Hydrograph

A hydrograph is a continuous plot of instantaneous discharge v/s time. It results from a combination of
physiographic and meteorological conditions in a watershed and represents the integrated effects of
climate, hydrologic losses, surface runoff, interflow, and ground water flow. It is also known as storm
hydrograph or flood hydrograph.

Fig. 1
Elements of Hydrograph
Hydrograph has three characteristic regions (shown in Fig. 1)
(i) The rising limb AB, joining point A, the starting point of the rising curve and point B, the point of
inflection, (ii) The crest segment BC between the two points of inflection with a peak P in between,(iii)
The falling limb or depletion curve CD starting from the second point of inflection C.

Rising Limb
The rising limb of a hydrograph, also known as concentration curve represents the increase in discharge
due to the gradual building up of storage in channel and over the catchment surface. The initial losses and
high infiltration losses during the early period of a storm cause the discharge to rise rather slowly in the
initial periods. The basin and storm characteristics control the shape of the rising limb of a hydrograph.

Crest Segment
The crest segment is one of the most important parts of hydrograph as it contains the peak flow. The peak
now occurs when the runoff from various parts of the catchment simultaneously contribute amounts to
achieve the maximum amount of flow at the basin outlet. Generally for large catchments, the peak flow
occurs after the cessation of rainfall, the time interval from the Centre of mass of rainfall to the peak
being essentially controlled by basin and storm characteristics.

Recession Limb
The recession limb, which extends from the point of inflection at the end of the crest segment (point C in
Fig.1) to the commencement of the natural groundwater flow (point D in Fig. 1) represents the
withdrawal of water from the storage built up in the basin during the earlier phase of the hydrograph. The
starting point of the recession limb, i.e. the point of inflection represents the condition of maximum
storage. Since the depletion of storage takes place after the cessation of rainfall, the shape of this part of
the hydrograph is independent of storm characteristics and depends entirely on the basin characteristics.

Factors affecting on the flood hydrograph

The factor that affect the shape of hydrograph can be broadly grouped into
1) Physiographic factors 2) Climatic factors

The physiographic factor that influence the hydrograph shape and volume are
1) Basin Characteristics
a) Shape (b) Size (c) Slope (d) Nature of valley (e) Elevation (f) Drainage density
2) Infiltration characteristics
(a) Land use and cover (b) Soil type and geological conditions (c) Lakes, swamps and other storage
3) Channel characteristics, cross section, roughness and storage capacity

Shape of basin
The shape of the basin influences the time taken for water from the remote parts of the catchment to
arrive at the outlet. Thus the occurrence of the peak and hence the shape of the hydrograph are affected by
the basin shape.

Size
In small catchments the overland flow phase is predominant over the channels flow. Hence the land use
and intensity of rainfall have important role on the peak flood. On large basins these effects are
suppressed as the channel flow phase is more predominant.

Fig. 2 Effect of catchment shape on the hydrograph

Slope
The slope of the main stream controls the velocity of flow in the channel. As the recession limb of the
hydrograph represents the depletion of storage, the stream channel slope will have a pronounced effect on
this part of the hydrograph. The basin slope is important in small catchments where the overland flow is
relatively more important.
Drainage density
The drainage density is defined as the ratio of total channel length to the total drainage area.

Land Use
Vegetation and forest increase the infiltration and storage capacity of the soils. Further they cause
considerable retardance to overland flow. Thus the vegetal cover reduce the peak flow. For two
catchments of equal area, other factor being identical, the peak discharge is higher for a catchment that
has a lower density of forest cover.

The climatic factors that influence the hydrograph shape and the volume of runoff are
1) Rainfall intensity (2) Rainfall duration; (3) Distribution of rainfall on the basin;(4) Direction of storm
movement;

Rainfall intensity: For a given rainfall duration, an increase in intensity will increase the peak discharge
and the runoff volume, provided the infiltration rate of the soil is exceeded.

Rainfall duration: The duration of storm of given intensity also has direct proportional effect on the
volume of runoff, the peak flow rate and the duration of surface runoff. The effect of duration is reflected
to rising limb and peak flow. If a storm lasts sufficiently long enough, eventually almost all the
precipitation will become runoff (the time after which this occurs is called the time of concentration);
consequently the peak flow will approach a rate equal to the product i*A, where i is the rainfall intensity
and A is the area of the basin.

The areal distribution of rainfall can cause variations in hydrograph shape. If an area of high rainfall is
near to the basin outlet, a rapid rise, sharp peak and rapid recession of the hydrograph usually result. If a
larger amount of rainfall occurs in the upper reaches of a basin, the hydrograph exhibits a lower and
broader peak.

The direction of storm movement with respect to orientation of the basin affects both the magnitude of
the peak flow and the duration of surface runoff. Storm direction has the greatest effect on elongated
basins. On these basins, storms that move upstream tend to produce lower peaks of a longer duration than
storms that move downstream.

Method of Base flow separation

There are three methods for base flow separation that are in common use.

Method 1-Straight-Line Method

In this method the base flow is achieved by joining with a straight line the beginning of surface runoff to
a point on recession limb representing the end of surface runoff.
Point B, marking the end of direct runoff is rather difficult to locate exactly. An empirical equation for the
time interval N (days) from the peak to point B is

Where A= drainage area in km and N is in days

Method 2: In this method the base flow curve existing prior to the commencement of the surface runoff
is extended till intersect the ordinate drawn at the peak . This point is joint to point B by a straight line.
Segment AC and CB demarcate base flow and surface runoff.

Method 3 In this method the base flow recession curve after the depletion of the flood water is extended
backwards till it intersects the ordinate drawn from the point of inflection. Point A and intersection point
joined by arbitrary smooth curve.

Direct runoff hydrograph

The surface runoff hydrograph obtained after the base flow separation is also known as direct runoff
hydrograph (DRH)

Effective rainfall or Excess rainfall

It is the part of rainfall that becomes direct runoff at the outlet of watershed. It is thus the total rainfall in a
given duration from which initial loss and infiltration losses are subtracted. The resulting hyetograph is
known as effective rainfall hyetograph (ERH). It is also known as rainfall excess hyetograph.

Φ-Index
The φ index is the average rainfall above which the rainfall volume is equal to runoff volume.

Unit hydrograph
A unit hydrograph is defined as the hydrograph of direct runoff resulting from one unit depth (1 cm) of
rainfall excess occurring uniformly over the basin and at a uniform rate for a specified duration (D hours).
Two basic assumptions constitute the foundation for the unit hydrograph
(i) The time invariance and (ii) The linear response.

Time Invariance
This implies that the DRH for a given ER in a catchment is always the same irrespective of when it
occurs.

Linear Response
The direct-runoff response to the rainfall excess is assumed to be linear.

Flow Mass curve

It is the plot of cumulative discharge volume against time plotted in chronological order. It is integral
curve of hydrograph. The flow mass curve is also known as Rippl’s mass curve after Rippl (1882) who
suggested its use first.

Flow duration curve

It is the plot of discharge against percent of time the flow was equaled or exceeded. This curve is also
known as discharge frequency curve.
Percent probability (PP) =
Where m is the order number of discharge, N is the number of data point and P p is the percentage
probability of flow magnitude being equalled and exceeded.

Peak flow estimation

To estimate the magnitude of flood peak the following alternative methods are available.
(1)Rational Method (CIA). (2)Empirical methods (3) Unit Hydrograph method (4) Flood frequency
methods

Rational method
In this method the basic equation which correlates runoff and rainfall is as follows
Qp = C I A
Where Qp = Peak discharge (Cubic meters per hour), C = Runoff Coefficient, I = Intensity of rainfall in
meters per hour, A = Area of the drainage basin (Sq. Meters).

Where = Peak discharge (m3/sec), C = Runoff Coefficient, = Intensity of rainfall in (mm/h) for a
duration equal to tc and an exceedance probability P, A = Area of the drainage basin (km2).

Time of concentration ( tc)

It is the time taken for a drop of water from the farthest part of catchment to reach the outlet.

Where, tc= time of concentration (minute), L= maximum length of travel of water (m) and S=slope of
catchment = ΔH/L

Empirical methods for Flood Estimation

Dickens formula (1865)

QP = CD A3/4
Where = Peak discharge (m3/sec), A = Area of the drainage basin (km2).
CD = Dickens constant with value between 6 to 30; CD = 6 for North Indian plains; CD = 11-14 for North
Indian hilly region;CD = 14 to 28 for Central India; CD = 22 to 28 for Central Andhra and Orissa

Ryves formula
QP = CR A2/3
Where CR = Ryves coefficient, QP = Peak Discharge in (m3/sec), A= Catchment Area in km2
CR = 6.8 for area within 80 km from east coast;CR = 8.5 for area which are 80-160 km from east coast
CR = 10.2 for limited area near hills

Inglis Formula

√
QP = Peak Discharge in (m3/sec), A= Catchment Area in km2