CVG/EVG 5301

Soil and Water Conservation

Engineering

STORMWATER HYDROLOGY

Professor Chris Kinsley

Office: A-514
Email: ckinsley@uottawa.ca
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STORMWATER HYDROLOGY

C. Kinsley
CVG/EVG 5301
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Learning Objectives

Course Objective 2: Understanding fundamental hydrology

principles and apply equations to determine Time of Concentration
and Peak discharge rates for small catchments.
• Learning Outcome 1: Explain the impact of develop on stream
flow
• Learning Outcome 2: Understand IDF relationships and Design
Storms
• Learning Outcome 3: Describe watershed characteristics
• Learning Outcome 4: Determine Time of Concentration for sheet
flow and for concentrated flow
• Learning Outcome 5: Apply the Rational Formula to determine
Peak Discharge Rate

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INTRODUCTION
Goals of Stormwater Management
• prevent any increase in flood risk potential;
• preserve groundwater and baseflow characteristics;
• prevent undesirable and costly geomorphic change in the
watercourse;
• protect water quality; and
• maintain an appropriate diversity of aquatic life and
opportunities for human uses.

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INTRODUCTION
Effects of Urbanization on Stream flows
• Under undeveloped conditions, losses due to
Evapotranspiration (ET), canopy interception and soil infiltration
tend to be large.
• Under developed conditions, the increase in impervious surface
area (streets, roofs, parking lots, driveways and sidewalks)
increases runoff. Wet weather stream discharges generally
increase, while dry-weather discharges may decrease or
increase.
• Pavement, gutters, and storm sewers convey runoff more
rapidly than do natural surfaces. Straightening, cleaning, and
lining of natural channels increase flow velocities.

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INTRODUCTION
Changes in Aquatic Habitat and Ecology
• The ecology of urban streams and other aquatic habitat is
shaped and molded by extreme shifts in hydrology,
geomorphology and water quality that accompany the
development process.

Cheonggyecheon Stream (Seoul, S. Korea) was covered to provide

additional traffic lanes and was daylighted in 2005. Images courtesy of
KCET.com.

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INTRODUCTION
Changes in Aquatic Habitat and Ecology
• Stresses on the aquatic communities of urban streams and
other water resources are often manifested as:
– a shift from external (leaf matter) to internal (algal organic
matter) stream production;
– a decline in aquatic habitat quality;
– a reduction in diversity in the fish, plant, animal and aquatic
insect communities in the stream;
– a loss of sensitive cold-water species;
– a destruction of freshwater wetlands, riparian buffers and
springs; and
– a decline in wetland plant and animal community diversity.

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INTRODUCTION

Source: Schueler, 1987

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INTRODUCTION

Source: Schueler, 1987

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INTRODUCTION

Source: MOECC, 2003

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STORMWATER HYDROLOGY

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Hydrologic Cycle
• Urbanization has had significant effects on the
processes of the hydrologic cycle for watersheds:
– Clearing of the land has reduced the vegetation
and therefore the availability of interception
storage;
– Grading of land surfaces reduces the available
volume of depression storage;
– Impervious surfaces reduce the potential for
infiltration and the resulting recharge of
groundwater storage;
– Impervious surfaces are also less rough than the
natural surfaces and thus offer less resistance to
the runoff; this change in roughness can increase
runoff velocities and surface erosion.

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Hydrologic Cycle
– Reduced storage results in increased volumes of
surface runoff. The reduced surface roughness
decreases the travel time of runoff. The reductions
in both storage and travel time result in increased
peak rates of runoff, which increase both flood
damages due to overbank flows and channel
erosion.
– To compensate for the lost natural storage, many
jurisdictions require the replacement of the lost
natural storage with human-made storage. While
the stormwater detention basin is the most
frequently used method of stormwater
management, other methods are used, such as
infiltration pits, rooftop and parking lot storage,
and porous pavement.

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Precipitation
• Storms characteristics have a significant effect on water quality
and on peak flow. The most important characteristics of rainfall
events are rainfall depth, duration, intensity, and frequency.
• The characteristics that must be identified in either assessing an
actual storm or developing a design storm are:
1. Duration: the length of time over which a precipitation
event occurs,
2. Depth: the amount of precipitation that occurs over the
storm duration,
3. Frequency: the frequency of occurrence of events that
have the same depth and duration.
– Intensity = Depth/Duration (cm/hr)

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Precipitation
• Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) relationships are frequently
used in hydrologic analyses and are compiled and updated by
government agencies.
• IDF relationships are used to develop Design Storms. The
temporal distribution of rainfall (hyetograph) with the design
storm is an important factor that affects the runoff volume, and
the magnitude and timing of the peak discharge. Realistic
estimates of temporal distributions are best obtained by analysis
of local rainfall data from recording gauge networks.

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Precipitation

Source: WEF, 1994

http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/IDF_Curves/terms.shtml

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Watershed Characteristics
• The parameters commonly used in water quality studies are the
drainage area, the length of the stream or watershed, the slope,
indicators of land use such as the runoff curve number, and the
time of travel of water through a certain portion of a watershed.
Drainage Area
• The drainage area (A) is probably the single most important
watershed characteristic for hydrologic design. It reflects the
volume of water that can be generated from rainfall. It is
common in hydrologic design to assume a constant depth of
rainfall occurring uniformly over the watershed.

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Watershed Characteristics
Watershed Length
• Watershed length (L) is usually defined as the distance
measured along the main channel from the watershed outlet to
the basin divide. Since the channel does not extend to the basin
divide, it is necessary to extend a line from the end of the
channel to the basin divide following a path where the greatest
volume of water would travel.

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Watershed Characteristics
Watershed Slope
• The watershed slope (S) is computed as the difference in
elevation (∆E) between the end points of the principal flow path
divided by the hydrologic length of the flow path (L):

Land Cover and Use

• Land cover significantly affects the runoff characteristics of a
watershed. Most often, a qualitative description of land cover is
transformed into a quantitative index of runoff potential.

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Watershed Characteristics
Land Cover and Use
• The Rational Method uses a runoff coefficient C to reflect the
runoff potential of a watershed. Larger values of C reflect
increased runoff potential. The value for commercial property (C
= 0.75) indicates a greater runoff potential than the value for a
residential area (C = 0.3), which in turn has a greater runoff
potential than a forested area (C = 0.15).
• The percentage of imperviousness is a commonly used index of
the level of urban development. High-density residential areas
characteristically have percentages of imperviousness from 40%
to 70%. Commercial and industrial areas are characterized by
impervious cover often from 70% to 90%.

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Watershed Characteristics
Land Cover and Use
• The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS, formerly
SCS) uses a different land cover/use index in their models than
is used in the Rational Method. The runoff curve number (CN) is
the NRCS cover type index.
• CN is a function of soil group, percent imperviousness for
developed areas and hydrologic condition for undeveloped
areas.

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Watershed Characteristics
Land Cover and Use
• The type of vegetation or ground cover on a watershed, and the
quality or density of that cover, have a major impact on the
infiltration capacity of a given soil.
– Poor: Heavily grazed or regularly burned areas. Less than 50% of
the ground surface is protected by plant cover or brush and tree
canopy.
– Fair: Moderate cover with 50-75% of the ground surface protected
by vegetation.
– Good: Heavy or dense cover with more than 75% of the ground
surface protected by vegetation. In most cases, the cover type and
quality of a watershed in existing conditions can be readily
determined by a field review of a watershed. In ultimate-planned
open spaces, the soil cover condition shall be considered as "good“.

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Watershed Characteristics
Land Cover and Use – Runoff Curve numbers

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Watershed Characteristics
Surface Roughness
• Manning's roughness coefficient (n) is the most frequently used
index of surface roughness.

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Watershed Characteristics
Channel Cross Sections
• Many types of design problems require cross section
information, including the cross-sectional area. The wetted
perimeter, slope, roughness, and average velocity are other
important characteristics.
Channel Roughness
• Manning's roughness coefficient (n) is required for a number of
hydraulic computations. It is a necessary input in floodplain
delineation. Also, a number of methods for estimating the timing
of runoff use n as an input.

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Watershed Characteristics
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Watershed Characteristics
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Time of Concentration
• The time of concentration (tc) is defined as the time required for
a particle of water to flow hydraulically from the most distant
point in the watershed to the outlet or design point.
• The term overland flow can be separated into sheet flow and
concentrated flow.
– Sheet flow occurs in the upper reaches of a watershed, usually
over very short flow paths. Typically, this is evident on steeply
sloped paved surfaces, where it appears as shallow layers, often
with small waves. A kinematic wave equation is usually used to
compute travel times for sheet flow.
– After some distance, topography usually causes the flow to
concentrate.
– Manning's equation can be used to estimate velocities of overland
flow, both sheet flow and concentrated flow.

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Time of Concentration
• The velocity method is based on the concept that the travel time
(Tt) for a particular flow path is a function of the length of flow (L)
and the velocity (V):

in which Tt, L, and V units of min, ft, and ft/sec,

respectively.
• Flow velocities in pipes and open channels can be computed
using Manning's equation:

or
• in which V is the velocity (ft/sec), n is the roughness coefficient,
Rh is the hydraulic radius (ft), and S is the slope (ft/ft).
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Time of Concentration

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Sheet Flow Travel Time

Kinematic Wave
• The time of concentration for equilibrium discharge
(outflow=inflow) for sheet flow runoff during the intense part of a
storm can be determined using the kinematic wave equation:

in which:
– L is the distance from the upper end of the plane to the point of interest,
– n is the Manning resistance coefficient,
– ie is the excess rainfall rate,
– S is the dimensionless slope of the surface, and
– C is a constant that depends on the units of the other variables. For tc in
minutes, ie in in./hr, and L in feet, C equals 0.938. For tc in minutes, ie in
mm/hr, and L in meters, C equals 6.99
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Sheet Flow Travel Time

Kinematic Wave
• To avoid iteration:

in which:
– L is the flow length (ft),
– S is the average slope (ft/ft),
– P2 is the 2-yr, 24-hr rainfall depth (in.)
– and Tt [=] min.

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Time of Concentration

• Example: A paved parking lot (50m x 50m) in Ottawa with a 1%

slope will discharges into a paved gutter along a 300m road at
2% slope. What is the Tc at the bottom of the road?

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Rational Formula
• The most widely used uncalibrated equation for peak discharge
is the Rational Method, which relates the peak discharge (qp,
ft3/sec) to the drainage area (A, acres), the rainfall intensity (i,
in./hr), and the runoff coefficient (C):

• The rainfall intensity is obtained from an IDF curve using both

the return period and a duration equal to the time of
concentration as input. The value of the runoff coefficient is a
function of the land use, cover condition, soil group, and
watershed slope. Table 4.10 is an example of a table of C
values.

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Rational Formula
• A primary use of the Rational Method has been for design
problems for small urban areas such as the sizing of inlets and
culverts, which are characterized by small drainage areas and
short times of concentration. For such designs, short duration
storms are critical, which is why the time of concentration is
used as the input duration for obtaining i from the IDF curve

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Example. Consider the

design problem where a
peak discharge is required to
size a storm-drain inlet for a
2.1-acre parking area in
Baltimore, with a time of
concentration of 0.1 hr, a 25-
year return period, and a
slope of 1.8%.

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Rational Formula
• Where a watershed is not homogeneous but is characterized by
highly dispersed areas that can be characterized by different
runoff coefficients, a weighted runoff coefficient should be
determined. The weighting is based on the area of each land
use and is found by the equation:

in which Aj is the area for landcover j, Cj is the runoff coefficient

for area j, n is the number of distinct landcovers within the
watershed, and Cw, is the weighted runoff coefficient.

C. Kinsley
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