The Time-Area Method

By
Dr. Ole Mark

Krüger A/S
The Time Area Method
Cascade routing - which for constant rain goes into the
Rational formula

Pros:
• Fast & Easy
• Widely applied

Cons:
• Not good for steep catchments
• In general only few processes included
• No hydrological memory
The Time Area Method

• Assumptions

– outflow hydrograph results from areas immediately

adjacent to the outlet

– The percentage of total area contributing

increases progressively in time

• Includes initial losses

The Time Area Curves
Time/Area Curves for Various Shapes of Catchment
1

0.9

0.8

Accumulated Dimensionless Area

0.7

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2
Div. Triangle
0.1 Con. Triangle
Rectangle
0
0.00 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.40 0.50 0.60 0.70 0.80 0.90 1.00

Dimensionless Concentration Time

x 2b

2b  b

A = L2 tan (/2) – (L-x)2 tan (/2) A = L2 tan (/2) A = bL

a) Divergent Triangle b) Convergent Triangle c) Rectangle

The Time Area Method.....

Qn = Ri A1 + Ri −1 A2 + ..... + R1 A j
(1)
where,
Qn = hydrograph ordinate at time n,
Ri = excess rainfall ordinate at time i,
Aj = time/area curve ordinate at time j.
The time area method
 Model Calibration

Source: Refsgaard, J.C. (1995). Setup, Calibration and Validation of Hydrological Models. DHI, Denmark. As seen in
Parkinson, J. and Mark, O. (2005). Urban Stormwater Management in Developing Countries. IWA Publishing, London, UK.
The Time Area Surface Runoff Model
- 4 parameters

(1) Reduction factor

(2) Initial loss } control water
balance
control
(3) Concentration time
(4) Shape of the time/area curve } flow
routing
Calibration of Hydrological Models

The “two-step” calibration procedure for all surface runoff models:

1.Adjust the mass balance

2.Adjust the timing of peaks

3.If required, repeat

When is the job done?

Calibration of Hydrological Models

Rainfall - Runoff model example:

• A simple Rainfall-Runoff model basically depends

on two major parameters Runoff Coefficient (the
ratio between rainfall volume and
runoff volume in a rain event) and an Initial Loss
Initial loss (wetting)
Rainfall and runoff relationship for 10 storm events in
Tallahassee, Florida, USA, by the Time-Area method (Bedient
and Huber, 1992).
Rainfall and runoff relationship for 10 storm events in
Tallahassee, Florida, USA, by the Time-Area method (Bedient
and Huber, 1992).
Rainfall and runoff relationship for 10 storm events in
Tallahassee, Florida, USA, by the Time-Area method (Bedient
and Huber, 1992).
Adjust the timing of peaks

The shape of the catchment should be given, so only

Adjust the time of concentration

When is the job done?

Statistical measures or objective functions

N
Overall volume error F=  (Q
i =1
obs, i t − Qsim,i t )

Root Mean Square Error (RMSE)

1/ 2
1 2

 (Q − Qsim,i )
N
RMSE =  obs,i 
 N i =1 

Coefficient of Determination
2

( )  (Q − Q )
N N
1 1
 N
Q − Q
i =1
−
obs,i obs
N i =1
obs,i sim ,i
2

R2 =
 (Q − Qobs )
N
1 2
obs ,i
N i =1
Calibration of Hydrological Models
Rainfall - Runoff model example:

• In order to determine the inclination and intersection

with the y-axis for a straight line, two points on the line
must be known

• I.e. in order to calibrate the simple 2-parameter rainfall-

runoff model at least 2 rainfall events are needed

• In order to validate that the calibration actually works

correctly a third recording of a rainfall-runoff model is
needed
Calibration of Hydrological Models

Number of calibration events

The conclusion from the previous slides are:

• At least as many calibration events are needed as

the number of parameters to calibrate in the model.
I.e. 5 calibration parameters in the model entails
the need for 5 measured events.

• Besides calibration data, extra data is needed for

validation!
 SUMMARY

• Understand the model before you start the

calibration

• Identify all calibration parameters

• Group them into parameters for the mass balance

and parameters for the routing

• Be systematic and use an objective function