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What is a hydrograph?

A hydrograph is a graph showing the rate of flow (discharge) versus time past a
specific point in a river, channel, or conduit carrying flow. The rate of flow is typically
expressed in cubic meters or cubic feet per second (cms or cfs). It can also refer to a
graph showing the volume of water reaching a particular outfall, or location in a
sewerage network. Graphs are commonly used in the design of sewerage, more
specifically, the design of surface water sewerage systems and combined sewers.

What are the different types of hydrographs?

Types of hydrographs include:

 Storm hydrographs
 Flood hydrographs
 Annual hydrographs a.k.a. regimes
 Direct Runoff Hydrograph
 Effective Runoff Hydrograph
 Raster Hydrograph
 Storage opportunities in the drainage network (e.g., lakes, reservoirs, wetlands, channel
and bank storage capacity)

What are the different parts of a hydrograph?


Hydrograph generally contains the following three parts.

1. Rising Limb

2. Peak (or Crest) Segment

3. Falling (or Recession) Limb


1. Rising Limb : It is the ascending curved portion of the hydrograph. The rising limb rises
slowly in the early stage of the flood but more rapidly toward the end portion. The
shape of rising limb depends on duration and intensity distribution of rainfall. This is
because in early stages the losses is more and water reaches to the stream faster.

2. Peak Segment (or Crest Segment) : Peak segment is shown by inverted U in the
hydrograph. This is the part which is taken as matter of interest by hydrologists. Peak of
hydrograph occurs when all parts of basins contribute at the outlet simultaneously at the
maximum rate. Depending upon the rainfall-basin characterstics, the peak may be
sharp, flat or may have several well defined peaks.

3. Falling Limb (or Recession Limb) : Recession Limb represents the withdrawal of water
from the storage built up during the early phase of hydrograph. It extends from the point
of inflection at the end of the crest to the beginning of the natural groundwater flow. The
shape of recession limb depends upon basin characteristics only and independent of
the storm.

What is a baseflow and how do we separate this from the direct


runoff?
Baseflow is a portion of streamflow that is not directly generated from the excess rainfall
during a storm event. In other words, this is the flow that would exist in the stream
without the contribution of direct runoff from the rainfall. Estimation of baseflow and
direct runoff is useful to understand the hydrology of a watershed, including interaction
of surface and sub-surface water, role of urbanization on runoff generation and the
health of aquatic habitat within a stream. The method presented here is applicable for
a single peak hydrograph resulting from a single storm event.

Separating baseflow using the straight line method is suitable only for individual storm
events. For continuous hydrographs, other techniques must be used. To separate
baseflow using the straight line method, the times at which the direct runoff begins and
ends must be determined by looking at the streamflow hydrograph. Open the input
streamflow hydrograph in Excel and plot the streamflow values on y-axis as shown in the
figure below. By looking at the streamflow values, the beginning of runoff is relatively
easy to identify because the hydrograph rises steeply on 09/25/2000. Lets assume that
the direct runoff begins at 8:15 AM on 09/25/2000 (streamflow = 1.9 cfs). Next, we need
to identify when the direct runoff ends. Generally, this point is located somewhere on
the falling limb of the streamflow hydrograph. For a flashy hydrograph, it is reasonable
to assume that it point is located towards the end of the of falling limb. In this case,
assume that the
runoff ends on
8:00 AM on
09/28/2000
(streamflow = 12
cfs). As you can
imaging this is an
inexact science
because it is
difficult to exactly
distinguish
between
baseflow and
direct runoff
purely by using a
streamflow
hydrograph.
Once the beginning and ending of runoff are determined, create a third column in
Excel for baseflow and populate it with values equal to streamflow until 8:15 AM on
09/25/2000. This means that all the discharge until this time is baseflow. Similarly, the
baseflow is equal to streamflow after 8:00 AM 09/28/2000 until the end of the
hydrograph. The values between 1.9 cfs (at 8:15 AM on 09/25/2000) and 12 cfs (at 8:00
AM on 09/28/2000) are then linearly interpolated to get the complete baseflow
hydrrograph. Subtracting the baseflow column from the streamflow values will give you
the direct runoff hydrograph as shown below.

At the end of this step, you should have a baseflow time series and direct runoff
hydrograph. The following figure shows the baseflow (red area) and the direct runoff
(blue line) hydrographs on a single plot.
How do we apply the Green-Ampt equations and the SCS method in
computing for the abstractions from rainfall?

SCS CN Method
According to the SCS method, the total rainfall (P) is divided into three parts: initial
abstraction (Ia), continuous abstraction (Fa) and excess rainfall (Pe). Initial abstraction is
the amount of rainfall that is used for satisfying surface depressions, and never leaves
the watershed. It is calculated as 20% of the total maximum storage or retention (S) of
the watershed. Therefore, Ia = 0.2S. After this initial abstraction is satisfied, the remaining
amount of rainfall is used to satisfy remaining soil storage as continuous abstraction (Fa).
The expression to compute Fa by using the total amount of rainfall (P)and the maximum
retention (S) is given by the following equation:

where, P, Fa, S and Ia have the same unit of length [L]. Usually total rainfall (P) is
known, and S is computed by using the CN (assumed to be given for this exercise) as
shown in the equation below:

S=

Where S is in inches. If the rainfall data is given in some other units, S needs to be
converted to those units before using in the SCS equation.

Essentially, the continuous abstraction term Fa gives the amount of rainfall that is lost
as infiltration from the total rainfall. A more detailed description and explanation for the
SCS CN methodology can be found in documents listed in the Reference Document
and Files section.

Application of SCS CN Method


Open the Excel file containing the rainfall data. Because the SCS CN method is
based on computing excess rainfall from total rainfall, the given rainfall hyetograph is
first converted into a cumulative rainfall hyetograph or rainfall mass curve so it will
represent the total amount of rainfall after each time step since the beginning of the
storm. Create a column to store the cumulative rainfall values as shown below:
Next, find S by using the equation above and CN = 80 to get S = 2.5 inch. A value of
S = 2.5 inch means the initial abstraction Ia = 0.5 inch ( Ia = 0.2S). There will be no
continuous abstraction or excess rainfall until the total cumulative rainfall becomes
greater than Ia. If the total rainfall at a given time step is less than Ia, it means that all
rainfall will be lost as initial abstraction. In this case, Ia = total rainfall. Once the total
rainfall becomes greater than Ia, then Fa will be calculated for each time step by using
the equation above. Once Ia and Fa are calculated, the cumulative excess rainfall
(Pe) will then be equal to P - Ia - Fa. The table below shows the set-up in Excel to do
these calculations.

Finally, the excess rainfall hyetograph can be obtained by subtracting the


cumulative excess rainfall at each time step from the preceding time step as shown
below:

Typically, an excess rainfall hyetograph is graphically represented by vertical


columns. One can generate such a representation in MS Excel by selecting the 'Excess
Rainfall Hyetograph (in)' column, and apply the 'Insert' --> 'Charts/Column/2D' option.
Right click on the chart area, and go to 'Select Data', and edit the 'horizontal axis
labels' by selecting the range of data in 'Time (h)' column.
At the end of this step, you should have an excess rainfall hyetograph and rainfall
loss for each time step.

REFERENCES:
https://en.wikipedia.org
https://serc.carleton.edu
http://engineeringhydrology.blogspot.com

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