American University of Beirut

Faculty of Engineering & Architecture

Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Fall 2018

CIVE 541 Engineering Hydrology

EXTRA PROBLEMS

Pb#I:
Do surface drainage divides correspond to groundwater divides?

The Aberjona River watershed (located north of Boston, USA) is shown in figure 1 (back
of this page). At the outlet of the watershed, near Mystic Lakes, the stream gage records
an annual average streamflow of 29 cfs (cubic feet per second). The annual average
precipitation measured at the Reading station in 1991 was 45.3 inches. The only major
water withdrawal from the watershed is the Atlantic Gelatin plant that uses 2.8 cfs and
discharges this water into the public sewer system. Assume that the outlet of the
watershed represents both a groundwater and surface water divide.

(a) Construct a watershed balance for this area and estimate the rate of
evapotranspiration.

Sub-basin Area (square miles)1

1. Woburn North 6.2
2. Woburn Central 2.5
3. Winchester 5.8
4. Burlington 7.1
5. Horn Pond 3.4

(b) The watershed has been divided into 5 sub-basins, with a stream gage at the outlet of
each. Using the average precipitation rate, the evapotranspiration rate calculated in
(a), and the stream gage readings, compute a water balance for each sub-basin. The
Atlantic Gelatin withdrawal is in the Winchester sub-basin.

Gage Streamflow (cfs) Sub-basins measured

1 7.3 4 and 5
2 8.8 1
3 18.6 1 and 2
4 9.7 4
5 29 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5

(c) Do the inflows to each sub-basin equal the outflows? Explain any discrepancies in
the balances.

1
1 mile is 5,280 feet

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 Pb#II:
Can ponding occur twice?
Compute the excess rainfall intensity using the Green-Ampt infiltration equation with
K=0.65 cm/hr, ψs=17 cm, and Δθ=0.35, and draw the excess rainfall hyetograph. The
initial abstraction taken up by interception storage is 1.5 cm. The cumulative rainfall
hyetograph is as given below:

Time (hr) 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3

P (cm) 0 3.5 3.5 4.8 7.2 7.5 7.5

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 Pb#III:
Groundwater Hydrology

1.Is the beer safe?

A 10-cm radius well serving a small brewery is pumped at a constant rate of 100m3/hr.
Two years later, customer complaints about the beer led to the discovery of
hydrocarbons, possibly, from gasoline, in the well water. The brewery has filed suit again
every gasoline service station within a 1.0 km radius of the well: (Reference coordinates:
well coordinates (0, 0)):
- station A is located at (200 m, 200 m), in operation since 6 months.
- station B(-300 m, -100 m), in operation since 2 years
- station C (500 m, 0), in operation before the opening of the brewery..

Hydrogeologists determine that the confined aquifer is an infinite flow domain of 20 m

thickness and has a transmissivity of 0.015m2/sec, and a porosity of 20%.

Which of the gas stations’ lawyers will have a difficult time defending his/her client?

2. How can the hydraulic conductivity & storativity of an aquifer be estimated?

A) The equilibrium drawdown in a confined aquifer of 35 m thickness is 0.5 m at an
observation well located midway between the pumping well (100 m3/day) and a
nearby stream 40 m away. The drawdown at the observation well measured at time
0.5 hrs is 0.1 m. Estimate the hydraulic conductivity K and the storativity S of the
aquifer.

B) A municipal well is pumping at a rate of 10 liters/s. The drawdown at an observation

well 50-m away is 2.0 m at t =90 min and 2.4 m at t =120 min. Determine the
transmissivity T and storativity S of the confined aquifer using the Cooper-Jacob
method.

Pb#IV:
What is the peak runoff?

Compute the peak runoff for an excess rainfall of 4 cm over a duration of 6 hrs given the
following rainfall-runoff data of a previous storm on the same watershed. The drainage area is
200 km2.

4-hr Period 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Rainfall Depth (cm) 1.0 2.5 4.0 2.0
Storm Flow (m3/s) 20 30 60 95 130 170 195 175 70 25 20

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 Pb#V:
What is the peak outflow?

Part 1:
Compute the runoff hydrograph and determine the peak flow using the SCS method and the
tabulated cumulative rainfall distribution. The abstractions are made of initial interception storage
of 2.5 cm and a constant infiltration rate of 1.5 cm/hr. The basin lag is given by tp=0.6 Tc where
Tc is the time of concentration in hr expressed by Tc=0.927(L/√𝑆) 0.47, L is the length of the
main stream (km), and S is the stream slope (-). Use the SCS unit-hydrograph method for runoff
generation and the Muskingum method for runoff routing with Δt= 30 min and zero initial
conditions. The Muskingum parameters of the reach are x = 0.2 and k = 30 min. The area of the
watershed is 24 km2, the length L is 10 km and the slope is 0.08.

Time (hr) 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3

∑P (cm) 0 1.0 3.5 4.8 5.5 5.5 5.5

Part 2:
Compute the peak outflow for the following two design alternatives and recommend the best
option noting that the maximum peak outflow should be less than 1.75 m3/s.
Design 1: a culvert of 0.5 m in diameter and a reservoir area of 400 m2.
Design 2: a culvert of 0.6 m in diameter and a reservoir area of 800 m2.
The detention basin is potato in shape with vertical walls. The culvert discharge coefficient is Cd
=0.66. The inflow hydrograph is triangular with a peak value of 3 m3/s at 30 min and a base time
of 120 min at zero flow. Use the Runge-Kutta 2nd order method with a time step of 15 min
assuming that the water level is initially at the culvert invert (zero flow). Explain your choice.

Pb#VI:
Frequency Analysis
The statistics of the annual flood data for the Floyd River, James, Iowa, for the period of 1935 –
1973 are: mean = 6771 cfs, standard deviation = 11696 cfs, and skewness = 2.5, while the
statistics of log(10) transformed flows are: mean = 3.5553, standard deviation = 0.4642, and
skewness = 0.4

1. Compute the 100-yr peak discharge using the log-Pearson Type III and the Gumbel
distribution
2. Compute the return period of 40000 cfs flow using the log-Pearson Type III and the log-
normal distribution
3. Compute the probability that the flow will be greater than 12000 cfs in the next two
years using the normal and the log-normal distribution
4. Compute the reliability of a 10000 cfs flood in the next 3 years using the Gamma 2
distribution

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