Floods Study

• Understanding Floods
• Floods Analysis
• Flood Routing
• Floods Frequency Analysis and design flood
Floods: Understanding
 What is Flood
• FLOOD is one of the most common natural hazards, which is a
natural phenomenon of an extreme nature, often violent,
occurring irregularly.
• In accordance with Article 16 section 43 of the Water Law of 20
July 2017, flood is defined as
“a temporary coverage with water of an area not
normally covered by water, in particular caused by
high water in natural water-courses, reservoirs,
onshore canals, excluding coverage of an area with
water caused by high water in sewage systems”
 Three Common Types of Flood Explained
1. Coastal (Surge Flood)
A coastal flood, as the name suggests, occurs in areas that lie on the
coast of a sea, ocean, or other large body of open water. It is typically
the result of extreme tidal conditions caused by severe weather.
• Coastal flooding is categorized in three levels:
– Minor: A slight amount of beach erosion will occur but no major
damage is expected.
– Moderate: A fair amount of beach erosion will occur as well as
damage to some homes and businesses.
– Major: Serious threat to life and property. Large-scale beach erosion
will occur, numerous roads will be flooded, and many structures will
be damaged.

• The severity of a coastal

flood is determined by
several factors, including
the strength, size, speed,
and direction of the storm
Coastal flooding caused by Hurricane Sandy
ravaged the Jersey Shore in October 2012
 Three Common Types of Flood Explained
2. Fluvial (River Flood)
• Fluvial, or riverine flooding, occurs when excessive rainfall over an
extended period of time causes a river to exceed its capacity.
• The damage from a river flood can be widespread as the overflow affects
smaller rivers downstream, often causing dams and dikes to break and
swamp nearby areas
• There are two main types of riverine flooding:
– Overbank flooding occurs when water rises overflows over the edges of a
river or stream. This is the most common and can occur in any size channel
– Flash flooding is characterized by an intense, high velocity torrent of water
that occurs in an existing river channel with little to no notice. Flash floods are
very dangerous and destructive not only because of the force of the water,
but also the hurtling debris that is often swept up in the flow.

• The severity is determined by

the amount of precipitation in
an area, how long it takes for
precipitation to accumulate,
previous saturation of local
soils, and the terrain
surrounding the river system.
In September 2013, heavy rain caused catastrophic river
flooding along Colorado's Front Range
 Three Common Types of Flood Explained
3. Pluvial (Surface Flood)
• A pluvial, or surface water flood, is caused when heavy rainfall creates a
flood event independent of an overflowing water body.
• Pluvial flooding debunks that myth, as it can happen in any urban area —
even higher elevation areas that lie above coastal and river floodplains
• There are two common types of pluvial flooding:
– Intense rain saturates an urban drainage system. The system becomes
overwhelmed and water flows out into streets and nearby structures.
– Run-off or flowing water from rain falling on hillsides that are unable to
absorb the water. Hillsides with recent forest fires are notorious sources of
pluvial floods, as are suburban communities on hillsides

• Pluvial flooding often occurs in

combination with coastal and
fluvial flooding, and although
typically only a few centimeters
deep, a pluvial flood can cause
significant property damage.

Torrential rain caused extensive pluvial flooding in the

United Kingdom during the summer of 2007
 Factors Contributing to Flooding
• Rainfall intensity
• Rainfall duration
• Topography
• Soil conditions
• Ground cover
Basin Attributes/ Characteristics of Floods
Stream order
Basin Attributes/ Characteristics of Floods
Basin geometry
circular

elongated
effect of
storm
path?
Basin Attributes/ Characteristics of Floods
Regional climate
Basin Attributes/ Characteristics of Floods
Land use/cover
Basin Attributes/ Characteristics of Floods
Geological substrate
 Flood Hazards
• Floods often cause damage to homes and businesses if they
are in the natural flood plains of rivers
• Heavy rainfall exacerbates problems with:
– Runoff
– Absorption
– Flood-control measures
• Ravine flooding can inundate downstream areas
• In rocky and heavily paved areas, lack of absorption can cause
flash flooding
• Damage increases with development in:
– Coastal areas
– Floodplains
Floods: Analysis or Flow Estimation
 RAINFALL-RUNOFF: Introduction
• Runoff results from rainfall occurrence in a
hydrologic catchment.

• Rainfall-runoff relations are very important in

hydrology.

• Most work on the prediction of runoff requires

past records.

• The problem is that some streams are not

gauged.

• There is the need to get records of stream flow

and recording gauge information to predict
runoff from rainfall
RAINFALL-RUNOFF Runoff Prediction
Aims
a) To estimate the peak runoff flows(Qp)

b) To estimate runoff volume.

C). To estimate dependable flow

 RAINFALL-RUNOFF Runoff Prediction
Methods
– Simple empirical methods (eg. SCS-CN)

– Physical based distributed hydrological models (eg.

TOPKAPI, WET )

– Landscape daily rainfall-runoff methods (eg. VIC,

WaterDyn)

– Energy-water balance equations (eg. Budyko curve)

– Conceptual methods
• Linear System Theory
• Soil moisture Accounting Theory
 Empirical methods
• Local equations
• Global equations
– Rational method
– SCS-CN method
 Rational method
• The rational method is widely used around the world for flood estimation
on small rural watersheds and urban drainage design.
• It is generally considered to be an approximate deterministic model to
estimate the peak flow that results from a given rainfall,
• It is dependent on runoff coefficient being the ratio of the peak rate of
runoff to the rainfall intensity over a given watershed area.

• The rational method takes into account the following hydrological

characteristics or processes:
– rainfall intensity,
– rainfall duration,
– rainfall frequency,
– watershed area,
– hydrologic abstraction, and
– runoff concentration.
 Rational method

• Estimation of runoff coefficient ( C )

– Estimating the value of the runoff coefficient is the greatest difficulty
and the major source of uncertainty in application of the rational
method.
– The coefficient must account for all the factors affecting the relation of
peak flow to average rainfall intensity other than area and response
time
Rational method
 Rational method
• Average rainfall intensity (I)
– For design, I is estimated from the rainfall intensity-duration-
frequency (IDF-Curve) data for the location

– with its frequency the same as that selected for the design flood

– storm duration, normally taken as the time of concentration tc

– Time of concentration is an idealized concept and is defined as the

time taken for a drop of water falling on the most remote point of a
drainage basin to reach the outlet,

– tc is generally estimated by means of an empirical formula such as

Kirpich’s equation
Example 4
A watershed has a runoff coefficient of 0.20, area 150 ha with the
general slope of 0.001 and maximum length of travel of overland
flow of 1.25 km. Information on the storm of 50 years return period
is given as follows

Estimate the peak flow to be drained by a culvert for a 50-year

storm
 The SCS-CN method
• The SCS –CN method is widely used for estimating floods on small to
medium-sized ungauge drainage basins around the world

• The method was developed based on 24-hr rainfall and runoff data in USA.

• the depth of excess precipitation or direct runoff (Pe ) is always less than or
equal to the depth of precipitation P

• after runoff begins, the additional depth of water retained in the

watershed, Fa, is less than or equal to some potential maximum retention S

From the continuity principle

 The SCS method
• By study of results from many small experimental watersheds, an empirical
relation was developed.
• Plotting the data for P and Pe from many watersheds, the SCS found curves

To standardize these curves, a

dimensionless curve number CN
is defined such that
0 < CN < 100.

For impervious and water

surfaces CN = 100;
for natural surfaces CN < 100.
Curve Number
 The SCS method
• SCS Peak discharge and flood hydrograph determination
• The lag La of the peak flow, time from the
centroid of rainfall excess to the peak of the
hydrograph, is assumed to be 0.6 tc.

• The base length of the hydrograph is

assumed to be 2.67Tp.

• Then the time of rise Tp to the peak of the

hydrograph is

Where:
qp = peak discharge (m3/s)
rd = the excess rainfall depth (mm)
A = watershed area (km2)
tc = time of concentration (hr)
D = duration of excess rainfall (hr)
Example 5
A certain watershed experienced 12.7 cm heavy storm in a single
day. The watershed is covered by pasture with medium grazing, and
32 % of B soils and 68 % of C soils. This event has been preceded by
6.35 cm of rainfall in the last 5 days. Following the SCS methodology,
determine the direct runoff for the 12.7 cm rainfall event.
 Analytical Exercise

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