Chapter 2

Unit Hydrograph
Binaya Kumar Mishra, PhD
Professor, Pokhara University
 Hydrograph
• Plot of discharge (streamflow) over time
• Representation of how a watershed responds to rainfall.

Components:
• Peak discharge Qmax (m3/s)
• Time to peak or fall
• Time of concentration (min)
• Volume V (m3)
• Rising limb
• Falling limb
Component of hydrograph
 Time of Concentration
• The time for water to move from different areas of the catchment to the outlet
differs according to the different positions of places.
• Time of concentration (tc) refers to when all the catchment areas are contributing
runoff to the outlet.
• It is the time taken for the most remote area of the catchment to contribute water to
the outlet.
Time of concentration (tc) can be related to catchment area, slope
etc.
According to Kirpich equation:
tc = 0.02 L 0.77 S – 0.385
S = (Et - Eo)/L where Et is the elevation
tc is the time of concentration (min); at top of the watershed and Eo is the
L is the maximum length of flow (m); elevation at the outlet.
S is the watershed gradient (m/m).
 Factors influencing hydrograph
Climatic:
• Precipitation
 Type of precipitation
 The rate (amount) and intensity
 Duration of rainfall
 Direction of storm movement
 Distribution of rainfall over the drainage basin
• Previous weather (e.g. precipitation that occurred earlier and
resulting soil moisture)
• Time of year/season
 Factors influencing hydrograph

Physical-geographic factors

• Shape of watershed – time of concentration to the outlet

• Slope
– The steeper the slopes, the lower the rate of infiltration and
faster the rate of run-off when the soil is saturated (saturated
overland flow)
• Land use (e.g. agriculture, urban development, forest)
Basin characteristics on the hydrographs:
a. Slope
b. Roughness
c. Storage
d. Drainage density
e. Channel length
Effects of storm shape, size and movement
a. Rainfall intensity
b. Storm size
c. Storm movement
 Excess (Effective) rainfall
- The initial loss and infiltration losses are subtracted
from total rainfall. The resulting hyetograph is Rainfall Excess
known as excess rainfall hyetograph (ERH). It is
also known as hyetograph of rainfall excess or
supra rainfall.
- Both DRH and ERH represent the same total
quantity but in different units
- The ERH area multiplied by the catchment Area
gives the total volume of the direct runoff ( total
area of DRH)
 Unit hydrograph

- A unit hydrograph is defined as the hydrograph of direct runoff resulting from unit
depth (1 cm) of rainfall excess occurring uniformly over the basin and at a uniform
rate for a specified duration (D hours).
- It relates only the direct runoff to the rainfall excess. Hence the volume of water
contained in the unit hydrograph must be equal to the rainfall excess.
- The distribution of the storm is considered to be uniform all over the catchment.
- Two basic assumptions constitute the foundations for the unit-hydrograph theory: the
time invariance and the linear response.
Time Invariance

This first basic assumption is that the direct-runoff response to a given

effective rainfall in a catchment is time-invariant. This implies that the
DRH for a given ER in a catchment is always the same irrespective of
when it occurs.
Linear Response

- The direct-runoff response to the rainfall excess is assumed to be linear. This is the most
important assumption of the unit-hydrograph theory.

- Linear response means that if an input x1 (t) causes an output y1 (t) and an input x2 (t)
causes an output y2 (t), then an input xl (t) +x2 (t) gives an output y1 (t) +y2(t).

- Thus, if the rainfall excess in a duration D is r times the unit depth, the resulting DRH will
have ordinates bearing ratio r to those of the corresponding D-h unit hydrograph.
- Since the area of the resulting DRH should increase by the ratio r, the base of the DRH
will be the same as that of the unit hydrograph.

- If two rainfall excess of D-h duration each occur consecutively, their combined effect is
obtained by superposing the respective DRHs with due care being taken to account for the
proper sequence of events.
DRH using
Convolution method
n M
Qn  P U
m 1
m n  m 1

• Q is flow, P is effective
precipitation and U is unit
hydrograph
• M is the number of effective
precipitation ordinates, N is the
number of Unit Hydrograph
ordinates, then
• The DRH will have N+M-1
ordinates
 Derivation of Unit Hydrograph (Isolated storm)

i) Tabulate the total hydrograph with time distribution

ii) Tabulate the base flow
iii) Find the direct runoff hydrograph (DRH) by subtracting the base flow
from the total hydrograph.
iv) Find the volume of water under the DRH
v) Divide the volume of water by the drainage area to get excess rainfall
(runoff) per unit area.
vi) Divide the ordinates of the DRH by the excess rainfall
 Unit Hydrograph from complex storms:
Deconvolution method
• If we had an actual storm hydrograph, and an excess rainfall hyetograph, we could
produce the UH from them.
• We can solve each line of the convolution equation in order for the U ordinates because
each successive line adds only one unknown.
 Unit Hydrographs from complex storms:
Deconvolution method
Suppose we had a 4-hour rainfall that resulted in 7 hours of runoff, and
we have a hyetograph and hydrograph for each. To get a UH, write out
the convolution equations for this situation:

• You can solve these equations for the U ordinates

one at a time, starting at the first.
• Note that you wouldn’t have to solve the last three,
because you’d already have all seven of the U
ordinates.
• The solutions may be obtained using optimization
methods such as linear programming, linear
regression which will provide the best fit solutions
to the observed data.
 Unit hydrographs from complex storms: Matrix method
Last slide equations can also be arranged in matrix form with an equation:
[Q]n*1 = [P]n*(n-m+1). [U](n-m+1)*1
With known value of Q and P, matrix U is determined by following equation
[U] = ([P]T[P])-1 [P]T [Q]
 Unit hydrographs from complex storms: Collin’s method

It is a trial and error method and particularly useful when the largest rainfall block in the effective rainfall
hyetograph is very large compared with the other blocks. In the Collin’s method of determining the unit
hydrograph from a complex storm, the following steps are involved.
- An approximate unit hydrograph is estimated by dividing DRH with total excess rainfall and adjusting
with correction factor.
- Applying this unit hydrograph, estimate DRH of all the effective rainfall blocks except the largest block.
- Subtract total DRH of smaller blocks from total DRH of all blocks.
- Again, estimate UH ordinates by dividing residual DRH with largest effective rainfall. Initial (non-zero)
and last ordinates (if negative) are converted to zero.
- Estimate adjusted UH of largest rainfall.
- Estimate the weighted average UH considering smaller (total) and largest rainfalls and respective adjusted
UH
- If the difference between weighted average and first adjusted UH are significant, repeat the process by
replacing weighted average as initial adjusted values until insignificant difference.
Unit Hydrographs of different durations: Method of Superposition

• If a D-h unit hydrograph is available, and its desired to develop

unit hydrograph of nD, its is easily accomplished by superposing
n unit hydrographs with each graph separated from the previous
on by D-h.
Consider 1 hr UH
Add and Lag two UH
by one hour
Sum and divide by 2
Results in 2 hr UH
 Illustration
 Given the ordinates of a 4-hr unit hydrograph as below, derive the
ordinates of a 12-hr unit hydrograph for the same catchment
Time (hr) 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44

Ordinates of 4- 0 20 80 130 150 130 90 52 27 15 5 0

hr UH
Illustration
Illustration
 Unit Hydrographs of different durations: S –curve method

S–curve method works for any duration. The first step is to add a series of UH’s of
duration D, each lagged by time period D. This corresponds to the runoff hydrograph
from a continuous rainfall excess intensity of 1/D cm/hour.
 S Curves

From Mays, 2011, Ground and Surface Water Hydrology

Unit hydrographs of different durations: S –curve method

By shifting a copy of the S-curve by D’ hours, and subtracting the ordinates, the resulting
hydrograph (dashed line - - - - - - ) must be due to rainfall of intensity 1/D cm/hour that lasts for a
duration of D’ hours.

To convert the hydrograph (dashed line - - - - -) to a UH, divide ordinates by D’/D, resulting in a UH
of duration D’. D’ need not be an integral multiple of D.
 Illustration
 Given the ordinates of a 4-hr unit hydrograph as below, derive the
ordinates of a 2-hr and 12-hr unit hydrograph using S-Curve method.
Time (hr) 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44

Ordinates of 4- 0 20 80 130 150 130 90 52 27 15 5 0

hr UH

Determination of 2-hr UH will require estimation of estimation of S-curve ordinates at 2-hr interval.
Determination of 12-hr UH using S-curve method
 Illustration
Suppose the 4-hr unit hydrograph for a watershed
is
Time (hr) 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Unit hydrograph (m3/s/10 mm) 0 15 45 65 50 25 10 0

a) Determine the 2-hr unit hydrograph

b) For a storm of 1 cm/hr in first 2 hr and 0.5
cm/hr in the second 2 hr; baseflow = 10
m3/s, calculate the total runoff hydrograph.
 Synthetic Unit hydrograph
• Derivation of unit hydrographs required information rainfall and resulting
flood discharge.
• However, several locations lack such information
• Synthetic unit hydrographs can be derived and used for the similar
hydrologic regions.
• Synthetic hydrographs are derived by relating hydrograph characteristics
such as peak flow, base time etc. with watershed characteristics such as area
and time of concentration.
• Synder, based on study of several catchments, developed an empirical
technique (equations) to derive synthetic unit hydrograph.
 Synthetic Unit hydrograph
Variety of approaches but most are based
on tp and Qp; where tp = lag time (hr) and
Qp = peak flow in cms or cfs
Synder’s equation
tp = Ct (LLca)0.3

tp=basin lag in hour representing time of travel of water

from all parts of watershed to the outlet during a given
storm
L= basin length in km
Lca= distance along the main water course from gauging
stn to a point opposite to the watershed centroid in km
Ct = regional constant representing watershed slope and
storage effects Elements of Synthetic Unit Hydrograph
Snyder’s UH Method

t p  Ct ( LLc ) 0.3
Q p  2.75C p ( A / t p )
TB  3 to 5 times t p
Duration D  t p / 5.5
Illustration: Snyder's Synthetic Unit Hydrograph
A watershed has a drainage area of 5.42 mi2; Follow the procedure of table 8.4.1
the length of the main stream is 4.45 mi, and • L = main channel length = 4.45 mi
the main channel length from the watershed • Lc = length to point opposite centroid = 2.0 mi
outlet to the point opposite the center of • A = watershed area = 5.42 mi2
• 𝑡𝑝 = 𝐶1 𝐶𝑡 𝐿 ∙ 𝐿𝑐 0.3 ℎ𝑟 = 1 ∙ 2 ∙ 4.45 ∙ 2 0.3 = 3.85 ℎ𝑟
gravity of the watershed is 2.0 mi. Using Ct =
• 𝑡𝑟 = 𝑡𝑝 /5.5 = 0.7 ℎ𝑟
2.0 and Cp = 0.625, determine the standard
• 𝑡𝑝𝑅 = 𝑡𝑝 + 0.25 𝑡𝑅 − 𝑡𝑟 = 3.85 + 0.25 0.5 − 0.7 = 𝟑. 𝟖 𝒉𝒓
synthetic unit hydrograph for this basin. What
is the standard duration? Use Snyder’s 𝐶2 𝐶𝑝 𝐴
• 𝑄𝑝𝑅 = = 640 ∗ 0.625 ∗ 5.42/3.8 = 𝟓𝟕𝟎 𝒄𝒇𝒔
method to determine the 30- min unit 𝑡𝑝𝑅

hydrograph parameter.
• Widths
𝐶75 440
• 𝑊75 = 1.08 = = 2.88 ℎ𝑟
570/5.42 1.08
(4.05,570) 𝑄𝑝𝑅 /𝐴
𝐶50 770
• 𝑊50 = 1.08 = = 5.04 ℎ𝑟
𝑄𝑝𝑅 /𝐴 570/5.42 1.08
(3.09,427.5) (5.97,427.5) 𝐴 5.42
• 𝑇𝑏 = 2581 − 1.5 𝑊50 − 𝑊75 = 2581 − 1.5 ∗ 5.04 −
𝑄𝑝𝑅 570
(2.37,285) W75 2.88 = 14.1 ℎ𝑟
(7.41,285)
W50
1/3 2/3 (14.1,0)
 Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph

The Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph (IUH) is defined as unit

hydrograph of infinitesimally small duration.
The IUH is the direct runoff at the outlet of the catchment
resulting from 1 unit (1 cm or 1 mm) of rainfall falling over the
catchment over very small (nearly zero) time.