Other examples from previous tests that I didn’t have time to show you in class: (no answers will be

given on these; this is just to give you and idea of the kinds of test questions I may give.)

Which of the following factors are important for the NRCS TR-55 method?

(a) Size of watershed

(b) Time of concentration of the watershed
(c) Slope of the watershed
(d) All of the above

What of the following watersheds is most appropriate for a TR-55 method?

(a) A watershed composing mostly of swampland

(b) A watershed that is a mixture of parks and shopping centers
(c) A watershed that is mostly pastureland
(d) A large watershed that has a time of concentration of 64 hours

What of the following things are NOT true about the unit hydrograph approach?

(a) They represent 1 inch of excessive rainfall during a given time

(b) They can be scaled linearly with rainfall amounts
(c) They can be summed across multiple blocks of rainfall
(d) They can be determined and used for any type of watershed
(e) They require a constant rainfall pattern over an entire watershed to be useful

NRCS TR-55 Method

A 0.5 mi2 catchment (5% of which is swamp) with a slope of 1.5% has a curve number of 80.
It is located in South Florida (Type III Rainfall). The distance from the most remote part of
the catchment to the outlet is 1500 feet, and the land has a Manning’s roughness coefficient
(n) of 0.22. The 24-hr design precipitation is 5.8 inches. Estimate the peak runoff from the
catchment using the NRCS TR-55 method.
Evapotranspiration
If well watered grass has a evapotranspiration of 0.6 inches/day, but you have corn with a crop
coefficient of 1.6 and 40% available water content, what is the amount of evapotranspiration you
expect for your corn?
a. 0.38 inches
b. 0.96 inches
c. 0.58 inches
d. 1.6 inches
What is the radiation available for driving evapotranspiration for a coniferous forest in a semi-
humid climate, with a surface radiation measured at 20 MJ/m2-day, an incoming solar radiation
of 33 MJ/m2-day, and longwave radiation based on temperature at 5.9 MJ/m2-day?
Rational Method
What is the maximum expected runoff for a 50-year storm event in Stillwater OK, for a 1.5 mi2
watershed, half of which is unimproved, a the other half of which is single family residential?
The time of concentration in the watershed is 2 hours. Make use of the tables below, and the
precipitation you found for this storm event in number 1 above (Some previous problem).

Return Period (yr) Multiplier

2-10 1
25 1.1
50 1.2
100 1.25