RUNOFF

• When a storm occurs, a portion of rainfall infiltrates into the ground

and some portion may evaporate. The rest flows as a thin sheet of
water over the land surface which is termed as overland flow.
• Runoff is the drainage of precipitation from a catchment, which
flows out through its natural drainage system.
• The plot of the stream discharge against the time, gives the flow
hydrograph.
• The term direct runoff is used to include the overland flow and the
interflow. If the snow melt contributes to the stream flow it can be
included with the direct runoff.
• Direct surface flow can be analyzed for relatively large drainage
areas by the unit hydrograph method and for
• Smaller areas by overland flow analysis.
• The direct runoff results from the occurrence of an immediately
preceding storm while the ground water contribution has no direct
1
relation with the immediately preceding storm.
 RUNOFF
Runoff consists of water from three sources:
1. Surface flow
It is the product of effective rainfall i.e., total rainfall minus hydrologic
abstractions. Surface flow is also called direct runoff. Direct runoff has
the capability to produce large flow concentrations in a relatively short
period of time. Therefor, direct runoff is largely responsible for flood
flows.
2. Interflow
A part of infiltrated rainwater moves parallel to the land surface as
subsurface flow is called interflow.
If there is a relatively impermeable stratum in the subsoil, the infiltrating
water moves laterally in the surface soil and joins the stream flow, which
is termed as underflow (subsurface flow) or interflow
3. Groundwater flow
The other part of infiltrated water percolates downwards to groundwater
and moves laterally to emerge in depressions and rivers and joins the
surface flow. This type of flow is called groundwater flow. It is also
known as base flow.
• If there is no impeding layer in the subsoil the infiltrating water
percolates into the ground as deep seepage and builds up the ground 2

water table.
 Runoff
• The ground water may also contribute to the stream flow, if the GWT is higher
than the water surface level of the stream, creating a hydraulic gradient towards
the stream.
• Low soil permeability favors overland flow.
• While all the three types of flow contribute to the stream flow, it is the overland
flow, which reaches first the stream channel, the interflow being slower reaches
after a few hours and the ground water flow being the slowest reaches the stream
channel after some days.

3
Infiltration - Runoff Processes for Constant Rainfall

4
 Hyetograph

Peak
Saturated
Overland Flow

Rising limb
Interflow

Separation line

Falling limb

Base flow

Time

Separation of sources of streamflow on an idealized hydrograph

5
 Components of Runoff Hydrograph

Runoff Hydrograph

Surface Runoff

Interflow

Groundwater flow

Time

The superposition of these hydrographs results in runoff

hydrograph exhibiting a long tail (positive skew). 6
 Rainfall-Runoff Modeling

The objective of many hydrologic design and analysis

problems is to determine the surface runoff (volume and peak
discharge) from a watershed due to a particular storm. This
process is commonly referred to as rainfall-runoff analysis
or modeling.

Output
Input System Runoff
Rainfall Watershed hydrograph

7
 Runoff Requirement

 Two components of a storm runoff are generally required for

engineering works to be estimated, which are runoff volume
and peak runoff rate.
 There are many methods available for their estimation.
 The most commonly adopted methods are the curve number
method of USSCS for estimation of both excess runoff volume
and peak flow rate (by using the dimensionless unit
hydrograph) and the Rational method for the peak flow rate.
 Many empirical relationships are also widely used for
estimation of flow rates.

8
 Runoff Estimation
Runoff is that balance of rain water, which flows or runs over the
natural ground surface after losses by evaporation, interception and
infiltration.
The yield of a catchment (usually means annual yield) is the net
quantity of water available for storage, after all losses, for the purposes
of water resources utilization and planning, like irrigation, water
supply, etc.
Maximum flood discharge. It is the discharge in times of flooding of
the catchment area, i.e., when the intensity of rainfall is greatest and the
condition of the catchment regarding humidity is also favorable for an
appreciable runoff.
A runoff hydrograph is a continuous record of stream flow over time. A
complete runoff hydrograph contains information on runoff volume as
the area under the hydrograph and peak runoff rates as the maximum
flow or peak of the runoff hydrograph.

9
 Runoff Estimation
The runoff from rainfall may be estimated by the following methods:

1. Empirical formulae, curves and tables

2. Infiltration method

3. Rational method

4. Overland flow hydrograph

5. Unit hydrograph method

6. Coaxial Graphical Correlation and API (See art. 13.4 and Ex. 13.3

in Chapter 13)

10
Streams Classification

11
Streams Classification

12
Isocrones

13
 Factors Affecting Runoff
1. Meteorological Factors
Precipitation Characteristics
Type of Precipitation
Rainfall Intensity
Duration of Rainfall
2. Physio-graphic Factors
Rainfall Distribution
Characteristics of the Drainage Basin
Direction of Storm
Soil Type
Antecedent (past) ppt
Land Use
Other Factors Shape and Size of Catchment
Temp, Wind
Topography of area
Natural Drainage Net
14
15
Effects of storm shape, size and
movement on surface runoff

16
Effect of Time variation of rainfall
intensity on the surface runoff

Time

Time 17
Storm A Effect of storm size on surface runoff

Storm B

Storm A
Storm B

Time

18
 Effect of storm movement on surface runoff

AB
BA

Time
A
Storm Movement
19
Effects of basin characteristics
on the discharge hydrograph

20
Types of Catchments

Fan Shaped Fern Leaf

Catchment Catchment

• Fan shaped catchments give greater runoff because

tributaries are nearly of the same size and therefore
time of flow is nearly the same and is smaller.

• Whereas in fern leaf catchments, the time of

concentration is more since the discharge is
distributed over a long period.
21
Relationship of slope to peak discharge

Gentler t

Steeper

t
22
 How to find the slope of catchment

• Horton has suggested a method of determining the slope of

large drainage areas, i.e.,
• The area is subdivided into a number of square grids of equal
size. The number of contours crossed by each subdividing line
is counted and the lengths of the grid lines are scaled.

• Then the slope of the basin is given by

• S =1.5 (CI) Nc/(∑L)
• where S = slope of the basin, CI = contour interval
• Nc = number of contours crossed by all the subdividing lines
• Σ L = total length of the subdividing lines

23
24
Relationship of hydraulic roughness to runoff

Less rough t

More rough

t
25
Relationship of storage to runoff

Little storage t

More storage
t
26
 The characteristics of the drainage net may be
physically described

(i) the number of streams (ii) the length of streams

(iii) stream density (iv) drainage density

The stream density of a drainage basin is expressed as the number

of streams per square kilometer.
stream density, Ds =N/A
where Ns = number of streams
A = area of the basin

27
Relationship of Channel length to runoff

Shorter length t

Longer length
t
28