MODULE II

RUNOFF
 Runoff can be described as the part of the water cycle that flows over land as surface water
instead of being absorbed into groundwater or evaporating.
 According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), runoff is that part of the precipitation, snow melt,
or irrigation water that appears in uncontrolled surface streams, rivers, drains, or sewers.
 Rainfall is the primary source of water for runoff generation over the land surface.
 Some part of rainfall is stored in the surface depressions, referred as depression storage, which in
due course of time gets infiltrated or evaporated.
 Runoff may be defined as that portion of rainfall as well as any other flow, which makes its way
towards the river, stream or oceans etc. Since, runoff is through the channel, stream/or rivers etc.,
therefore, sometimes it is also called as channel flow.
Types of Runoff:
Based on the time delay between the instance of rainfall and generation of runoff, the runoff may
be classified into following three types:
1. Surface Runoff:
 It is that portion of rainfall, which enters the stream immediately after the rainfall.
 It occurs, when all losses are satisfied and if rain is still continued with the rate greater than the
infiltration rate; then excess water makes a head over the ground surface (surface detention),
which tends to move from one place to another following land gradient, is known as overlandflow.
 As soon as the overland flow joins to the streams, channels or oceans, is termed as surface runoff.
2. Sub-Surface Runoff:
 That part of rainfall, which first enters into the soil and moves laterally without joining the water-
table to the streams, rivers or oceans, is known as sub-surface runoff or inter flow.
 Sometimes sub-surface runoff is also treated under surface runoff due to reason that it takes very
little time to reach the river or channel in comparison to ground water.
3. Base Flow:
 It is delayed flow, defined as that part of rainfall, which after falling on the ground surface,
infiltrates into the soil and meets to the water-table; and flow to the streams, oceans etc.
 The movement of water in this type of runoff is very slow, that is why it is also referred as
delayed runoff.

 It takes a long time to join the rivers or oceans, say for as years.
 Sometimes, base flow is also known as ground water flow.

Thus,

Total Runoff = Surface runoff (including sub-surface runoff) + Base flow

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 Factors Affecting Runoff:
The runoff rate and its volume from an area, mainly influenced by the following two factors:
(A) Climatic Factors:
The climatic factors of the watershed affecting the runoff are mainly associated to the
characteristics of precipitation, which include:
1. Type of Precipitation

 Types of precipitation have great effect on the runoff.

 A precipitation which occurs in the form of rainfall, gets start immediately to flow in form of
surface flow over the land surface, depending on its intensity as well as magnitude.
 While a precipitation which takes place in the form of snow or hails, the flow of water on
ground surface does not take place immediately, but after melting of the same.
 During the time interval between occurrence and their melting, the melted water infiltrates into the
soil and results a very little surface runoff generation.
2. Rainfall Intensity

 If rainfall intensity is greater than the infiltration rate of the soil, then the surface runoff takes place
very shortly.
 While in case of low intensity rainfall, there is found a reverse trend of the same.
 Thus, high intensities rainfall yield higher runoff and vice-versa.
3. Duration of Rainfall

 Rainfall duration is directly related to the volume of runoff generation due to the fact that the
infiltration rate of the soil goes on decreasing with the duration of rainfall, till it attains a constant
rate.
 As result of this, even a mild intensity rainfall lasting for longer duration may yield a considerable
amount of runoff.
4. Rainfall Distribution

 Runoff magnitude from a watershed depends very much on the distribution of rainfall.
 The rainfall distribution for this purpose is expressed by a term “distribution coefficient”.
 It is defined as the ratio of maximum rainfall at a point to the mean rainfall of the watershed.
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 For a given total rainfall, if all other conditions are the same, then greater the value of
distribution coefficient, greater will be the runoff and vice-versa.
 However, for the same distribution coefficient, the peak runoff would be resulted from the
storm falling on the lower part of the basin i.e., near outlet.
5. Direction of Prevailing Wind

 If the direction of prevailing wind is same to the drainage system then it has a great influence on
the resulting peak flow and also on the duration of surface flow to reach the outlet.
 A storm moving in the direction of stream slope, produces a higher peak in shorter period of time,
than a storm moving in opposite direction.
6. Other Climatic Factors

 The other climatic factors such as temperature, wind velocity, relative humidity, annual rainfall etc.,
affect the water losses from the watershed to a great extent; and thus the runoff is also affected,
accordingly.
 If the losses are more, then runoff will be less; and vice-versa.

(B) Physiographic Factors

Physiographic factors of watershed consist of both the watershed as well as channel
characteristics.
Different characteristics of watershed and channel which affect the runoff, are listed below:

1. Shape and Size of Catchment

 The runoff from a catchment depends upon the size, shape and location of the catchment.
Following are the general observations.
 More intense rainfall events are generally distributed over a relatively small area, ie. larger the area
lower will be the intensity of rainfall.
 The peak normally decreases as the area of the basin increases. (peak flow per unit area)
 Larger basin give a more constant minimum flow than the smaller ones. (effect of local rains and
greater capacity of the ground water reservoir)
 The fan shape watershed tends to produce higher peak rate of runoff because tributaries are nearly
of same size and hence time of concentration of runoff is nearly same. On the contrary discharges
over fern leaf arrangement of tributaries distributed over long period because of the different
lengths of tributaries.

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 Fan shaped catchment Leaf shaped catchment

2. Slope of Watershed
 The slope of watershed controls the time of overland flow and time of concentration of drainage basin
which provide a cumulative effect on resulting peak runoff.
 In case of a sloppy watershed, the time to reach the flow at outlet is less, because of greater runoff
velocity, which results into formation of peak runoff very soon; and vice-versa.
3. Orientation of Watershed
 This factor affects the evaporation and transpiration losses from the area by making influence on
the amount of heat to be received from the sun.
 The north or south orientation of watershed affects the time of melting of collected snow.
 In mountainous watersheds, the parts located on the wind ward side of the mountain receive high
intensity rainfall, resulting into more runoff yield,
 While the parts of watershed lying towards leeward side have reverse effect.
4. Land Use
 An area which is under forest cover, where a thick layer of much of leaves and grasses etc. has been
accumulated, there forms a little surface runoff due to the fact that more rain water is absorbed by
the soil.
 While in a barren field, where no any cover is available, a reverse effect is obtained.
5. Soil Moisture
 The magnitude of runoff yield depends on the amount of moisture present in the soil at the time of
rainfall.
 If rain occurs over the soil which has more moisture, then infiltration rate becomes very less, which
results into more runoff yield.
 If the rain occurs after a long dry spell, when soil becomes dry, then a huge amount of rain water
is absorbed by the soil.
6. Soil Type
 In the watershed, surface runoff is greatly influenced by the soil type, as loss of water from the soil
is very much dependent on infiltration rate, which varies with the types of soil.
7. Topographic Characteristics
 Topographic characteristics include those features of watershed, which create effect on runoff.
It is mainly undulating nature of the watershed.
 Undulate land yields greater runoff than the flat land, because of the reason that runoff water gets
additional power to flow due to slope of the surface; and tittle time to infiltrate the water into soil.
 Regarding channel characteristics to describe their effects on runoff, the channel cross-section,
roughness, storage and channel density are mainly considered.
8. Drainage Density

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  The drainage density is defined as the ratio of the total channel length in the watershed to the total
area of watershed.
It is expressed as:
Channel length(total)
Drainage density =

Watershed area(A)

D.D. = L/A
 A watershed having greater D.D, peak runoff form very shortly to that of the lesser D.D
watershed.

ESTIMATION OF RUNOFF
1. Runoff Computation by Infiltration Method
 Infiltration may be defined as the entry of water from the top soil surface into lower soil profiles.
 The capacity of any soil to absorb the rain water, falling continuously at an excessive rate, goes on
decreasing with time until infiltration is reached at the minimum rate i.e., at basic intake rate.
 The infiltration rate is the rate at which water will enter the soil in a given condition. It is the
function of time.
 The infiltration rate is equal to infiltration capacity or rainfall rate whichever is less
 When infiltration curve is superimposed on the hyetograph (graph between rainfall intensity and
time). The area above infiltration curve indicates the excess rainfall (effective rainfall), while area
below the infiltration curve shows the loss of rainfall due to infiltration.
 This loss varies greatly in the early part of rainfall, which subsequently gets decease with increase
in rainfall duration.
 Estimation of surface runoff volume from a large area having uniform infiltration characteristics,
is done by subtracting the infiltration loss from the total rainfall.
 The amount of rainfall occurred on the watershed is determined by installing rain gauge, which
records the rainfall depth.

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.

Relation between runoff and infiltration

Infiltration Index
 Infiltration index is defined as the average rate of water loss through infiltration, such that the
volume of rainfall excess is equal to the volume of direct runoff.
 There are following two types of infiltration indices:
i. ɸ-Index
 It is defined as the rate of rainfall, at which the volume of excess rainfall is being equal to the direct
runoff volume.
 The ɸ-index incorporates the initial loss of rain water, caused by infiltration phenomenon.
 It is predicted by counting as a constant rate of infiltration capacity.

Relation between ɸ-index and runoff

 The ɸ-index also demarcates the limit of rainfall intensity producing the runoff over thecatchment.
 If rainfall intensity is less than the ɸ-index of the soil, then there is no runoff and when rainfall
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 intensity exceeds the ɸ-index, then there resulted the runoff, which is equal to the difference
between rainfall and infiltration during a specified time.
 The rainfall amount in excess of ɸ-index is referred as rainfall excess.

 Numerically, the ɸ-index may be written as

Infiltration during the period of runoff

ɸ=
Duration of effective rainfall

 The above relationship is applicable, when rainfall intensity is continuously in excess of ɸ- index.
 This concept assumes that there is too much runoff is build up at the beginning of storm and too
little at the end of storm due to the fact, that the peak rate of surface retention and infiltration rate
decrease with time throughout the storm period.
 The ɸ-index is also known as retention rate rather than infiltration index.
ii. W-Index
 It is also known as average infiltration rate.

 It is defined as the average rate of infiltration during the time, when rainfall intensity exceeds the
infiltration capacity (i.e., maximum infiltration rate).
It is given by the following expression
Infiltration during the period of entire storm

W=
Total duration of storm

 In the very wet condition, when infiltration rate of soil approaches to its basic intake rate and
surface retention is at minimum level, then the values of W and ɸ-indexes are almost same.
 Under this condition W-index is known as Wmin – index.

2. Computation of Runoff by Empirical Formulae

 There have been developed several empirical formulae for computing the runoff for different
zones of the country, few of them are described as under:
i. Runoff Coefficient Method
 In this method, the runoff is computed simply by multiplying the runoff coefficient to the
rainfall amount, given as under:
R = K.P
Where,
R = runoff, cm
K = runoff coefficient (dimensionless)
P = rainfall depth, cm
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  This method is used only for small water control projects and should be avoided for the
analysis of major storms.
The values of runoff coefficient for different land uses are given in table.
Values of runoff coefficient (K)

Sl. No. Area K

1. Urban area covered by
a) Residential building 0.3
b) Garden apartment 0.5
Commercial and industrial area
3. 0.9
Forest area
4. 0.5 to 0.2

ii. Inglis Formula

 Inglis developed following two empirical formulae for computing the runoff rate for two
different types of area.
 This formula is derived from data collected from 37 catchments in the Bombay presidency.
For ghat areas (Western Ghats)
R = 0.85P- 30.5 (When P and R in cm)
For non-ghat areas (plain regions)

 In above equations R is indicated for runoff depth (cm) and P is for rainfall depth (cm).
i. Khosla’s Formula:
 This formula was developed by Khosla assuming the temperature as a factor in yield of surface
runoff.
The formula is given by:
R = P – 0.48T
 In which, R is the monthly runoff in cm, P is monthly precipitation in cm and T is the average
temperature (°F) of the watershed.

Effective Rainfall (ER)

 Effective rainfall (also known as Excess rainfall) (ER).

 It is that part of the rainfall that becomes direct runoff at the outlet of the watershed.
 It is thus the total rainfall in a given duration from which abstractions such as infiltration and initial
losses are sub- tracted.
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  ER could be defined as that rainfall that is neither retained on the land surface nor infiltrated into
the soil.

Effective rainfall hyetograph

HYDROGRAPH ANALYSIS
 A hydrograph is a graph showing variations of discharge with time at a particular point of a
stream.
 It shows the time distribution of total runoff at the point of measurement.
 The runoff includes surface runoff, sub surface runoff and ground water runoff
 A hydrograph is generated from runoff due to precipitation resulting from either an isolated
storm or a series of consecutive storms (known as complex storm)
 It is also known as storm hydrograph.

 Single peaked hydrograph resulting from an isolated storm, while multi peaked hydrograph from
complex storms.
Components of a Single Peaked Hydrograph
 As indicated earlier, the essential components of a hydrograph are:
 (i) The rising limb,
 (ii) The crest segment, and
 (iii) The recession limb.
 A few salient features of these components are described below.

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Elements of flood hydrograph

i. Rising Limb (AB)

 The rising limb of a hydrograph, also known as concentration curve

 It represents the increase in discharge due to the gradual building up of storage in channels and over
the catchment surface.
 The initial losses and high infiltration losses during the early period of a storm cause the
discharge to rise rather slowly in the initial periods.
 As the storm continues, more and more flow from distant parts reach the basin outlet.
Simultaneously the infiltration losses also decrease with time.
 Thus under a uniform storm over the catchment, the runoff increases rapidly with time.
 The basin and storm characteristics control the shape of the rising limb of a hydrograph.

ii. Crest or Peak Segment (BPC)

 The crest segment is one of the most important parts of a hydrograph as it contains the peak
flow.
 The peak flow occurs when the runoff from various parts of the catchment simultaneously
contribute amounts to achieve the maximum amount of flow at the basin outlet.
 Generally for large catchments, the peak flow occurs after the cessation of rainfall, the time
interval from the centre of mass of rainfall to the peak being essentially controlled by basin and
storm characteristics.
 Multiple-peaked complex hydrographs in a basin can occur when two or more storms occur in
succession. Estimation of the peak flow and its occurrence, being important in flood-flow
studies.
i. Recession Limb (CD)

 The recession limb, which extends from the point of inflection at the end of the crest segment
(point C) to the commencement of the natural groundwater flow (point D) represents the
withdrawal of water from the storage built up in the basin during the earlier phases of the
hydrograph.
 The starting point of the recession limb, i.e. the point of inflection represents the condition of
maximum storage.
 Since the depletion of storage takes place after the cessation of rainfall, the shape of this part of
the hydrograph is independent of storm characteristics and depends entirely on the basin
characteristics.

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Time Parameters Used in Hydrograph Analysis

Components of single peaked hydrograph

i. Effective time duration (tre)

 It is the net duration of precipitation during which rainfall rates are more than infiltration rate.
ii. Lag Time or Basin Lag (tL)
 It is the time interval between the centre of mass of rainfall excess and the peak (P) of hydrograph
 The time difference between the peak of the rain event and the peak discharge is known as the
lag time or basin lag.
iii. Time to Peak (tp)
 It is the time interval between the starting of rising limb (A) to the peak (P) of the hydrograph.
iv. Time of Concentration (tc)
 In terms of physical characteristics, it is defined as the travel time of the water particle from
hydraulically most remote point in the basin to the outflow location.
 Based on rainfall and hydrograph characteristics, it is taken as the time from end of the net
rainfall to the point of inflection (C)
v. Recession Time (Tr)
 It is the difference in time between the end of effective rainfall and lowest point (D) of the
recession limb.
vi. Time Base of Hydrograph (Tb)
 It is the time from which direct runoff begins to the time when it stops
 It is the time from beginning of point (A) to the end point (D) of the direct runoff.

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BASE FLOW SEPARATION
 In many hydrograph analyses a relationship between the surface-flow hydrograph and the
effective rainfall (i.e. rainfall minus losses) is sought to be established.
 The surface flow hydrograph is obtained from the total storm hydrograph by separating the
quick-response flow from the slow response runoff.
 It is usual to consider the interflow as a part of the surface flow in view of its quick response.
 Thus only the base flow is to be deducted from the total storm hydrograph to obtain the surface
flow hydrograph.
 The surface runoff hydrograph obtained after deducing base flow from flood hydrograph can be
termed as direct runoff hydrograph (DRH)

 There are three methods of base-flow separation that are in common use.
Method 1: Straight line method
 the two point A and B marks the beginning and end of direct runoff
 Join A and B using straight line AB
 This is the simplest method of separation.

Method 2: Two lines method

 This is the most used method to separate base flow.
 The first line AC is obtained by extending the base flow curve, till it intersects a vertical line
drawn from peak.
 Point C and point B are joined by straight line.
 Segment AC and CB demarcate the base flow and surface runoff.
Method 3: Curves extension method
 This method consists of extending the base flow curve on recession side backwards till it
intersects a vertical line through the point of inflection (line EF).
 Points A and F are joined by an arbitrary smooth curve.
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 Segment EF and AF demarcate the base flow and surface runoff.
 This method of base-flow separation is realistic in situations where the groundwater
contributions are significant and reach the stream quickly.

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 UNIT HYDROGRPH (UH)

 The basis of the unit hydrograph concept, first given by Sherman (1932)
 A unit hydrograph is defined as the hydrograph representing 1cm of runoff from a rainfall
of some unit duration and specific areal distribution.
 The term unit here refers to a unit depth of rainfall excess which is usually taken as 1 cm.

 The duration, being a very important characteristic, is used as a prefix to a specific unit
hydrograph. Thus one has a 6-h unit hydrograph, 12-h unit hydrograph, etc. and in general a D-h
unit hydrograph applicable to a given catchment.
 For example, if a unit hydrograph resulting from a 6 hour unit rainfall duration, it is known as 6-
hour unit hydrograph, means a hydrograph produced by surface runoff from a storm lasting for 6
hour and yielding rainfall excess of 1 cm.

Unit Hydrograph Assumptions

The following assumptions are made while using the unit hydrograph principle:

1. Effective rainfall is constant over the catchment during the unit time.
2. Effective rainfall is uniformly distributed throughout the whole area of drainage basin.

3. The base or time duration of the hydrograph of direct runoff due to an effective rainfall of
unit duration is constant.
4. The ordinates of the unit hydrograph are directly proportional to the effective rainfall
hyetograph ordinate. Hence, if a 6-h unit hydrograph due to 1 cm rainfall is given, then a 6-h
hydrograph due to 2 cm rainfall would just mean doubling the unit hydrograph ordinates.
Hence, the base of the resulting hydrograph (from the start or rise up to the time when discharge
becomes zero) also remains the same.
5. For a given drainage basin the hydrograph of runoff due to given period of rainfall reflects all
the combined physical characteristics of the basin.

Limitations of Unit Hydrograph Theory:

(i) In theory, the principle of unit hydrograph is applicable to a drainage basin of any size. In
practice, however, uniformly distributed effective rainfall rarely occurs on large areas.
 On large areas effective rainfall is very rarely uniform at all locations, within its specified
duration.
 Bigger the area of the drainage basin lesser will be the chances of fulfilling the assumptions

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 enunciated above.
(ii) The unit hydrograph method cannot be applied when appreciable portion of storm
precipitation falls as snow because snow-melt runoff is governed mainly by temperature
changes.
(iii) Also when snow covered area in the drainage basin is significant the unit hydrograph
method becomes inapplicable. The reason is that the storm rainfall gets mixed up with the snow
pack and may produce delayed runoff differently under different conditions of snow pack.
(iv) The physical basin characteristics change with seasons, man-made structures in the basin,
conditions of flow etc. Obviously the principle of time invariance is really valid only when the
time and condition of the drainage basin are specified.
(v) It is commonly seen that no two rain storms have same pattern in space and time. But it is
not practicable to derive separate unit hydrograph for each possible time- intensity pattern.
(vi) The principle of linearity is also not completely valid. This is so because due to variability
in proportion of surface, subsurface and groundwater runoff components during smaller and
larger storms of same duration, the maximum ordinate (peak) of the unit hydrograph derived from
smaller storm is smaller than the one derived from larger storm. Obviously the character and duration
of recession limb which is a function of the peak flow will also be different. When appreciable non-
linearity is seen to exist it is necessary to use derived unit hydrographs only for reconstructing events
of similar magnitude.
(vii) The unit hydrograph can be used theoretically to construct a flood hydrograph resulting
from a storm having same unit duration. Obviously it necessitates construction of several unit
hydrographs to cover different durations of storms. In practice however it is seen that a
tolerance of ± 25% in unit hydrograph duration is acceptable. Thus a 2 hour unit hydrograph
can be applied to storms of 1.5 to 2.5 hours duration.

Advantages of Unit Hydrograph Theory:

 The limitation to the theory of unit hydrograph can be overcome to a large extent by remaining
within the various ranges and restrictions indicated above.
 The unit hydrograph theory has several advantages to its credit which can be summarised as
below:
(i) Flood hydrograph can be calculated with the help of very short record of data.
(ii) In addition to peak flow unit hydrograph also gives total volume of runoff and its time
distribution.
(iii) The unit hydrograph procedure can be computerised easily to facilitate calculations.
(iv) It is very useful in checking the reliability of flows obtained by using statistical methods.

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 Derivation of Unit Hydrograph

 The following are the steps for constructing a unit hydrograph of some unit duration

 A storm hydrograph of the same unit duration from the past records, select some unit period of
intense rainfall duration.
1. Analyze the hydrograph and separate base flow

2. Measure the ordinates of DRO hydrograph – m3/s

3. Compute the volume of DRO, and evaluate duration D of the rainfall excess that
produced the DRO hydrograph.
𝛴𝑂 𝑥 𝑡
Direct run-off, n = 0.36 cm
𝐴

Where,

∑O = Sum of the discharge ordinates (direct run-off) in cumecs (m3/s).

t = Time interval between successive ordinates in hours.

A = Area of drainage basin in sq. km.

Calculate the ordinates of unit hydrograph by the relation:

Ordinate of unit hydrograph = Ordinate of direct run−off / Direct run−off n in cm

Construction of unit hydrograph

COMPUTATION OF STORM/FLOOD HYDROGRAPH

 Under condition where lack of adequate data in development of unit hydrograph
 D-hour unit hydrograph is used to develop unit hydrographs of differing durations nD
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 Two method available:
1. Method of superposition
2. The S-hydrograph
1. Method of Superposition
 If a D hour unit hydrograph is available and it is desired to develop a unit hydrograph of nD
hour, where n is an integer, it is easily accomplished by superposing n unit hydrograph with
each graph separated from the previous on by D-h.
 Consider 1 hr UH, add and lag two UH by one hour, then sum and divide by 2 it results in 2
hr UH

Unit hydrograph lagging

2. S-hydrograph
 A ‘S’ hydrograph or summation hydrograph is a hydrograph generated by a continuous
effective rainfalloccurring at an uniform rate for an indefinite period.
 It is called ‘S’ hydrograph because the shape of the hydrograph comes out like alphabet ‘S’
though slightly deformed.
 It can be derived by summation of the ordinates of an infinite series of unit hydrographs of
[Link] duration spaced at the same unit duration apart and hence the name summation
hydrograph

 It is a curve which rises continuously in the form or shape of the letter S, till a constant
discharge value i.e. equilibrium is reached.

At time of equilibrium S curve will represent a equilibrium discharge given by

2.778 𝐴
Q0 = 𝑇

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 Where A – area of catchment in km2

T – duration of UH in hours
 If it is desired to develop a unit hydrograph of duration mD, where m is a fraction, the method
of superposition cannot be used. S-curve method is adopted in such cases, and this method is
applicable for rational values of m.

S-curve

Peak flood determination

Extreme hydrologic events are floods and droughts. A flood is an unusually high stage of a river due
to runoff from rainfall and or melting of snow in quantities too great to be confined in the normal
water surface elevations of the river or stream.

Three types of floods:

1. Standard project flood (SPF)
It is the flood that would result from the mopst severe combination of meteorological and
hydrological factors that are reasonably applicable to the basin. However extreme rare
combinations are excluded.
2. Maximum probable flood (MPF)
This includes the extreme rare combinations also, that are excluded in SPF. Thus it is
defined as extreme flood that is physically possible in a region as a result of severe most
combination including extreme rare combination of meteorological and hydrological factors.
It is observed that SPF is about 80% of MPF.
3. Design flood
It is the flood discharge adopted for design of a hydrologic structure after careful
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considerations of hydrologic and economic factors.
The peak flood discharge in a stream may be determined by following methods:
1. By physical indication of past floods
2. By empirical flood formulae
3. By unit hydrograph
4. By flood frequency analysis
5. By enveloping curves
6. By rational formula
Empirical formula for flood discharge:
1. Dickens formula
Q = CA3/4
Where Q is the discharge in cumecs
C is a constant which depends upon the catchment
A is the area of basin in km2
2. Ryves formula
Q = CA2/3
3. Inglis formula
123 𝐴
Q=
√𝐴+10.4

4. Nawab Jang Bahadur formula

1
Q = CA(0.993-14logA)

5. Fannings formula
Q = CA5/6

 Flood frequency – it denotes the likelyhood of flood being equaled or exceeded. A

10% frequency means that the flood has 10 out of 100 chances of being equaled or
exceeded.
 Recurrence interval – it denotes the number of years in which a flood can be
expected once.
 Return period – it is the average recurrence interval for a certain event or flood.

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