Advanced Hydrology (HWRE 6031)

Unit Hydrograph

By : Mulu Sewinet
Debre Markos, University
 Unit Hydrograph
• Different methods have been intensively investigated
for the prediction of flood peak discharges and
discharge hydrographs from rainfall events since the
early 1930s.
• One approach receiving considerable use is called the
unit hydrograph method
• The purpose of this chapter is to:
• Define unit hydrographs and show their utility in
hydrologic studies and design.
• Develop fully the current methods of obtaining,
analyzing, and synthesizing unit hydrographs.
• Present methods for converting unit hydrographs for
one storm duration to other storm durations.
 UNIT HYDROGRAPH contd…..
• The concept of a unit hydrograph was first introduced by
Sherman in 1932. He defined a unit graph as follows:
• The unit hydrograph (originally named unit-graph) of a
watershed is defined as a direct runoff hydrograph (DRH)
resulting from 1 in. (usually taken as 1 cm in SI units) of
excess rainfall generated uniformly over the drainage area at
a constant rate for an effective duration.
• Sherman classified runoff into surface runoff and
groundwater runoff (base flow) and defined the unit
hydrograph for use only with surface runoff.
• Unit hydrograph represents the transformation of a unit
depth of rainfall excess of duration T-h in to a unit depth of
DR and hence is a catchment characteristics as well as the
duration of excess rain.
• The unit hydrograph is a simple linear model that can be
used to derive the hydrograph resulting from any amount of
excess rainfall.
 Unit Hydrograph Contd……
• The term "unit" has to do with the net rain amount of
1.0 inch and does not mean to imply that the duration
of rain that produced the hydrograph is one unit,
whether an hour, day, or any other measure of time.
• The storm duration, X, that produced the unit
hydrograph must be specified because a watershed has
a different unit hydrograph for each possible storm
duration.
• An X-hour unit hydrograph, is defined as a direct runoff
hydrograph having a 1.0 in. volume and resulting from
an X-hour storm having a net rain rate of 1/X in/hr.
• A 2-hr unit hydrograph would have a 1.0-in. volume
produced by a 2-h storm, and a 1-day unit hydrograph
would be produced by a storm having 1.0 in. of excess
rain uniformly produced during a 24-hr period.
Unit Hydrograph Contd……
 Assumptions of Unit Hydrograph (UH)
The following basic assumptions are inherent in this model:
1) The excess rainfall has a constant intensity within the
effective duration (The storms selected for analysis should be of short
duration, produce an intense and nearly constant excess rainfall rate,
yielding a well-defined single-peaked hydrograph of short time base).
2) The excess rainfall is uniformly distributed throughout the
whole drainage area (The unit hydrograph may become inapplicable
when the drainage area is too large to be covered by a nearly uniform
distribution of rainfall. In such cases, the area has to be divided and each
subarea analyzed for storms covering the whole subarea).
3) The base time of the DRH (the duration of direct runoff)
resulting from an excess rainfall of given duration is constant
(The base time is usually short if the direct runoff is considered to include
the surface runoff only; it is long if the direct runoff also includes
subsurface runoff.).
4) The ordinates of all DRH's of a common base time are directly
proportional to the total amount of direct runoff represented
by each hydrograph (Principles of superposition and proportionality
holds for the catchment).
5) For a given watershed, the hydrograph resulting from a given
excess rainfall reflects the unchanging characteristics of the
watershed (The unit hydrograph is considered unique for a given
watershed and invariable with respect to time. This is the principle of time
Unit Hydrograph Contd……
The principles of superposition and
proportionality; together with principle of time
invariant is fundamental to the unit hydrograph
model.

Unit hydrographs are applicable only when channel

conditions remain unchanged and watersheds do
not have appreciable storage.

This condition is violated when the drainage area

contains many reservoirs, or when the flood
overflows into the flood plain, thereby producing
considerable storage.
 Unit Hydrograph Contd……
• Law of proportionality: If a solution f(Q) is multiplied by a
constant c, the resulting function cf(Q) is also a solution. For
example, if 6.5 mm of effective rainfall fall on a catchment area
in T h, then the hydrograph resulting from that effective
rainfall is obtained by multiplying the ordinates of the TUH by
6.5
• Law of Superposition: If two solutions f1(Q) and f2(Q) of the
equation are added, the resulting function f1(Q) +f2(Q) is also a
solution of the equation. The total hydrograph of direct runoff
due to n successive amounts of effective rainfall (for instance
R1 and R2) is equal to the sum of the n successive hydrographs
produced by the effective rainfall (the latter lagged by T h on
the former).
• Time invariance assumption: assumes that the effective
rainfall-surface runoff relationship does not change with time,
i.e., the same TUH always occurs whenever the unit of
effective rainfall in T h is applied on the catchment.
 Unit Hydrograph Estimation
1) From simple Rainfall excess events
a) When the hydrograph of DR is known along with
information about the rainfall excess event
Procedure
i. From the rainfall hyetograph estimate the intensity of
precipitation and the duration of the event
Let the intensity be I cm/hr and the duration of storm
T hr
ii. Calculate depth of precipitation as I*T =k cm.
iii. Divide each ordinate of the DRH by k. The resulting
hydrograph of direct runoff will now correspond to a
depth of 1cm and duration T hrs.
Unit Hydrograph Estimation Contd……
b) Hydrograph of direct runoff and the area of the
catchment is known
Procedure
i) From the hydrograph of DR calculate the total
volume of DR by direct numerical integration let
this value be V.
ii) Divide the estimated volume of DR V by the
catchment area A to get the depth of rainfall
excess K
i.e K= V/A
iii. Divide each ordinate of DRH by k to get a
hydrograph of direct runoff now corresponding to
a depth of D.R equal to 1cm.
 Derivation of Unit Hydrograph
Steps in developing a unit hydrograph for an isolated storm are:
• Separate the base flow from the total runoff
• From the ordinates of the total runoff hydrograph deduct the corresponding
ordinates of base flow; to obtain the ordinates of DR
• Divide the ordinates of the direct runoff hydrograph by total direct runoff
volume in inches, and plot these results versus time as a unit graph for the
basin
• The surface runoff volume is determined as a depth of flow by numerical
integration: i.e
Where, d = depth of surface runoff in mm; Δt = uniform time interval in hours
at which the ordinates of the surface runoff are measured; ΣQ = sum of all
ordinates of surface runoff hydrograph in m3/s; A = catchment area in Km2
• Divide the ordinates of the surface runoff hydrograph by the runoff depth d
due to the ordinates of the unit hydrograph.
• Finaly , the unit hydrograph for effective rainfall of duration T, the TUH, is
plotted,
Example: Derive a unit hydrograph for the 1715ac drainage area by
using the total direct runoff hydrograph given in Fig. below.
 Solution
1. Separate the base or groundwater flow to get the total
direct runoff hydrograph. A common method is to draw a
straight line AC that begins when the hydrograph starts an
appreciable rise and ends where the recession curve
intersects the base flow curve.
2. The depth of direct runoff over the watershed is calculated
using

Where DR is the average height of the direct runoff ordinated

using a chosen time period ∆𝑡 (in this case ∆𝑡 : 1. 0 hr) .
3. Compute ordinates of the unit hydrograph by using
𝑄
𝑄𝑢 = 𝑠 where D= 1.415
𝐷
Where 𝑄𝑠 =the magnitude of a hydrograph ordinate of direct
runoff
𝑄𝑢 =the ordinate of the unit hydrograph having a volume of 1
in. at some instant of time
Table: determinatoin of a 2 .hr unit hydrograph from an isolated
storm
Unit hydrographs for different rainfall durations

• When a unit hydrograph of a given excess-rainfall

duration is available, the unit hydrographs of other
durations can be derived.

• If other durations are integral multiples of the given

duration, the new unit hydrograph can be easily
computed by application of the principles of
superposition and proportionality.
Example: Develop hourly ordinates of the total hydrograph resulting from
a 4-hr design storm having the following excess amounts

Table: Discharge of rates for the 2-hr unit hydrograph

Solution. The 4-hr duration of the design storm is an integer

multiple of the unit hydrograph duration
• The first 2-hr storm segment has 1.0 in. of net rain and thus
reproduces a unit Hydrograph
• The second 2 -hr storm segment has 2.0 in. of net rain (in 2
hr);thus its ordinates are twice those of a 2-hr unit
hydrograph.
Figure derivation of total runoff hydrograph using a 2-hr unit hydrograph
 Applications
1) Given a T-hr Unit hydrograph a DRH for an ER of T-hr
duration and depth other than unity can be obtained by
simply multiplying the unit hydrograph ordinates by the
indicated ER depth (Proportionality). Time bases of all
DRHs obtained in this way is equal to that of the UHG
2) DRHs produced by a storm consisting of succession of
effective rainfall events of the same duration but varying
depths can be estimated by
i) Scaling up/down of the U.H ordinates for the catchment, in
proportion to the depth of ER of each event
ii) Lagging the “scaled unit hydrograph” by appropriate
amounts in conformity with the causal nature
iii) Summation of simultaneous occurring ordinates is yield the
DRH for the composite storm
 UH for different rainfall durations contd….
• Thus the composite DRH ordinates
are a linear composition of the unit
hydrograph ordinates, while the
composite hydrograph time base is
the sum of the unit hydrograph
time base plus composite storm.
 S.Hydrograph/ S-curve Method
• Defined as the response of
the basin or the DRH for a
basin receiving rainfall excess
uniformly over its entire area
for an indefinitely long
duration and at unit intensity
(1cm/hr)
• It may be depicted as follows
• A short duration rainfall
excess generally result in a
normal single peak DRH
(curve B)
• Rainfall excess for extended
durations results in DRH
which increases with time
until it reaches a constant
equilibrium value Qe. This is
depicted by curve A
 S.HYDROGRAPH contd……
• Point of inflation on curve
A: time at which entire
drainage area contributes to
flow.
• At this point Max storage of
watershed is only partially
complete as rain continues,
max storage is reached after
which discharge Qe remains
constant for catchment area
A km2 and intensity of
excess rainfall i cm/hr
1∗10−2 𝑚3
• 𝑄𝑒 = ∗𝐴∗ 106 = 2.778𝐴
3600 𝑠
S.HYDROGRAPH contd……
 S- Curve hydrograph contd…….
Steps
• Construct s-curve from the given UH of known time D-
hrs

• Advance or offset the position for the desired duration

Do hrs

• Find the difference of the ordinates of the original S-

curve and offset the hydrograph

• Divide this difference by (Do/D) to get the ordinates of

the new UH of Do hrs duration
 Example S- Hydrograph
• Given the following 2-hr hydrograph
Time (hrs) 0 2 3 4 5 6
Q(cfs) 0 100 250 200 100 50

• Solution. The 2-hr unit hydrograph is

the runoff from a 2-hr storm of 0.5
in./hr. The S-hydrograph is formed
from a net rain rate of 0.5 in./hr
lasting indefinitely as shown in Fig. Its
ordinates are found by adding the 2-hr
unit-hydrograp runoff rates from each
contributing 2 -hr block of rain.
 S- Hydrograph contd……
• To find a 3-hr hydrograph, Time 1st 2-hr 2nd 2-hr 3rd 2-hr 4th S-
(hr) hydrograph
the S-curve is lagged by 3-hr
0 0 0
and subtracted as shown in 1 100 100
2 250 0 250
Fig.
3 200 100 300
• This results in a hydrograph 4 100 250 0 350
5 50 200 100 350
from a 3-hr storm of 0.5 6 0 100 250 0 350

in./hr, or 1.5 in. total. Thus 7 50 200 10 350

0
the ordinates need to be 8 0 100 25 350
0
divided by 1.5 to produce
the 3-hr unit hydrograph:
S- Hydrograph contd……

Time S-hydrograph Lagged s- difference 3-hr unit

(hr) hydrograph hydrograp
h
0 0 0 0
1 100 100 67
2 250 250 167
3 300 0 300 200
4 350 100 250 167
5 350 250 100 67
6 350 300 50 33
7 350 350 0 0
 Synthetic Unit Hydrograph
All the methods of deriving a UH discussed previously
require observations of rainfall and runoff.
However, for some drainage basins rain gages and/ or
streams flow gages are not, therefore, rainfall – runoff
data are not available.
For those basins, some kind of techniques to generate
UH (without using rainfall – runoff records) is needed.
The UH so derived is called synthetic UH.
Three types of synthetic UHs:
1. Those relate hydrograph characteristics (peak
discharge, time base, time-to-peak, etc.) to basin
characteristics
2. Those based on dimensionless UH
3. Those based on models of watershed storage.
 Synthetic-Unit Hydrograph (Synder,1938)
• To develop a unit hydrograph to a
catchment, detailed information about the
rainfall and the resulting flood hydrograph
are needed.
• But, such information would be available
only at a few locations; or the data would
normally be very scanty.
• In order to construct a unit hydrographs for
such areas, empirical equations of region
validity which relates the salient hydrographs
characteristics to the basin characteristics
are available.
 Synder method contd….
• Snyder (1938), based on a study of a large number of
catchments in the Eastern United States developed a
set of empirical equations for synthetic unit HG in those
areas.
• These equations are in use in the USA, and with some
modifications in many other countries.
• Snyder defined a standard unit hydrograph as one
whose rainfall duration tr is related to the basin lag tp
by

• The first of the Snyder's equation relates the basin lag

tp, defined as the time interval from the mid point of
the unit rainfall excess to the peak of the unit
hydrographs
 Synder method contd….
For a standard unit hydrograph he
found that:
1. The basin lag is:
• Where tp is in hours, L is the
length of the main stream in
kilometers (or miles) from the
outlet to the upstream divide, Lc
is the distance in kilometers
(miles) from the outlet to a
point on the stream nearest the
centroid of the watershed area,
C = 0.75 (1.0 for the English
system), and Ct is a coefficient
derived from gaged watersheds
in the same region.
Synder method contd….
 Synder method contd….
• But, Linsley et al. found that the basin lag tp is
better correlated with the catchment parameter

and S = basin slope and the above equation

was modified as

• Where, CtL and n (~0.3) are basin constants

Synder method contd….
2) The peak discharge per unit drainage area in m3/s-km2
(cfs/mi2) of the standard unit hydrograph is

 where C2 = 2.75 (640 for the English system) and Cp is a

coefficient derived from gaged watersheds in the same
region.
• To compute Ct and Cp for a gaged watershed, the values
of L and Lc are measured from the basin map. From a
derived unit hydrograph of the watershed are obtained
values of its effective duration tR in hours, its basin lag
tpR in hours, and its peak discharge per unit drainage
area, qpR in m3/s.km2.cm (cfs/mi2 .in for the English
system). If tpR = 5.5tR , then tR =tr , tpR = tp , and qpR = qp ,
and Ct and Cp are computed by the above Eqs.
 Synder method contd….
• If tpR is quite different from 5.5tR , the standard
basin lag is

• When an ungaged watershed appears to be similar

to a gaged watershed, the coefficients Ct and Cp for
the gaged watershed can be used in the above
equations to derive the required synthetic unit
hydrograph for the ungagged watershed.
3) The relationship between qp and the peak
discharge per unit drainage area qpR of the
required unit hydrograph is
 Synder method contd….
• The base time tb in hours of the unit hydrograph can be
determined using the fact that the area under the unit
hydrograph is equivalent to a direct runoff of 1 cm (1 inch
in the English system). Assuming a triangular shape for the
unit hydrograph, the base time may be estimated by

Where C3 = 5.56 (1290 for the English system).

• The width in hours of a unit hydrograph at a discharge
equal to a certain percent of the peak discharge qPR is
given by

where Cw = 1.22 (440 for English system) for the 75-percent

width and 2.14 (770, English system) for the 50-percent
width. Usually one-third of this width is distributed before
the unit hydrograph peak time and two-thirds after the peak.