In the name of ALLAH, the Most Gracious the Most Merciful

Engineering Hydrology (CE-358)

Runoff

Asst. Prof. Dr. Muhammad Amjad

 Course Outline

Surface Water Hydrology

▪ Precipitation – forms, types, measurement, and data analysis
▪ Evapotranspiration
▪ Runoff
▪ Hydrograph
▪ Stream Gauging
▪ Flood Routing

Groundwater Hydrology
▪ Well Hydraulics and Drawdown

Advanced Hydrology
▪ Cloud Seeding
▪ Satellite- and Model-based Estimation of Climate Parameters
 Runoff
Quantity of water discharged in surface streams…
Total Runoff = Overland flow + Interflow + Base flow
Basic Concepts of
RUNOFF
 Before the Runoff – Detention

• When the overland flow starts (due to a storm) some flowing

water is held in puddles, pits and small ponds; this water

stored is called depression storage

• The volume of water in transit in the overland flow which has

not yet reached the stream channel is called surface detention

or detention storage
 Runoff – Base Flow

• The direct runoff results from the occurrence of an immediately

preceding storm. However, groundwater contribution which takes
days or months to reach the stream, in all probability, has no direct
relation with the immediately preceding storm…
• The groundwater flow into the stream would have continued even if
there had been no storm immediately preceding. Therefore, it is
termed as base flow in hydrograph analysis
• Base flow is the portion of groundwater flow that contributes to a
stream…
 Catchment Characteristics
The entire area of a river basin whose surface runoff (due to a storm)
drains into the river in the basin is considered as a hydrologic unit and is
called drainage basin, watershed or catchment area of the river flowing.
 Catchment Characteristics
The boundary line, along a topographic ridge, separating two adjacent
drainage basins is called drainage divide. The single point or location at
which all surface drainage from a basin comes together or concentrates
as outflow from the basin in the stream channel is called concentration
point or measuring point, since the stream outflow is usually measured
at this point. The time required for the rain falling at the most distant
point in a drainage area (i.e., on the fringe of the catchment) to reach
the concentration point is called the concentration time.
Only such storms of duration greater than the time of concentration
will be able to produce runoff from the entire catchment area and
cause high intensity floods…
 Catchment Characteristics

The characteristics of the drainage net may be physically described by:

(i) stream density, (ii) drainage density, (iii) form factor (iv) compactness
coefficient
Stream density of a catchment area is expressed as the number of streams per
square kilometer Where Ns = number of streams, A = catchment area.
Drainage density is expressed as the total length of all stream channels
(perennial and intermittent) per unit area of the catchment and serves as an
index of the areal channel development of the basin
where Ls = total length of all stream channels in the basin…
 Catchment Characteristics

The shape of a drainage basin can generally be expressed by:

Form factor
where Wb = axial width of basin, Lb = axial length of basin, i.e., the distance
from the measuring point (MP) to the most remote point on the basin.
Compactness coefficient
Where Pb = perimeter of the basin
If R is the radius of an equivalent circular area, A = πR2,

What does compactness coefficient imply?

 Catchment Characteristics
A fan-shaped catchment produces greater flood intensity since all the
tributaries are nearly of the same length and hence the time of
concentration is nearly the same and is less, whereas in the fern-shaped
catchments, the time of concentration is more, and the discharge is
distributed over a long period
Classification of Streams
Classification of Streams
 Bank Storage

The portion of runoff in a rising flood in a stream, which is absorbed by

the permeable boundaries of the stream above the normal phreatic
surface is called bank storage
Isochrones
Factors affecting Runoff
RUNOFF ESTIMATION
 Runoff Estimation Methods

• Empirical formulae, curves and tables

• Infiltration method
• Rational method
• Unit hydrograph method
 Runoff Estimation Methods:
1. Empirical formulae, curves and tables
Base: R=aP+b & R = a Pn
where R = runoff, P = rainfall, a, b, and n are constants… a & b are slope and
intercept in linear regression
 Runoff Estimation Methods:
1. Empirical formulae, curves and tables
Inglis’ formula: R = 0.85P + 30.5 for Ghat area
R = (P − 17.8)P / 254 for plains

Lacey’s formula: A.N. Khosla’s Formula:

where F is a monsoon
duration factor varying between 0.5 to 1.5
and S is the catchment factor depending
upon the slope and varies from 0.25 for
flat areas to 3.45 for hilly areas
 Runoff Estimation Methods:
1. Empirical formulae, curves and tables

In the above formulae, R is the average annual runoff in cm, P is the

average annual rainfall in cm, T is the mean annual temperature in
°C for the entire drainage basin.

Rainfall-runoff relationships in the form of curves and tables:

• Binnie’s percentages (tables) for catchments in Madhya Pradesh
• Strange’s curves and tables for Bombay-Deccan catchments
• Barlow’s tables for runoff coefficients in UP
 Runoff Estimation Methods:
2. Infiltration Method
About Infiltration
Water entering the soil at the ground surface is called infiltration. It
replenishes the soil moisture deficiency, and the excess water
moves downward by the force of gravity called deep seepage or
percolation and builds up the ground water table. The maximum
rate at which the soil in any given condition is capable of absorbing
water is called its infiltration capacity (fp). Infiltration (f) often
begins at a high rate (20 to 25 cm/hr) and decreases to a fairly
steady state rate (fc) as the rain continues, called the ultimate fp (=
1.25 to 2.0 cm/hr).
 Runoff Estimation Methods:
2. Infiltration Method
About Infiltration
The infiltration rate (f) at any time t is given by Horton’s equation:
 Runoff Estimation Methods:
2. Infiltration Method
Runoff by Infiltration Method
 Runoff Estimation Methods:
2. Infiltration Method
About Infiltration

Infiltration depends upon the intensity and duration of rainfall, weather

(temperature), soil characteristics, vegetal cover, land use, initial soil

moisture content (initial wetness), entrapped air and depth of the

ground water table.

Vegetal cover provides protection against rain drop impact and helps to

increase infiltration.
 Runoff Estimation Methods:
2. Infiltration Method

• Infiltration Capacity
Maximum rate at which water enters the soil in a given condition..
• Infiltration Rate
Rate at which water actually enters the soil during a storm and is
equal to the infiltration capacity or the rainfall rate, whichever is less
• Infiltration Index
Average rate of loss such that volume of rainfall in excess of that rate
will be equal to direct runoff
 Runoff Estimation Methods:
2. Infiltration Method
The Φ-index is defined as that rate of rainfall above which rainfall volume
equals the runoff volume.
The W-index is the average infiltration rate during the time rainfall intensity
exceeds the infiltration capacity.
W = Fp / tr = (P – Q – S)/tr
W = Index, cm/hr
Fp = Total Infiltration, cm
P = Precipitation, cm
Q = Surface Runoff, cm
S = Effective Surface Retention, cm
tr = Duration of Storm during
which i > fp , hr
i = Rainfall Intensity, cm/hr
fp = Infiltration Capacity, cm/hr
 Runoff Estimation Methods:
3. Rational Method
A rational approach is to obtain the yield of a catchment by assuming a suitable
runoff coefficient.
Yield = C P A or Q = C I A
where,
A = area of catchment
P = precipitation amount, I = Precipitation intensity
C = runoff coefficient
The value of the runoff coefficient C varies depending upon the soil type,
vegetation, geology, etc.
 Runoff Estimation Methods:
3. Rational Method
In the rational method, the drainage area is divided into a number of sub-areas
and with the known times of concentration for different subareas the runoff
contribution from each area is determined. This method of dividing the area into
different zones by drawing lines of time contour, i.e., isochrones, is illustrated in
the following example.

Example:
A 4-hour rain of average intensity
1 cm/hr falls over the fern
leaf type catchment as shown
in Figure. The time of
concentration from the
lines AA, BB, CC, and DD are
1, 2, 3 and 4 hours, respectively,
to the site 0 where the discharge measurements are made. The values of the runoff
coefficient C are 0.5, 0.6, and 0.7 for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd hours of rainfall respectively
and attains a constant value of 0.8 after 3 hours. Determine the discharge at site 0.
Runoff Estimation Methods:
3. Rational Method
 Runoff Estimation Methods:
Example (Rational Method)
A small watershed consists of 1.5 km2 of cultivated area (c = 0.2), 2.5 km2 under
forest (c = 0.1) and 1 km2 under grass cover (c = 0.35). There is a fall of 20 m in a
watercourse of length 2 km. The I–D–F relation for the area is given by:

, I in cm/hr, T–yr, t-min.

Estimate the peak rate of runoff for a 25-year frequency.

 Runoff Estimation Methods:
4. Unit Hydrograph Method
Will be covered in next lectures