RUNOFF (STREAMFLOW)

K. Srinivasan
 Motivation to study Runoff

• Water resources available - for human use and

management
• Flood Prediction – basis for design of bridges, dams,
levees and formulation of flood plain land use plans and
regulations
• Flood Forecasting – estimating the streamflow response
to an actual storm event that is occurring or is forecast to
occur – to guide the operation of reservoir systems and
to provide flood warnings
• Water Quality – influenced by chemical and biological
reactions as water moves over the land surface toward
the stream
 What is Streamflow?

• Streamflow is a spatially and temporally integrated

response determined by

Spatially and temporally varying rain input rates

Time for reaching the channel network (time of overland flow)
Time of Travel (along the channel to reach the outlet or the
gauge)

 Small drainage basins – hill slope travel time is predominant

 Large drainage basins – travel time in the channel network is
more
 Streamflow Hydrograph

• Graph of Stream discharge Vs Time

• Some time after the rain input begins, flow rate starts
increasing relatively rapidly from the pre-event rate
• Reaches a well-defined peak discharge
• Then, declines gradually to a rate close to the pre-event
rate - recession
Loss Rate & Rainfall Excess Hyetograph
 Response Time & Centroid Lag

• Response time (T*) – related to the time required for

water to travel to the basin outlet.
• T* depends on the following factors:
• Watershed size
 Larger area increases the response time
• Soils and geology
• Low surface hydraulic conductivity – increase in overland flow – results
in quick response
• If flow paths are mainly located in the subsurface, then, higher
hydraulic conductivity will result in less response time
• Slope
 Steeper slopes – faster water movement – quick response
• Land use
 Intensive Urbanization – increase in impermeable areas –
less response time
 Response Time & Centroid Lag (contd…)

• Temporal variation of T* - due to the variability of

contributing areas and the flow rates, which depend on
the antecedent wetness and the seasonal factors.
• For large floods, the contributing areas and the wetness
may be treated nearly constant with time and hence the
temporal variation need not be accounted for.

• In linear response models, the centroid lag (TLC) can be

taken to be the best characteristic basin response time.
 Response Lag Time (TLR)

• Time required to fill storage (interception, infiltration and

surface depressions) plus the average travel time to
reach the basin outlet.
• Bank storage contribution to the stream from old water
stored during an earlier storm event – will reduce the
response lag time drastically.

• In linear response models, response (direct runoff) is

assumed to begin as soon as water input begins.
 Time of Rise (Tr)

• If effective input rates vary significantly during an event,

then, the time of peak (Tr) is usually determined by the
time of the highest effective water input rates.

• In linear response models, for a constant effective water

input rate, Tr equals the duration of effective water input
rate.

• Rising limb of the hydrograph is usually quite steep

compared with the falling (receding) limb.
 Time Base (Tb) & Recession
• Time Base (Tb) is the duration between the beginning of
event response to the end of event response.

• Theoretically, time base is infinite, as recession is an

exponential decay process according to the linear
response.

• Recessions for a given basin seem to follow different

decay constant values in different discharge ranges and in
different seasons. Hence, a fundamental “time constant”
for a basin cannot be identified.
 Peak Discharge (qpk)

• For a constant total water input, Peak Discharge is

affected by:

– Rate and duration of water input

– Basin characteristics (as reflected in T*)

 Mechanisms producing Event Response

 Channel Precipitation
 Overland Flow (surface runoff)
 Hortonian Overland Flow
 Saturation Overland Flow
 Subsurface Flow
 Flow in the Saturated Zone
 Flow in the Unsaturated Zone
 Channel Precipitation

• Rain that falls directly on the stream to become

part of channel flow

• Although the total area of stream channel is

mostly less than 1% of the total drainage area,
this forms a significant component of peak flow
and total event flow.
Hortonian Overland flow over an entire slope of length Xs.
qho(Xs,t) is the lateral inflow to the stream at time t.
Horton Runoff – Schematic Representation
 Hortonian Overland Flow

• Overland flow that results from saturation from

above
• This type of flow can occur only when and where
i(t) > Kh*
 This is an important response mechanism in
 Semi-arid to arid regions where rainfalls are intense
and natural surface conductivities are low
 Areas where soil frost or human / animal activity has
reduced surface conductivity
 Impermeable areas
 Overland Flow Computation
Flow depth and Velocity
-Complicated Process varying in 3 dimensions and
time
- A thin layer of water flows over a wide surface
- First mechanism of surface flow in a watershed
- Principles of Continuity and Momentum are
applied
- Simplified flow situation – one dimensional flow –
assumed for practical computations of overland
flow
 Overland Flow Computation
• A thin sheet of flow which occurs on slopes of
land surfaces in a watershed before reaching
the first order channel
• Assume a uniform plane on which rain falls at
intensity i and rate of infiltration is f
• Steady conditions are established after
considerable period of time
• Plane is of unit width and length L0 and
inclination of the plane is tan Ɵ
Overland Flow Computation
Overland Flow Computation
Overland Flow Computation
Overland Flow Computation
Overland Flow Computation
Overland Flow Computation
Hortonian Overland Flow (contd...)

Typical Urban Flow Paths

Hill Slope Process
 Hill Slope Process (contd…)
• Observations have shown that the subsurface movement of water
down the hill slope combined with overland flow from the source
areas is the flood mechanism in forested basins.
• Rainfall excess in a flood hydrograph in a forested basin -
combination of interflow, subsurface flow, and overland flow.
• In forested basins, flow that has infiltrated is a major contributor to
direct runoff.
• Green-Ampt method assumes an overland flow-type mechanism
which is not quite appropriate for forested basins (where the
subsurface mechanism tends to control direct runoff).
• Applications to forested basins probably should rely on empirical
methods calibrated to regional information such as regional
frequency curves or correlation between observed rainfall-runoff
characteristics and drainage basin characteristics.
 Saturation Overland Flow
• Overland flow that occurs due to saturation from below -
at the bottom of hill slopes and near stream banks
Consists of two components
 direct water input to the saturated area
 return flow contributed by the break-out of ground water
from upslope

 When water input occurs over the drainage basin, all or part of it
infiltrates and some of this percolates to recharge ground water
and raise the water table.
 Since the water table is close to the surface near the stream, it
rises to the surface there.
 Once this happens, all further water input on the saturated zone
travels as overland flow to the stream, regardless of water-input
rate.
 Variable Source Area Concept

• Within a given basin, the extent of areas saturated from

below varies widely with time
– reflects the overall basin wetness

• Responsible for high degree of temporal variability of

storm runoff

• Identification of Source areas – by remote sensing

• Has important implications for understanding and

modeling event response
 Subsurface Event Flow

• Normally, regional ground water flow is the major source

of streamflows between event responses – known as
base flow.

• There are also mechanisms by which subsurface flow

enters streams quickly enough to contribute to the event
response – known as subsurface event flow

• Such flow can occur under saturated as well as

unsaturated conditions (either as Darcian flow or as
Macro-pore flow)
 Flow in the Saturated Zone

• Ground water contributions to event flow –

o Arise from mechanisms that quickly produce steep

hydraulic gradients in materials of high conductivity in
near-stream areas

o These mechanisms relate to:

 Flow from Local Ground water Mounds
 Flow from Perched Saturated Zones
 Flow in the Unsaturated Zone

• Downslope flow occurring between the ground surface

and a perched or regional water table –
>> interflow or throughflow.

Sometimes described as Darcian flow in the soil matrix.

Sometimes described as pipe flow in macropores that

bypasses the unsaturated soil matrix
Hydrograph separation
Base flow separation technique