The Unit Hydrograph**

March-29-11
3:32 PM
*May have 1/2 questions on unit hydrograph on final exam

A direct hydrograph of characteristic shape and dueation for a given

catchment that is in response to a unit depth of effective precipitation
falling over a specified time period at a constant rate

Often used to predict duture response hydrographs to future

rainstorm events.

Assumptions
○ Effective rainfall (Peff) is uniformly distributed over a specified
time period
○ Peff is uniformly distributed over the catchment
○ Duration of hydrograph from response from Peff of specified
time period and unit depth is constant between events
○ Response hydrograph from Peff accounts for all physical
characteristics of the catchment
○ For Peff of different intensities but similar duration, the
magnitude of runoff scales proportionately with the Peff
intensities
○ This leads to the central hypothesis that the UH is a LINEAR
transfer function

Procedure of step (3)

○ Determine Peff (total direct runoff) by integrating the area under
the direct runoff curve, or through estimation based on
catchment-wide infiltration rates, baseflow characteristics, etc
○ Divide each of the ordinates (y-axis) of the DR by Peff
 These are the UH ordinates
 Average out the UHs of all the storms investigated
○ Note: the area under the curve of UH MUST equal 1 unit (cm) or
there are errors in the procedure

Step 4
○ FROM Tw-hr UH to nTw-hr UH where n = integer
○ Plot Tw-hr + Tw-hr lagged by Tw
 Add the two Tw-hr UH's together
○ Divide by n to get the ordinates of the nTw-hr UH
○ From Tw-hr UH to Tw-hrUH:
 Plot Tw-hr UH + more Tw-hr UH each lagged by Tw
 Add all these Tw-hr UH's together (plotting as you go)
 Stop when S-curve shape forms
 Plot another S-curve lagged by Tw-hrs
 Subtract the ordinates of the two S-curves
 Multiply these new ordinates by Tw to generate the Tw-hr
UH

Channel Flow Routing

Consider a mega river

○ The water balance equation
○ Inflow - outflow = change in storage
 Assuming no significant water gain or loss along the
channel reach

Water Page 1
 channel reach
○ The flood wave
 Through time, as a parcel of water enters and travels
down the river, it goes into storage, then gradually
releases as outflow
○ This 'flood wave' ends up with a different shape and duration
hydrograph then at the inflow of water

Lumped/hydrologic
○ Flow is calculated as a function of time alone at a particular
location
○ Governed by continuity equation and flow/storage relationship

Distributed/hydraulic
○ Flow is calculated as a function of space and time throughout
the system
○ Governed by continuity and momentum equations

The change in storage equals the difference between inflow and

outflow

Muskingum Method

Sp = K O
○ Prism storage

Sw = K (I- O)X
○ Wedge storage

S = K(X) + (I-X)O
○ Combined

K is estimated to be the travel time through the reach

X = 0.0 - 0.5 (weighing coefficient)
○ As inflow becomes less important, the value of X decreases

X = 0.0 indicates where, I, has no effect on S (eg reservoir)

X= 0.2-0.3 are most common for natural streams
X = 0.5 would represent equal weighting between inflow and outflow
and would produce translation with little or no attenuation

This may pose somewhat of a difficulty, as the travel time will

obviously change with flow

The question may arise as to whether the travel time should be

estimated using the average flow, the peak flow, or some other flow.

The travel time may be estimated using the kinematic travel time
based on Manning's equation

Example:
A portion of the inflow hydrograph to a reach of channel is given
below. If the travel time is K = I unit and the weighting factor is X =
0.30, find the outflow from the reach for the period shown below

time Inflow C0I2 C1I1 C2O1 Outflow

0 3 0.835 2.00 .501 3

Water Page 2
0 3 0.835 2.00 .501 3
1 5 1.67 3.34
2 10
3 8
4 6
5 5

Water Page 3