Clause 3.

3 (IS:5477 Part-3): The storage provided in an irrigation project

should be able to meet the demand for 75 percent of the time whereas in
power and water supply projects the storage should meet the demand for 90
percent and 100 percent of the time respectively.
Clause 4.4.1 (IS:5477 Part-3): Live storage equal to the available run off for
the requisite percentage of period should be provided and working tables
should be prepared with the run off series in chronological order on monthly
or 10-day basis to ensure that live storage is capable of meeting the demand
for the contemplated success, that is, 75 percent success in irrigation projects
and 90 and 100 percent success in power and water supply projects
respectively.
"Dependable yield" means that maintainable yield of water from a surface or
ground water source(s) which is available continuously during projected
future conditions, including a repetition of the most severe drought of record,
without creating undesirable effects, as determined by the Department.
The yield, which corresponds to the worst or the most critical year on record,
is called the firm yield or the safe yield. 
In view of the codal provisions, the dependability criteria to be followed will be
90% for drinking water projects, 75% dependable yield for major and medium
projects and 50% dependable yield for minor projects.
 CALCULATION OF YIELD USING STRANGE TABLE
The total yearly runoff, expressed as the volume of water entering/passing
the outlet point of the catchment, is known as the catchment yield expressed
in Mcum or Mcft.
The annual yield of the catchment upto the site of a reservoir, located at the
given point along the river, will thus indicate the quantum of water that will
annually enter the reservoir, and will thus help in designing the capacity of the
reservoir.
The past available data of rainfall or runoff in the catchment is therefore used
to work out the optimum value of the catchment yield.
Strange table is one of the empirical methods for converting rainfall value into
dependable yield. Strange table gives percentages for converting monsoon
rainfall into runoff. The catchments prone to producing higher yields are
categorized as ‘Good Catchments’. The intermediate are called ‘Average
Catchments’ and those producing low yields are termed ‘Bad Catchments’.
 The steps for computing yield from annual rainfall data are enumerated
as under:

a) STEP 1 : DATA REQUIRED

The data required for computing the yield from annual rainfall include
Gross Catchment Area, Intercepted Catchment Area of the project and
Catchment characteristics (Good/Average/Bad). Free catchment area
is computed as difference of the Gross & Intercepted catchment area.
10% of the intercepted area is added to the Free Catchment Area as
regeneration and is used for computing the yield.

b) STEP 2: CONVERTING ANNUAL RAINFALL TO MONSOON

RAINFALL VALUES
It is assumed that 90% of the yearly rainfall occurs in monsoon period
(June to October). Hence annual rainfall values are multiplied by 0.90
to convert into monsoon rainfall values.

c) STEP 3: COMPUTING % OF RUNOFF TO RAINFALL FROM

RAINFALL
% runoff value is read from strange table for defined catchment
characteristics (Good/Average/Bad) & corresponding monsoon Rainfall
value for the year.

d) STEP 4: COMPUTING YIELD CORRESPONDING TO % RUNOFF

VALUES
The yield corresponding to a particular rainfall is evaluated by
multiplying % runoff values (Step 3) with rainfall value & catchment
area (Step 1) & converted into Mcum values.
 e) STEP 5: COMPUTING DEPENDABLE YIELD
The yield computed at Step 4 is arranged in descending order, and %
dependable yield is given by 100*M / (N+1) as percentage. N is the
total number of rainfall values & M is the order of the yield in
descending order. 50%, 75% & 90% dependable yield is computed by
interpolation from the dependable yield values computed above.

Typical Example

Results of Yield Analysis using Strange Table

Name of the Project : Pharaswali Dhani MIP

Yield at 50% Dependability= 1.14 Mcum

Yield at 75% Dependability= 0.44 Mcum
Yield at 90% Dependability= 0.26 Mcum
Average yield = 1.473 Mcum
Dep. of Average Yield = 45.20 %
 Total yield
Monsoon Total in
Yield in % of
Year Rainfall Yield descending % Dep.
Rainfall
(mm) (Mcum) order
(Mcum)
1976 539.95 12.27 1.65 5.52 3.23
1977 805.36 21.03 4.21 5.27 6.45
1978 889.94 23.82 5.27 4.21 9.68
1979 348.16 6.06 0.52 2.58 12.90
1980 321.18 5.09 0.41 2.29 16.13
1981 331.01 5.47 0.45 2.28 19.35
1982 515.49 11.49 1.47 1.99 22.58
1983 651.51 15.95 2.58 1.83 25.81
1984 406.68 7.89 0.80 1.65 29.03
1985 534.47 12.09 1.61 1.64 32.26
1986 323.93 5.19 0.42 1.64 35.48
1987 251.92 3.14 0.20 1.61 38.71
1988 565.10 13.05 1.83 1.58 41.94
1989 284.38 4.01 0.28 1.47 45.16
1990 455.37 9.55 1.08 1.20 48.39
1991 337.41 5.71 0.48 1.08 51.61
1992 539.04 12.24 1.64 0.87 54.84
1993 619.05 14.88 2.29 0.80 58.06
1994 474.12 10.22 1.20 0.74 61.29
1995 908.91 24.44 5.52 0.52 64.52
1996 618.13 14.85 2.28 0.48 67.74
1997 531.27 11.99 1.58 0.48 70.97
1998 420.17 8.29 0.87 0.45 74.19
1999 294.89 4.29 0.31 0.42 77.42
2000 274.32 3.73 0.25 0.41 80.65
2001 337.41 5.71 0.48 0.31 83.87
2002 242.32 2.91 0.18 0.28 87.10
2003 538.58 12.22 1.64 0.25 90.32
2004 395.02 7.54 0.74 0.20 93.55
2005 584.99 13.69 1.99 0.18 96.77
 From, the above results it can be inferred that, as value of yield increases,
its dependability decreases. So, if we are planning project on average yield
i.e. 1.473 Mcum, the gross storage of this project will be roughly 1.47
Mcum @ 45.20 % dependability. Average yield thus decreases the
dependability. So as compared to 50% and 75% dependable yield, we
have to build a larger dam to cater to the average yield. However, its
success of filling the dam to its capacity will be much lower than
considering the 50% or 75% dependable yield. This will adversely effect
the benefit-cost ratio.
 Extreme rainfall events in a particular year considerably increases the
average yield. However, in case of drought years it does not ensure the
stability of data over time and conditions (Extreme rainfall/drought).
Dependability thus ensures quantitative reliability even in repetition of the
most severe drought of record, without creating undesirable effects .