) method 1
Rule of thumb!, N = A 0.2
N= # of days from peak flow to point where
surface runoff ends
A = watershed area in square miles
Crude what
happened to all the other
considerations?, ie slope,
length of channel etc
N

Baseflow separation techniques

Log Q

Identify stop (end of surface runoff) method 2

Plot recession portion of streamflow hydrograph
on semi log paper
Where lines intersect indicates where surface
runoff ends (actually where slope of Q vs T
graph described by function of e)

time

time

Baseflow separation techniques

Neither =>
it occurs between

Q/Q6

Identify stop (end of surface runoff) method 3

Plot (Q/Q t) vs t (after peak)
Slope change indicates
end of runoff
Where does runoff end?
At Q or Q t ?

time

6 hour intervals

Baseflow separation techniques

Log Q

Identify stop (end of surface runoff) method 4

Develop a master depletion curve
Q to log Q

time

time

Baseflow separation techniques

Log Q

Identify stop (end of surface runoff) method 4

Log plot back to Q then use on original plot

time

time