HYDROGRAPH

Rising limb:- also known as concentration curve represents increase in

discharge due to gradual building up storage in channels and over the catchment surface. The initial losses and high infiltration losses during the early period of a storm causes the discharge to rise rather slowly in the initial periods. The basin and storm characteristics control the shape of rising limb
Crest segment:- the peak flow occurs when the runoff from various parts of

the catchment simultaneously contribute amount to achieve the maximum amount of flow at the basin outlet.
Recession limb:- the recession limb which extend from the point of inflection

at the end of crest segment to the commencement of the natural ground water flow represent the withdrawal of water from the storage built up in the basin during earlier phases of hydrograph. The starting point of the recession limb represent the condition of maximum storage. The shape of this part of hydrograph is independent of storm characteristics and depends entirely on the basin characteristics.

The storage of water in basin exist on 1. surface storage which includes both surface detention and channel storage 2. interflow storage 3. ground water storage that is base flow storage Bornes(1940) showed that the recession of a storm can be expressed as Qt= Q0Ktr Qt= discharge at time t Qo= discharge at t=0 Kr= recession constant of value less than unity

 Fan shaped (nearly semicircular) catchment gives high peak and narrow hydrograph while elongated catchment gives broad and low peaked hydrograph Size:- in small catchment the overland flow phase is predominant over the channel flow. Hence the land use and intensity of rainfall have important role on peak flood. The time base of hydrographs from larger basin will be larger than those of corresponding hydrographs from smaller basin. Slope:- larger stream slope give rise to quiker deplation of storage and hence result in steeper recession limbs of hydrograph. The steeper slope of catchment results in larger peak discharge. Drainage density:- a large drainage density creats situation conductive for quick disposal of run off down the channels. In basins with smaller drainage densities the overland flow is predominant and the resulting hydrograph is squat with a slowly rising limb.

 Land use:- vegetation and forest increase the infiltration and storage capacity of soils. Thus the vegetal cover reduces the peak flow. The effect of the vegetal cover is prominent in small storms. Climatic factors:- intensity, duration and direction of storm movement are affecting the shape of flood hydrograph. For a given duration the peak and volume of surface runoff are essentially proportional to the intensity of rainfall.

Rainfall excess

Direct runoff hydrograph The surface runoff hydrograph obtained after the flow separation called as direct runoff hydrograph (DRH)

UNIT HYDROGRAPH

Application of unit hydrograph

Using the basic principle of unit hydrograph one can easily calculate DRH in a catchment due to given storm. Let assumed that a unit hydrograph and storm hyetograph are available the initial losses are estimated and deducted from storm hyetograph to obtain ERH. The ERH is then divided into M blocks of D-h duration each. The rainfall excess in each D-h duration is then operated upon the unit hydrograph successfully

Synthetic unit hydrograph

Snyders method

S- curve hydrograph