Hydrograph

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Jump to: navigation, search This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. (Consider using more specific clean up instructions.) Please improve this section if you can. The talk page may contain suggestions. (May 2009) A hydrograph is a graph showing changes in the discharge of a river over a period of time. It can also refer to a graph showing the volume of water reaching a particular outfall, or location in a sewerage network, graphs are commonly used in the design of sewerage, more specifically, the design of surface water sewerage systems and combined sewers.

Stream hydrograph. Increases in stream flow follow rainfall or snowmelt. The gradual decay in flow after the peaks reflects diminishing supply from groundwater.

Contents
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1 Terminology 2 Surface water hydrography 3 Unit Hydrograph 4 Factors affecting the hydrograph 5 Subsurface hydrology hydrograph 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] Terminology
The discharge is measured at a certain point in a river and is typically time variant.
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Rising limb: The rising limb of hydrograph, also known as concentration curve represents the increase in discharge due to the gradual building up of storage in channels and over the catchment surface.

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Recession limb: The recession limb extends from the point of inflection at the end of the crest segment to the commencement of the natural groundwater flow (baseflow). It represents the withdrawal of water from the storage built up in the basin during the earlier phases of the hydrograph. Peak discharge: the highest point on the hydrograph when there is the greatest amount of water in the river Lag time: the time interval from the center of mass of rainfall excess to the peak of the resulting hydrograph Time to peak: time interval from the startof the resulting hydrograph ischarge: volume of water in a river at a given time

Types of hydrograph can include:

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Storm hydrographs Flood hydrographs Annual hydrographs aka regimes Direct Runoff Hydrograph Effective Runoff Hydrograph

[edit] Surface water hydrography

In surface water hydrology, a hydrograph is a time record of the discharge of a stream, river or watershed outlet. Rainfall is typically the main input to a watershed and the streamflow is often considered the output of the watershed; a hydrograph is a representation of how a watershed responds to rainfall. They are used in hydrology and water resources planning. A watershed's response to rainfall depends on a variety of factors which affect the shape of a hydrograph:
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Watershed topography and geology (i.e. bedrock permeability) The area of a basin receiving rainfall Land-use (e.g. agriculture, urban development, forestry operations) Drainage density Duration of rainfall and precipitation intensity and type Evapotranspiration rates River geometrics The season Vegetation type and cover River conditions (e.g. dams) Initial conditions (e.g. the degree of saturation of the soil and aquifers) Soil permeability and thickness

A hydrograph is often compared to a hyetograph of the watershed. Also Known as H-Micha

[edit] Unit Hydrograph

A unit hydrograph (UH) is the hypothetical unit response of a watershed (in terms of runoff volume and timing) to a unit input of rainfall. It can be defined as the direct runoff hydrograph (DRH) resulting from one unit (e.g., one cm or one inch) of effective rainfall occurring uniformly over that watershed at a uniform rate over a unit period of time. As a UH is applicable only to the direct runoff component of a hydrograph (i.e., surface runoff), a separate determination of the baseflow component is required. A UH is specific to particular watershed, and specific to a particular length of time corresponding to the duration of the effective rainfall. That is, the UH is specified as being the 1-hour, 6-hour, or 24-hour UH, or any other length of time up to the time of concentration of direct runoff at the watershed outlet. Thus, for a given watershed, there can be many unit hydrographs, each one corresponding to a different duration of effective rainfall. The UH technique provides a practical and relatively easy-to-apply tool for quantifying the effect of a unit of rainfall on the corresponding runoff from a particular drainage basin. UH theory assumes that a watershed's runoff response is linear and time-invariant, and that the effective rainfall occurs uniformly over the watershed. In the real world, none of these assumptions are strictly true. Nevertheless, application of UH methods typically yields a reasonable approximation of the flood response of natural watersheds. The linear assumptions underlying UH theory allows for the variation in storm intensity over time (i.e., the storm hyetograph) to be simulated by applying the principles of superposition and proportionality to separate storm components to determine the resulting cumulative hydrograph. This allows for a relatively straightforward calculation of the hydrograph response to any arbitrary rain event. An instantaneous unit hydrograph is a further refinement of the concept; for an IUH, the input rainfall is assumed to all take place at a discrete point in time (obviously, this isn't the case for actual rainstorms). Making this assumption can greatly simplify the analysis involved in constructing a unit hydrograph, and it is necessary for the creation of a geomorphologic instantaneous unit hydrograph . The creation of a GIUH is possible given nothing more than topologic data for a particular drainage basin. In fact, only the number of streams of a given order, the mean length of streams of a given order, and the mean land area draining directly to streams of a given order are absolutely required (and can be estimated rather than explicitly calculated if necessary). It is therefore possible to calculate a GIUH for a basin without any data about stream height or flow, which may not always be available.

[edit] Factors affecting the hydrograph

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Soil Saturation is dependant on previous rainfall, or otherwise known as Antecedent rainfall. The surroundings; Rural or Urban (Could be less impermeable surface, or the surface type could vary) Vegetation type (Deforestation and amount of interception) Steepness of surrounding land, or 'relief' land Drainage density (Number of tributaries) Geology (Rock Type; Impermeable=flashier hydrographs. Or Permeable) Season dependant; Very dry weather creates a crust on the river bed. Wet winters create increase in discharge.

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Soil Type (Clay, sand etc.) Clay would create a flashy hydrograph, but there could be a continium between the two. Shape of drainage basin (circular or elongated). Precipitation (distribution of rainfall rates and locations)

[edit] Subsurface hydrology hydrograph

In subsurface hydrology (hydrogeology), a hydrograph is a record of the water level (the observed hydraulic head in wells screened across an aquifer). Typically, a hydrograph is recorded for monitoring of heads in aquifers during non-test conditions (e.g., to observe the seasonal fluctuations in an aquifer). When an aquifer test is being performed, the resulting observations are typically called drawdown, since they are subtracted from pre-test levels and often only the change in water level is dealt with.

[edit] See also

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Surface water Runoff model (reservoir) Hydrogeology Aquifer test Baseflow Hydrograph separation

chinese version

Types of Flooding
Flooding can be divided into different categories according to their duration:
1. Slow-Onset Floods
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Slow-Onset Floods usually last for a relatively longer period, it may last for one or more weeks, or even months. As this kind of flood last for a long period, it can lead to lose of st ock, damage to agricultural products, roads and rail links.

2. Rapid-Onset Floods
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Rapid-Onset Floods last for a relatively shorter period, they usually last for one or two days only. Although this kind of flood lasts for a shorter period, it can cause more damages and pose a greater risk to life and property as people usually have less time to take preventative action during rapid -onset floods.

3. Flash Floods
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Flash Floods may occur within minutes or a few hours after heavy rainfall, tropical storm, failure of dams or levees or releases of ice jams. And it causes the greatest damages to society.

Flooding can also be divided into different categories according to their location:
1. Coastal Floods
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Coastal Floods usually occur along coastal areas. When there are hurricanes and tropical storms which will produce heavy rains, or giant tidal waves created by volcanoes or earthquakes, ocean water may be driven onto the coastal areas and cause coastal floods.

2. Arroyos Floods
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A arroyo is river which is normally dry. When there are storms approaching these areas, fast-moving river will normally form along the gully and cause damages.

3. River Floods
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This is the most common type of flooding. When the actual amount of river flow is larger than the amount that the channel can hold, river will overflow its banks and flood the areas alongside the river. And this may cause by reasons like snow melt or heavy spring rain.

4. Urban Floods
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In most of the urban area, roads are usually paved. With heavy rain, the large amount of rain water cannot be absorbed into the ground and leads to urban floods.