Rainfall-runoff analysis

– Rainfall transforms to runoff depending on different

physical and storm parameters

– For runoff estimation, it is important to analyse rainfall

characteristics and the losses

– Effective rainfall-runoff volume

 Precipitation: Areal average precipitation
estimation
• Generally rainfall amount varies in space over a certain
catchment or area.

• The rainfall measured using raingauges is a point rainfall

rather that areal.

• However, for engineering purposes, often it is required to

determine the average rainfall over the whole catchment
called areal rainfall.

• Rainfall-streamflow relation requires average aerial rainfall.

• There are three methods for estimating areal rainfall from

point rainfall measurements.
1. The Arithmetic mean method
• Simplest of the methods

• Point rainfall measurements are close to each other and

spacing of the gauges is reasonably uniform

• Arithmetic mean of the point measurements

• However, this method has limited applications for most

practical applications
 2. The Thiessen method
• Weightage will be given to each point rainfall
measurements based on the area close to it.
Steps are the following:

– Raingauge positions are plotted on a map for the basin;

– Adjacent raingauge stations are connected with lines;
– Perpendicular bisectors are drawn for all the lines in
constructed
– step
The 2;bisectors are joined to form polygons around each gauge
station;
– Areas enclosed between the polygon and the catchment
boundaries are measured.
– Weightage for each gauge station is then computed from the ratio
of these areas (Ai) to the total catchment area A;
– Average areal rainfall from the sum of the products of the point
measurements at each gauge and its weightage.
 The Thiessen method…
P1A1 P2 A2 ...Pn An n
Ai
P
TotalArea, A
P 
i 1
Pi
A

Where:
P= Average areal rainfall
Ai= area associated with each station
gauge
A=total area of the catchment
The Thiessen method…
 3. The Isohyetal method
• Involves drawing lines connecting points with equal rainfall
depth called isohyets.

• Using interpolation, these lines can be drawn on the map

of the catchment.

• The area between two adjacent isohyets and the boundary

of the catchment is determined.

• The average areal rainfall of the catchment is determined

from the sum of the product of the average of the adjacent
isohyets and inter-isohyetal areas divided by the total area.

• This method is particularly highly applicable when the

numbers of gauge stations are large.
 The Isohyetal method…
 P  P2   P2  P3   Pn 1 Pn 
A1  1   A 2   ...  An  1  
  2   2   2 
P
A

Where:
• P is average areal precipitation
• P1, P2….are values of isohyets
• A1, A2…. are inter-isohyetal areas
• A is total area of the catchment
Isoyetal method
Example: A catchment has a total area of 9,100 km2. Storm
rainfall measurements at different stations in the
catchment and the area associated with each station are
given below. Determine the average areal rainfall in the
catchment.
Station Rainfall, mm Area, km2 Weightage Weighted*P
1 67 0 0.000 0.00
2 58 1270 0.140 8.09
3 85 1560 0.171 14.57
4 120 2060 0.226 27.16
5 35 1980 0.218 7.62
6 140 930 0.102 14.31
7 92 1300 0.143 13.14
8 110 0 0.000 0.00
Total 9,100 1.00 84.90
 Parameters defining rainfall
The following elements are important to define rainfall:
– Rainfall intensity: is the depth of water per unit of time;
m/hr, mm/min. etc

– Duration of precipitation in seconds, minutes, hours

– Depth of precipitation expressed as thickness of water

layer in mm, cm

– Area: the geographic area coverage of rainfall in km2

– Frequency of occurrence: the return period T of the

rainfall
• The intensity of a rainfall is shown graphically by
hyetograph.
• It is a plot of the intensity of the precipitation versus time.

Hyetograph
14
12
10
8
Intensity,

6
mm/h

4
2
0
1 2 3
4 5 Duration,
6 hours
 Depth-Area-Duration Relationships
• For a given rainfall of duration t hrs, the average depth
decreases with the area.
• The physical reason is that a storm rainfall has a
limited
• areal
Thus,extent.
in order to up-scale a rainfall record over a larger area,
an Areal Reduction Factor (ARF) is used.
• It is used to transform point rainfall, Pp to areal rainfall Pa.

ARF is a function of:

Pa • Rainfall depth
ARF 
Pp • Storm duration
• Storm type
• Catchment size
• Return period, T
Depth-Area-Duration…
 Depth-Area-Duration…
• ARF comes to nearer to Unity with increasing total depth
implying that heavy storms are more uniform

• ARF increases with duration implying long storms are more

uniform
• ARF decreases with catchment area, A
• ARFs are variable for different catchments and need to be
determined for each

• Convective rainfall has short duration and has small areal

extent, ARF decreases steeply with distance.

• Frontal rainfall has long duration and larger area of

influence, ARF decreases slowly with distance.
ARF’s as a function of area and storm duration
 DAD curves
• In hydrological studies, it is often required to determine
severe hydrological events for safe design of various
hydraulic, irrigation and civil engineering structures in river
basins.

• It is required to determine the maximum rainfall event of

various durations happening over various areal extents.

• Isohyetal maps and mass curves of rainfall are required to

prepare DAD curves.

• DAD curves are curves of max. depth vs. area, duration of

the rainfall being a third parameter.
 DAD curves…

DAD
Curves
30

25
Max. avg. depth, cm

20
1 Hour
6 Hours
15
12 Hours
10 18 hours

0
10 100 1000 10000
Are a of wate rshe d, km2
 DAD curves…
• Starting with certain duration of rainfall, max. depth vs. area
curve can be produced.
– The mass curve is used to determine the cum. rainfall for
that duration.

– Appropriate ARF should be used to extrapolate over

various areas;

– Similarly, several other durations of rainfalls will be

considered and the cum. rainfall determined from the
mass curve.

– Extrapolation will be made using appropriate ARF. Thus,

a family of curves called DAD curves will be obtained.
 Intensity-Duration-Frequency Relationships
• Intensity is the depth of rainfall per unit of time.
• The relationship between intensity and duration of storm is
inverse.
• For a given duration of storm, the intensity increases with
increase in the return period of the storm rainfall.
• For design problems such as flood control structures, it is
often required to know intensities of rainfall with different
durations and return periods.
• Curves are called IDF curves. Cumulative rainfall curves
(mass curves of rainfall) can be constructed for different
return periods.
• For a given duration, the depth of rainfall increases with
increase in T. Can be shown with DDF curves.
• Construction of DDF and IDF curves require long years of
recorded rainfall to determine T for different durations.
 Probable Maximum Precipitation, PMP
• Design of major hydraulic structures and urban
infrastructure should be made under high care and the
design floods for which it is designed should virtually not be
exceeded.
• The reason is that its failure would mean large loss of life
and property. Thus, the hydrologist likes to determine the
maximum possible rainfall.
• Probable Maximum Precipitation is the extreme or
greatest rainfall of a given duration that can be physically
possible at a certain station or over an area.
• This rainfall is that which produces a flood in a basin which
would not virtually be exceeded.
• Meteorological approach and statistical study can be
used to estimate PMP.
• Still determination of absolute maximum precipitation is
impossible.
 PMP…
• From statistical studies, the PMP can
be estimated by:

PMP  P  K
In which is mean of annual maximum data of rainfall
series P
 is standard deviation of the series
K is a factor depending on the statistical
distribution, number of years of record, and the return
period.
 Design rainfall
• Design rainfall (storm) is rainfall (pattern) used for design
of a hydrologic/a hydraulic system, such as flood control
and drainage structures.

• For depth, first the duration of the design rainfall from the
storm characteristics of the area needs to be selected.

• Then appropriate depth of the rainfall can be determined

using DAD, IDF, frequency analysis.

• Then intensity of the rainfall can then be determined: is

depth by the duration.
 Infiltration Analysis
• The infiltration rate of an infiltrating surface is measured in
terms of the depth of water that moves down into the soil
per unit of time

• In urban areas, water is often unable to infiltrate into the

soil, due to pavement and buildings.

• As a result, urban runoff flows across rooftops, roadways,

sidewalks, urban landscapes, and driveways.

• It eventually reaches a stormwater collection system

(receiving waters).
Infiltration models (loss models)
Surface flow analysis
Factors affecting
runoff
• Physical
– Soil type
– Vegetation (land use)
– Slope and catchment size

• Storm factors
– intensity
– duration and
– distribution
 Methods for determining design
discharge (runoff)
1. Rational Method
For small catchments

Q = CIA/360
in which:
– Q = the maximum rate of runoff (m3/s)
– C = a runoff coefficient, the ratio between the runoff volume from an area and
the average rate of rainfall depth over a given duration for that area
– I = average intensity of rainfall for a duration equal to the time of
concentration, tc (mm/hr)
– A = catchment area (ha)
 Procedure for Rational Method

• Delineate the catchment boundary. Measure its area.

• Define the flow path from the upper-most portion of the catchment
to the design point. This flow path should be divided into reaches of
similar flow type (e.g., overland flow, channel flow, etc.). The length
and slope of each reach should be measured.
• Determine the time of concentration, tc, for the catchment.
• Find the rainfall intensity, I, for the design storm using the calculated
tc and the IDF curve.
• Determine the runoff coefficient, C.
• Calculate the peak flow rate
 Time of concentration
tc = ti + tt
in which:
– tc = time of concentration (minutes)
– ti = initial or overland flow time (minutes)
– tt = travel time in the ditch, channel, gutter, storm sewer, etc.
(minutes)
– In urbanized areas, the overland flow is typically less than 50 m.
• The initial or overland flow time, ti, may be calculated using (Friend,
1954):
• Channel travel Time
– The time stormwater takes to travel in the channel
can be calculated using the hydraulic properties of the
ditch or channel using the Chezy or manning
formula.:
 Runoff coefficient C:
Example as a function of percent pavement and return
period T
2. The hydrograph method
i. The time area method: excess rainfall
i. The Time area method
i. The Time are method
ii. Unit hydrograph method
Proportionality

Superposition
Derivation of unit hydrograph
The "S" hydrograph is defined as the integral of a hydrograph
of a continuous effective rainfall having a duration greater
than the concentration time tc of the basin.
• shift two "S" hydrographs with a time interval T,
• subtract the ordinates of one hydrograph from the other and
• Multiply by the ratio T/T
• the unit hydrograph of effective rainfall of duration T is
derived.
 Steps for Changing duration of UH

i. Suppose you are asked to change the duration of a given 2 hour UH to a 6 hour
UH. Let tr=2hr (original duration) and trb=6hr (required duration).
ii. First lag a minimum of tb/tr number of 2 hour Uhs where tb is time base. So
suppose, tb (time base of flow) is 12 hours, then in this case you should lag at
least 12/2=6 2 hour UHs. Round off this number to the nearest higher integer.
iii. Next, add all the ordinates as a function of time. You should get an S-type
shape where the flow will reach a steady-state and saturated value. And the
moment you get your highest flow value, that can be your S-curve peak value
that you can maintain from thereafter.
iv. Now lag two S-curves (derived in step#iii) by duration trb (6 hour). And then
subtract the ordinates.
v. Step #iv will give you a DRH for a storm of trb duration. Multiply the ordinates by
tr/trb to get your 6hr UH from the given 2hr UH.
IDF curve for Example 1