CHAPTER

DESIGN FLOOD ESTIMATION

Some of the applications of UH include estimation of design flood, estimation of runoff from
ungauged catchments, filling up the missing runoff records, and flood forecasting to estimate
flood flows from rainfall records in real time. In order to illustrate one of the application of
unit hydrograph, the procedure for design flood estimation using unit hydrograph approach
has been described in this section.

Design Flood Estimation Using Unit Hydrograph Approach

The following steps are involved in the estimation of design flood hydrograph:

(i) Derive the design unit hydrograph.

(ii) Derive the design storm.
(iii) Compute excess design rainfall subtracting the design losses from the design
rainfall.
(iv) Apply excess design rainfall to design unit hydrograph to compute design direct
surface runoff.
(v) Compute design base flow.
(vi) Add design base flow with the ordinates of the design direct surface runoff to
obtain design flood hydrograph.

The ordinates of cumulative rainfall from a severe storm in a catchment is given. Ordinates
of a 6 hour unit hydrograph applicable to the catchment are also given in Table 1. Develop a
design storm to estimate the design flood for catchment. Taking initial loss = 1.2 cm and φ
index as 0.15 cm/hour, estimate the resulting design flood hydrograph. Assuming the base
flow to be 300 m3/s and the unit hydrograph principle is applicable for the catchment.
 Table 1: Data for design flood

Time Cumulative Rainfall 6-hour unit hydrograph

(hour) (cm) Ordinate (m3/s)
6 16.5 30
12 24.5 190
18 30.0 540
24 34.2 700
30 37.2 590
36 39.3 330
42 40.8 200
48 42.0 140
54 100
60 75
66 56
72 40
78 22
84 12
90 4
96 0
 Table 2 Calculation of design storm

Time Cumulative 6-hour Ordinate First Design Infiltra- Rainfall

(hour) rainfall incremental of 6 arrange- sequence tion loss excess
(cm) rainfall hour ment of of rainfall (cm) of
(cm) unit rainfall increments design
hydro increments (cm) storm
graph (cm) (cm)
(m3/s)
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)
6 16.5 16.5 30 0 1.2 1.2 0
12 24.5 8.0 190 2.1 1.5 0.9 0.6
18 30.0 5.5 540 5.5 3.0 0.9 2.1
24 34.2 4.2 700 16.5 4.2 0.9 3.3
30 37.2 3.0 590 8.0 8.0 0.9 7.1
36 39.3 2.1 330 4.2 16.5 0.9 15.6
42 40.8 1.5 200 3.0 5.5 0.9 4.6
48 42.0 1.2 140 1.5 2.1 0.9 1.2
54 100 1.2 0
60 75
66 56
72 40
78 22
84 12
90 4
96
 Table 3 Computation of design flood hydrograph

Time 6 hour unit Effective Direct runoff in m2/s due to effective rainfall increments of Total Base Design
from hydrograph rainfall direct flow flood
start of coordinates, increment runoff in hydro
effective m3/sec. for 6 hr. in m2/s m2/s graph
rainfall, period coordinates
hours m2/s
0.6 2.1 3.3 7.1 15.6 cm 4.6 1.2
cm cm cm cm cm cm
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13)
6 30 0.6 18.0 - - - - - - 18.0 300 318.0
12 190 2.1 114.0 63.0 - - - - - 177.0 300 477.0
18 540 3.3 324.0 399.0 99.0 - - - - 822.0 300 1122.0
24 700 7.1 420.0 1134.0 627.0 213.0 - - - 2394.0 300 2694.0
30 590 15.6 354.0 1470.0 1782.0 1349.0 468.0 - - 5423.0 300 5723.0
36 330 4.6 198.0 1239.0 2310.0 3834.0 2694.0 138.0 - 10683.0 300 10983.0
42 200 1.2 120.0 693.0 2947.0 4970.0 8424.0 874.0 36.0 17064.0 300 17364.0
48 140 84.0 420.0 1089.0 4189.0 10920.0 2484.0 228.0 19414.0 300 19714.0
54 100 60.0 294.0 660.0 2343.0 9204.0 3220.0 648.0 16429.0 300 16729.0
60 75 45.0 210.0 462.0 1420.0 5148.0 2714.0 840.0 10839.0 300 11139.0
66 56 33.6 157.5 330.0 994.0 3120.0 1518.0 708.0 6861.1 300 7161.1
72 40 24.0 117.6 247.5 710.1 2184.0 920.0 396.0 4599.1 300 4899.1
78 22 13.2 84.0 184.8 532.5 1560.0 644.0 240.0 3258.5 300 3558.5
84 12 7.2 46.2 132.0 397.6 1170.0 460.0 168.0 2381.0 300 2681.0
90 4 2.4 25.2 72.6 284.0 873.6 345.0 120.0 1722.8 300 2022.8
96 0 0 8.4 39.6 156.2 624.0 251.6 90.0 1175.8 300 1475.8
102 0 13.2 85.2 334.2 184.0 67.2 683.8 300 983.8
108 0 28.4 187.2 101.0 48.0 364.8 300 664.8
114 0 62.4 55.2 26.4 144.0 300 444.0
120 0 18.4 14.4 32.8 300 332.8
126 0 4.8 4.8 300 304.8
132 0 0 300 300.0