Floods and Flood Routing

Dr. Rallapalli Srinivas, Department of Civil Engineering

Engineering Hydrology, CE F321
Learning outcome
• Floods
• Flood Routing methods
• Flood control
Small reading assignment
• What is instantaneous unit hydrograph?
• What is synthetic unit hydrograph?
• What is distribution hydrograph?
Floods
• Flood is unusually high stage in a river, normally
the level at which the river overflows its banks and
inundates the adjoining area
• Hydrograph of extreme floods and stages
corresponding to flood peaks provide valuable data
for purposes of hydrologic design
• Flood peak is the key
• Design of bridges, culvert waterways and spillways
of dams
Yanamalakuduru village near Vijayawada,
Andhra Pradesh, 2019
Bihar floods-2019
Orissa floods-2019
Kerala floods- 2019
Maharashtra floods-2019
Floods
• At the stream site, flood has two attributes:
• Magnitude of the peak (highest discharge rate):
Important for designing spillways of dams and barrages,
capacities of culverts waterways and bridge
• Stage of the peak (elevation of water surface at the peak
flow): Important for estimating the extent of area
inundated by flood, deciding minimum elevation of
structures to be built on the flood plains
Rational method to estimate peak
Rational method to estimate peak
Rational method to estimate peak

A return period, also known as a recurrence interval or repeat interval, is an

average time or an estimated average time between events such as
earthquakes, floods, landslides, or a river discharge flows to occur.
Rational method to estimate peak
Rational method to estimate peak
Rational method to estimate peak
Rational method to estimate peak
Numerical
Numerical
FLOOD ROUTING
 Flood routing
• Stage and discharge hydrographs represent the passage
of waves of the river depth and discharge respectively
• Shape of the wave gets modified due to channel storage,
lateral addition or withdrawals of flows
• When flood wave passes through a reservoir, its peak is
attenuated and the time base of enlarged due to the effect
of storage
• Flood routing is a technique of determining the flood
hydrograph at a section of a river by utilizing the data of
flood at one or more upstream sections
• Reservoir routing
• Channel routing
Reservoir routing
• Effect of flood wave entering a reservoir is studied
• Based on volume elevation characteristics of
reservoir and outflow-elevation relationship for
spillways and other outlet structures in the reservoir,
effect of flood wave entering reservoir is studied to
predict variations of reservoir elevation and outflow
discharge with time
• Essential in designing capacity of spillways and in
the location and sizing of the capacity of reservoirs
Channel routing
• Change in shape of hydrograph as it travels down a
channel
• By considering a channel reach and an input
hydrograph at upstream end, flood hydrographs at
various sections of the reach are predicted
• Information on flood-peak attenuation and the
duration of high-water levels obtained by channel
routing is of utmost importance
Routing methods
• Hydrologic method: Uses equation of continuity
• Hydraulic method: Equation of continuity together
with equation of motion of unsteady flow (St.
Venant equations: better describe unsteady flows)
Basic equations
Basic equations
Hydrologic Storage Routing (Level Pool
Routing)
Hydrologic Storage Routing (Level Pool
Routing)
Modified Pul’s method
Modified Pul’s method
Modified Pul’s method
Numerical
Goodrich Method
Goodrich Method
Numerical (home work)
 Attenuation
• Owing to the storage effect, peak of outflow hydrograph is
smaller than that of inflow hydrograph, the reduction is
known as attenuation
• Peak of the outflow occurs after the peak of the inflow; the
time difference between the two peaks is known as lag
• Attenuation and lag of a flood hydrograph at a reservoir are
very important aspects of a reservoir operation under flood-
control criterion
•
Homework
• Show that in the level pool routing the peak of the
outflow hydrograph must intersect the inflow
hydrograph
Hydrologic Channel Routing
Prism and Wedge Storage
Muskingum Equation
Muskingum Equation
Muskingum Equation
Muskingum method of routing
Muskingum method of routing
Numerical
Reading assignment
• What is Nash’s conceptual model?
THANK YOU
Q&A