Construction

and
Analysis of Hydrographs

TEQIP-III Presentation
for
Assistant Professor
(Contract)
under
National Project
Amit Kumar
Implementation Unit
Application ID-TEQIP017769
Department of Civil Engineering
1
Outline
 Introduction
 Why hydrograph ?
 Types
 Components
 Factors
 Construction

2
Introduction
Record of River Discharge (the level of water flowing down a river
channel) over a period of time, they show how certain rivers respond to
a rainstorm.

In other words, it is a plot of discharge in a stream plotted against time

chronologically.
River Discharge (the level of water flowing down a river) is
calculated

= cross sectional area X river mean velocity

(at a particular section)

Q(hydrograph)=f (surface runoff, interflow, base-flow)
3
 Why Construct & Analyze Hydrographs ?
 Long term (Annual) hydrographs
 To find out discharge patterns (surface water potential) of a
particular drainage basin
 Reservoir studies
 Drought studies

 Storm (Flood) hydrograph

 Help predict flooding events, therefore influence implementation of
flood prevention measures
 In establishing design flow for hydraullic structures

4
Types of Hydrograph
Hydrogr
aph Perennial
(duration)

Storm Annual Intermittent

Hydrograph Hydrograph

Ephemeral

5
Types of hydrograph contd..

6
 Storm Hydrograph (Single peaked) Components
Crest
o rt r segment Peak flow
r sh n fo 3 C 2nd Isolated

o
F at i o D Storm
r B
du c h in fa
i
wh rm/ra ed.

Re
Direct run

ce
Inflation point/DRO end
sto ccurr 2
Discharge

s
sio
off (DRO)

imb
point
ll o

n
mm
G1 G2
(m3/s)

lim
ng l
TL

b
Risi
E
A A’
Storm w
tp Base flo
hyetograp k tp A’1
h A1 E1
0 12 24 36 48 60 72 84
T=Base Period Preferred for
Hours from start of rain storm hydrological
analysis
Factors
Physiographic factors Meteorological factors
1. Basin characteristics 1. Storm characteristics
a. Shape a. Type
b. Size b. Intensity
c. Slope c. Duration
d. Nature of valley d. Magnitude
e. Elevation e. Direction
f. Drainage density
2. Infiltration characteristics 2. Initial loss
a. Land use and vegetation cover
b. Soil type and geological
conditions
c. Lakes and other storage
3. Channel characteristics 3. Evapotranspiration
a. Cross-section
b. Roughness
c. Storage capacity

8
 Example

Construction of hydrograph

9
Example
 Draw time-area histogram and storm hydrograph for the
following data, provided rainfall excess* ordinate at any time
is 0.5 in./hr (2 in. of rainfall evenly distributed over basin in 4
hours)for 4 hours.
A B C D
Area (acre) 100 200 300 100
Time to gage 1 2 3 4
(hr) 4hr
Time-Area 300
Histogram
3hr
Solution: 200
2hr
(acre)
Area

100 100
1hr

10 Time(hr)*Rainfall excess (Effective rainfall) is that rainfall which is

neither retained on land surface nor infiltrated into the
Example contd..
Time(h Rainf Basi Time Area Runoff Runo Runo Runo Storm
r) all n to (acr at due ff due ff due ff due hydrog
excess No. gage e) to first to to to raph
storm secon third fourt ordina
d storm h te
storm storm (cfs)

0 0
1 0.5 A 1 100 50 50
2 0.5 B 2 200 100 50 150
3 0.5 C 3 300 150 100 50 300
4 0.5 D 4 100 50 150 100 50 350
5 50 150 100 300
6 50 150 200
7 50 50
11 8 0
Example contd..
400
Storm hydrograph

350

300
Discharge (Q in cfs)

D
250

200
C C
150

100 B B B

50
A A A A
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Time (hrs)
12
References
 Subramanya, K.(2008). Engineering Hydrology. Tata McGraw Hill
Education. New Delhi.

 Karmakar, S. Advanced hydrology (web). NPTEL.

 Jain, A. Advanced hydrology (video). NPTEL.

 Stream flow, MIT OCW.

13
14