STUDY MATERIAL

on
DAE 331
HYDROLOGY AND MANAGEMENT OF
WATERSHED

ER. K. N. RAJA KUMAR

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

FACULTY OF AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY

ACHARYA N. G. RANGA AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY
LAM, GUNTUR – 522034

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 DAE 331 Hydrology and Management of Watersheds 2 (1+1)

Objective: To impart knowledge and skills to students on rainfall, runoff and hydrological
aspects, watershed concepts, stream flow measurements in watersheds,
prediction of runoff volumes with hydrographs and unit hydrographs, effective
resources management in watersheds, monitoring and evaluation of watershed
projects.

Lecture outlines

S. UNIT I Reference
No books
1. Hydrology – definition, hydrologic cycle and its components, forms of 1&2
precipitation-Rain, snow, drizzle, glaze, sheet and hail. Types of formation
of precipitation- convective precipitation and orographic precipitation,
frontal precipitation and cyclonic precipitation. Characteristics of rainfall in
India, Types of Monsoon: South West, Post Monsoon (transition-I) (North
East), Winter season and Summer pre-Monsoon Rains (transition II)
2. Typical Rain chart used in Natural Syphon guage –Installation of rain 1&2
gauges– Rain gauge network density for different topographic (flat,
mountains, plains and hilly areas) conditions. Adequacy of rain guage
stations
UNIT II
3. Probability analysis of rainfall – Return period or Recurrence interval- 1&2
definition and explanation– Plotting position by Weibull’s method, relation
between plotting position and return period, rainfall events at different
probability levels (20, 40, 60, and 80%)
4. Runoff – Definition – Components of runoff – direct runoff and base flow, 1&2
overland flow and interflows, their definitions based on time delay between
rainfall and runoff and pictorial representation of different routes of runoff.
Factors affecting runoff- Climatic factors (Type of rainfall, rainfall
intensity, duration and distribution, direction of the storm. Physiographic
factors (size, shape, slope, watershed orientation, land use, soil moisture
and soil type)
UNIT III
5. Runoff characteristics of streams – perennial, intermittent and ephemeral 1&2
streams, measurement of stream flows: methods of direct and indirect
determination of stream flow, Catchment characteristics - size, shape,
slope, relief, drainage density, compaction coefficient, hypsometric curve
(definitions only)
6. Measurement of stage and velocities in streams; Area – velocity method; 1&2
staff gauge, point gauge, automatic stage recorders, floats and Stevens
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 Type-F recorder,, current meters (Horizontal and vertical axis). Area-
Velocity method: typical stream section for area-velocity method of stream
flow determination.
UNIT IV
7. Hydrographs – Definition and components, Rising limb, falling limb and 1&2
crest segments in hydrograph and factors affecting their shapes, elements of
a flood hydrograph showing Direct Runoff and Base flow, Factors
affecting flood hydrographs- Physiographic factors and Climatic factors
(List only).
8. Unit Hydrographs – Conceptual theory and definition and explanation of 1&2
the two basic assumptions (linear response and time invariance), derivation
of a unit hydrograph from simple storms, uses and limitations of unit
hydrographs
UNIT V
9. Application of Hydrology – Flood control- Definition and classification of 1&2
floods (design flood, standard project flood, maximum probable flood, peak
flood, maximum observed flood, annual flood and ordinary flood)
(definitions only). Flood mitigation and control measures (List of structural
and non-structural measures), Effect of watershed management practices on
reduction in flood peaks ( explanation in figure only)
10. Watershed – Definition, identification and delineation, Physiographic 2&5
characteristics of watershed – Size, shape, slope, stream order, drainage
density, relief, ruggedness and hypsometric curve. Importance of these
characteristics in watershed management
UNIT VI
11. Principles and objectives of watershed management, Summary of 3
watershed management plans prepared by Central Soil and Water
Conservation Research and Training Institute, Dehradun.
12. Watershed management case studies – Operational research projects: 3
Fakot, Sukhomajri and Chitra Durga.
UNIT VII
13. Components of watershed management - Land management (structural 5
measures, vegetative measures, production measures and protection
measures), water management (rain water harvesting, ground water
recharge, maintenance of water balance, prevention of water pollution) and
Biomass management.
14. Watershed and people – Introduction, definition of peoples participation, 4
Rationale of people’s participation, factors affecting people’s participation,
provision of incentives for people’s participation, mobilization of people’s
participation.

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 UNIT VIII
15. Formulation of participatory watershed development and management 4
project, strategies for strengthening field implementation, for transfer of
technology, for financial control. Strategies for farmers participation,
strategies for proper maintenance of water sheds.
16. Monitoring and evaluation of watershed projects- Monitoring and 4
evaluation systems, monitoring and evaluation methodology and Follow-
up. Identification of constraints – Budgetary, manpower, mobility and
equipment, technical information, farmers participation, policy constraints
and other.

PRACTICALS

1. Hydrologic cycle
2. Study of recording rain gauge
3. Visit to meteorological station
4. Rainfall probability by Weibull’s method
5. Study of current meter
6. Problems on stream flow measurement
7. Problems on hydrograph
8. Analysis of runoff hydrograph
9. Computation of peak rate of runoff (Rational method only)
10. Computation of volume of runoff
11. Derivation of unit hydrograph
12. Delineation of watershed
13. Determination of watershed characteristics
14. Visit to watershed
15. Visit to watershed
16. Practical examination
REFERENCES

1. Engineering Hydrology Subramanya K, 2013. Tata McGraw Hill

Publishing Co. Ltd., New Delhi
2. Watershed Hydrology Suresh R – (1997), Standard Publishers
anddistributors, New Delhi
33 Watershed Management Dhruva Narayana V.V., Sastry G., Patnaik
U.S.– (1997) ICAR, New Delhi
4. Watershed planning and Management Raj Vir Singh, 2000. Yash publishing house
1E 14, Pawanpuri, Bikaner
5. Soil and Water Conservation Suresh R – (1997), Standard Publishers
Engineering distributors, New Delhi

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 LECTURE 1
Hydrology – definition, hydrologic cycle and its components, forms of precipitation-Rain,
snow, drizzle, glaze, sheet and hail. Types of formation of precipitation- convective
precipitation and orographic precipitation, frontal precipitation and cyclonic precipitation.
Characteristics of rainfall in India, Types of Monsoon: South West, Post Monsoon
(transition-I) (North East), Winter season and Summer pre-Monsoon Rains (transition II)

1.1 HYDROLOGY
Hydrology means the science of water. It is the science that deals with the
occurrence, circulation and distribution or water of the earth and earth's Atmosphere. As a
branch of earth science, it is concerned with the water in streams and lakes, rainfall and
snow fall. Snow and ice on the land and water occurring below the earth's surface in the
pores of the soil and rocks.
1.2 HYDROLOGIC CYCLE
Water occurs on the earth in all its three states, viz. liquid, solid and gaseous, and in
various degrees of motion. Evaporation of water from water bodies such as oceans and
lakes, formation and movement of clouds, rain and snow fall, stream flow and ground water
movement are some examples of the dynamic aspects of water. The various aspects of
water related to the earth can be explained in terms of a cycle known as the hydrologic
cycle. Figure 1.1 is a schematic representation of the hydrologic cycle. A convenient
starting point to describe the cycle is in the oceans. Water in the oceans evaporates due to
the heat energy provided by solar radiation. The water vapour moves upwards and forms
clouds. While much of the clouds condense and fall back to the oceans as rain, a part of the
clouds is drives to the land areas by winds. There they condense and precipitate onto the
land mass as rain, snow, hail, sleet, etc. A part of the precipitation may evaporate back to
the atmosphere even while falling.

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 Another part may be intercepted by vegetation, structures and other such surface
modifications from which it may be either evaporated back to atmosphere or more down to
the ground surface. A portion of the water that reaches the ground enters the earth's surface
through infiltration, enhance the moisture content of the soil and reach the ground water
body. Vegetation sends a portion of the water from under the ground surface back to the
atmosphere through the process of transpiration. The precipitation reaching the ground
surface after meeting the needs of infiltration and evaporation moves down the natural
slope over the surface and through a network of gullies, streams and rivers to reach the
ocean. The ground water may come to the surface through springs and other outlets after
spending a considerably longer time than the surface flow. The portion of the precipitation
which by a variety of paths above and below the surface of the earth reaches the stream
channel is called runoff. Once it enters a stream channel, runoff becomes stream flow.
The sequence of events as above is a simplistic picture of a very complex cycle
that has been taking place since the formation of the earth. It is seen that the hydrologic
cycle is a very vast and complicated cycle in which there are a large number of paths of
varying time scales. Further it is a continuous recirculating cycle in the sense that there is
neither a beginning nor an end or a pause. Each path of the hydrologic cycle involves one
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or more of the following aspects: (i) transportation of water. (ii) temporary storage and (iii)
change or Stale. For example. (a) the process or rainfall has the change of state and
transportation and (b) the ground water path has storage and transportation aspects.

1.3 PRECIPITATION
The term precipitation denotes all forms of water that reach the earth from the
atmosphere. The usual forms are rainfall, snowfall, hail, frost and dew. Of all these, only
the first two contribute significant amounts of water. Rainfall being the predominant form
of precipitation causing stream flow, especially the flood flow in a majority of rivers in
India, unless otherwise stated the term rainfall is used in this book synonymously with
precipitation. The magnitude of precipitation varies with time and space. Differences in the
magnitude of rainfall in various parts of a country at a given time and variations of rainfall
at a place in various seasons of the year are obvious and need no elaboration. In it this
variation that is responsible for many hydrological problems, such as floods and droughts.
The study of precipitation forms a major portion of the subject of hydrometeorology. In this
chapter, a brief introduction is given to familiarize the engineer with important aspects of
rainfall and, in particular, with the collection and analysis of rainfall data.

For precipitation to form : (i) the atmosphere must have moisture, (ii) there must be
sufficient nuclei present to aid condensation, (iii) weather conditions must be good for
condensation of water vapour to take place, and (iv) the products of condensation must
reach the earth. Under proper weather conditions, the water vapour condenses over nuclei
to form tiny water droplets of sizes less than 0.1 mm in diameter. The nuclei are usually salt
particles or products of combustion and are normally available in plenty. Wind speed
facilitates the movement of clouds while its turbulence retains the water droplets in
suspension. Precipitation results when water droplets come together and coalesce to form
larger drops that can drop down. A considerable part of this precipitation gets evaporated
back to the atmosphere. The net precipitation at a place and its form depend upon a number
of meteorological factors, such as the weather elements like wind, temperature, humidity
and pressure in the volume region enclosing the clouds and the ground surface at the given
place.

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1.4 FORMS OF PRECIPITATION
Some of the common forms of precipitation are: rain, snow, drizzle, glaze, sleet and hail.
1.4.1Rain
It is the principal form of precipitation in India. The term rainfall is used to describe
precipitations in the form of water drops of sizes larger than 0.5 mm. the maximum size of
a raindrop is about 6 mm. any drop larger in size than this tends to break up into drops of
smaller sizes during its full from the clouds. On the basis of its intensity, rainfall is
classified as:
Type Intensity
1. Light rain trace to 2.5 mm/h
2. Moderate rain 2.5 mm/h to 7.5 mm/h
3. Heavy rain > 7.5 mm/h

1.4.2 Snow
Snow is another important form of precipitation. Snow consists of rice crystals
which usually combine to form flakes. When new, snow has an initial density varying from
0.06 to 0.15 g/cm3 and it is usual to assume an average density of 0.1 g/cm3. In India, snow
occurs only in the Himalayan regions.
1.4.3 Drizzle
A fine sprinkle of numerous water droplets of size less than 0.5 mm and intensity
less than 1 mm/h is known as drizzle. In this the crops are so small that they appear to float
in the air.
1.4.4 Glaze
When rain or drizzle comes in contact with cold ground at around 00C, the water
drops freeze to form an ice coating called glaze or freezing rain.
1.4.5 Sleet
It is frozen raindrops of transparent grains which form when rain falls through air at
subfreezing temperature. In Britain, sleet denotes precipitation of snow and rain
simultaneously.
1.4.6 Hail
It is a showery precipitation in the form of irregular pellets or lumps of ice of size
more than 8 mm. Hails occur in violent thunderstorms in which vertical currents are very
strong.
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1.5 TYPES OF PRECIPITATION
Cloud is the source of precipitation which is formed due to adiabatic cooling of
upward lifted warm air masses. Lifting of air masse takes place by several ways, such as
convection, orographic effect and by fronts. Accordingly, the precipitations are classified
as:
1. Convective precipitation
2. Orographic precipitation
3. Frontal precipitation, and
4. Cyclonic precipitation.

These are described as under:

1.5.1 Convective precipitation
In this type of precipitation, the lifting of air mass is done by convection process.
The solar energy is the main source of supplying heat for development of convective
currents in the air. This precipitation takes place in warm weather condition, under intense
heating of earth surface and abundant supply of moisture to the air to create sufficient
relative humidity.
The convective precipitation is accompanied by thunder-lighting along with local
winds and in the form of rainfall. Sometimes, hails are also appeared in this type of
precipitation.
Since this precipitation is resulted due to continuous heating of earth surface,
therefore most favourable condition for its occurrence is found in summer season of the
year. In brief, the convective precipitation can be characterized by the following points
1. It occurs in hot weather condition.
2. Occurs in temperate zones at low latitudes.
3. It takes place for a short duration with intense rainfall.
4. Comulo-nimbus clouds are the source of this type of precipitation.
5. It is a peculiar type precipitation in which sufficient amount of
precipitation can be resulted from a little cloud. 6. It covers small area etc.
1.5.2 Orographic precipitation
It occurs due to lifting of moisture ladden air mass along the orographic plane and
cooling of the same adiabatically to form cloud. The orographic precipitation depends on
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the elevation and rate of rise of air mass. This type of precipitation comprises following two
parts.
1. Wind ward orographic precipitation, and
2. Leeward orographic precipitation.
The side of orographic plane, from where air masses are lifting is known as wind-ward side
and occurring precipitation towards this side is called wind ward precipitation. This
precipitation is intense in nature and sometimes also accompanied by snow fall.
The leeward side is the opposite of wind ward side. In this zone, rainfall amount is
comparatively less to that of the windward side. The leeward orographic precipitation is
also known as rain-shadow. Orographic precipitation is shown in figure 1.2

Fig. 1.2 Orographic Precipitation

1.5.3 Frontal precipitation:
This type of precipitation occurs, when lifting of air mass is carried out by a front
which is formed between two different kinds of air masses (i.e. warm and cold air). The
frontal precipitation is usually in drizzle form. It occurs mainly in temperate regions. In
brief, this precipitation can be characterized by the following two main points.
1.5.4 Cyclonic precipitation;
This precipitation is resulted by mechanical lifting of warm air mass due to pressure
difference caused by unequal heating of earth surface. Movement of warm air takes place
from the high pressure region to low pressure region.
Basically, there are two types of cyclones, i.e.
1. Tropical cyclone, and
2. Extra-tropical cyclone.
Tropical cyclone is also known by the name of hurricane or sometimes typhoon, also. Its
diameter is comparatively small, ranging from 300 to 1500 km. It is accompanied with high
wind velocity and intense storm.
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The extra - tropical cyclone covers large diameter, which is up to 3000 km. It causes frontal
precipitation.
1.6 CHARACTERISTICS OF PRECIPITATION IN INDIA
From the point of view of climate the Indian subcontinent can be considered to
have two major seasons and two transitional periods as:
• South-west monsoon (June - September)
• Transition-I, post-monsoon (October - November)
• Winter season (December- February)
• Transition-II, summer, (March - May)
The chief precipitation characteristics of these seasons are given below.

1.6.1 South-West monsoon (June-September)

The south –west monsoon (popularly known as monsoon) is the principal rainy
season of India when over 75% of the annual rainfall is received over a major portion of the
country. Excepting the south eastern part of the peninsula and Jammu and Kashmir, for the
rest of the country the south-west monsoon is the principal source of rain with July as the
month which has maximum rain. The monsoon originates in the Indian ocean and heralds
its appearance in the southern part of Kerala by the end of May. The onset of monsoon is
accompanied by high south-westerly winds at speeds of 30- 70 kmph and low pressure
regions at the advancing edge. The monsoon winds advance across the country in two
branches: (i) the Arabian Sea branch, and (ii) the Bay of Bengal branch. The former sets in
at the extreme southern part of Kerala and the latter at Assam, almost simultaneously in the
first week of June. The Bay branch first covers the north-eastern regions of the country and
turns westwards to advance into Bihar and UP. The Arabian sea branch moves northwards
over Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Both the branches reach Delhi around the same
time by about the fourth week of June. A low-pressure region known as monsoon trough is
formed between the two branches. The trough extends from the Bay of Bengal to Rajasthan
and the precipitation pattern over the country is generally determined by its position. The
monsoon winds increase from June to July and begin to weaken in September. The
withdrawal of the monsoon, marked by a substantial rainfall activity starts in September in
the northern part of the country. The onset and withdrawal of the monsoon at various parts
of the country are shown in Fig. 1.3(a) and Fig. 1.3(b)
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 The monsoon is not a period of continuous rainfall. The weather is generally cloudy
with frequent spells of rainfall. Heavy rainfall activity in various parts of the country owing
to the passage of low pressure regions is common. Depressions formed in the Bay of
Bengal at a frequency of 2–3 per month move along the trough causing excessive
precipitation of about 100-200 mm per day. Breaks of about a week in which the rainfall
activity is the least is another feature of the monsoon. The south-west monsoon rainfall
over the country is indicated in Fig. 1.4. As seen from this figure, the heavy rainfall areas
are Assam and the north-eastern region with 200-400 cm, west coast and western ghats
with 200-300 cm, West Bengal with 120-160 cm, UP, Haryana and the Punjab with 100-
120 cm. The long term average monsoon rainfall over the country is estimated as 95.0 cm.

Fig.1.3 (a) Nom1al Dales of Onset of Monsoon, (b) Normal Dales of Withdrawal of Monsoon

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Fig. 1.4 Southwest Monsoon Rainfall (cm) over India and Neighbou.rhood

1.6.2 Post-monsoon (October-November)

As the south-west monsoon retreats, low-pressure areas form in the Bay of Bengal
and a north-easterly flow of air that picks up moisture in the Bay of Bengal is formed. This
air mass strikes the east coast of the southern peninsula (Tamil Nadu) and causes rainfall.
Also, in this period, especially in November, severe tropical cyclones form in the Bay of
Bengal and the Arabian sea. The cyclones formed in the Bay of Bengal are about twice as
many as in the Arabian sea. These cyclones strike the coastal areas and cause intense
rainfall and heavy damage to life and property.

1.5.3 Winter season (December-February)

By about mid-December, disturbances of extra tropical origin travel eastwards
across Afghanistan and Pakistan. Known as western disturbances, they cause moderate to
heavy rain and snowfall (about 25 cm) in the Himalayas, and, Jammu and Kashmir. Some
light rainfall also occurs in the northern plains. Low-pressure areas in the Bay of Bengal
formed in these months cause 10–12 cm of rainfall in the southern parts of Tamil Nadu.

1.5.4 Summer (Pre-monsoon) (March-May)

There is very little rainfall in India in this season. Convective cells cause some
thunderstorms mainly in Kerala, West Bengal and Assam. Some cyclone activity,
dominantly on the east coast, also occurs.
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 LECTURE 2
Typical Rain chart used in Natural Syphon guage –Installation of rain gauges– Rain gauge
network density for different topographic (flat, mountains, plains and hilly areas)
conditions. Adequacy of rain guage stations

2.1 NATURAL – SYPHON TYPE RAINGAUGE

This type of recording raingaguge is also known as float type gauge. Here the
rainfall collected by a funnel – shaped collector is led into a float chamber causing a float to
rise. As the float rise, a pen attached to the float through a lever system recorded the
elevation of the float on a rotating drum driven by a clock work mechanism. A siphon
arrangement empties the float chamber when the float has reached a pre – set maximum
level. This type of raingauge is adopted as the standard recording type rain – gauge in India
and its details are described in Indian Standard (IS : 5235 – 1969).

A typical chart from this type of rainguage is shown in Figure 2.1. This chart shows
a rainfall of 53.8 mm in 30 h. the vertical lines in the pen – trace correspond to the sudden
emptying of the float chamber by siphon action which rests the pen to zero level. It is
obvious that the natural syphon – type recording rainguage gives a plot of the mass curve of
rainfall.

Fig. 2.1 Recording from a natural siphon-type gauge(schematic)

2.2 RAINGUAGE NETWORK
Since the catching area of a rainguage is very small compared to the areal extent of
a storm, it is obvious that to get a representative picture of a storm over catchments the
number of raingauges should be as large as possible, i.e. the catchments area per gauge
should be small. On the other hand, economic considerations to a lager extent and other

14
considerations, such as topography, accessibility, etc, to some extent restrict the number of
guges to be maintained. Hence one aims at an optimum density of gauges from which
reasonable accurate information about the storms can be obtained. Towing this the World
Meteorological Organization (WMO) recommends the following densities.
1. In flat regions of temperature, Mediterranean and tropical zones:
ideal - 1 station for 600 – 900 km2,
acceptable – 1 station for 900 – 300 km2;
2. in mountainous regions of temperature, Mediterranean and topical zones:
ideal - 1 station for 100 – 250 km2,
acceptable – 1 station for 250 – 1000 km2;
3. in arid and polar zones: 1 station for 1500 – 10, 000 km2 depending on the
feasibility.
The per cent of raingauge stations should be equipped with self – recording gauges to
know the intensities of rainfall.
From practical considerations of Indian conditions, the Indian Standard (IS : 4987 –
1968) recommends the following densities as sufficient.
1. In plains : 1 station per 520 km2;
2. in regions of average elevation 1000 m : 1 station per 260 – 390 km2; and
3. in predominantly hilly areas with heavy rainfall : 1 station per 130 km2.

2.3 ADEQUACY OF RAINGAUGE STATIONS

If there are already some raingauge stations in a catchments, the optimal number of
stations that should exist to have an assigned percentage of error in the estimation of mean
rainfall is obtained by statistical analysis as :
2
C 
N = v  (2.1)
  

where
N = optimal number of stations,
 = allowable degree of error in the estimate of the mean rainfall and
Cv = coefficient of variation of the rainfall values at the existing m stations ( in per cent).

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If there are m station in the catchment each recording rainfall values P 1, P2, . . . , Pv. . Pm in
a known time, the coefficient of variation Cv is calculated as:
100   m −1
Cv =
P

 m 2
  ( pi − P) 
where  m −1 =  1 
 m −1 
 

= standard deviation
Pi = precipitation magnitude in the ith station
1 m 
P =   pi 
m 1 

In calculating N from Eq. (2.1) it is usual to take  = 10%. It is seen that if the value of 
small, the number of raingauge stations will be more.

Example 2.1 A catchment has six rainguage stations. In a year, the annual rainfall
recorded by the gauges are as follows:
Station A B C D E F
Rainfall (cm) 82.6 102.9 180.3 110.3 98.8 136.7
For a 10% error in the estimation of the mean rainfall, calculate the optimum number of
stations in the catchment.
Solution: For this data,

m = 6
P = 118.6
m-1 = 35.04
 = 10
100  53.04
Cv = = 29.54
118.6
2
 29.54 
N =   = 8.7, say 9 stations
 10 
The optimal number of stations for the catchment is 9. Hence three more additional stations
are needed.
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 LECTURE 3
Probability analysis of rainfall – Return period or Recurrence interval-definition and
explanation– Plotting position by Weibull’s method, relation between plotting position and
return period, rainfall events at different probability levels (20, 40, 60, and 80%)

3.1 FREQUENCY OF POINT RAINFALL

In many hydraulic – engineering applications such as those concerned with floods,
the probability of occurrence of a particular extreme rainfall, e.g. a 24 – h maximum
rainfall, will be of importance. Such information is obtained by the frequency analysis of
the point – rainfall data. The rainfall at a place is a random hydrologic process a time and
the rainfall data at a place when arranged in chronological order constitute a time series.
One of the commonly used data series is the annual series composed of annual values such
as annual such as annual rainfall. If the extreme values of a specified event occurring in
each year is listed, it also constitutes an annual series. Thus for example, one may list the
maximum 24-h rainfall occurring in a year at a station to prepare an annual series of 24 – h
maximum rainfall values. The probability of occurrence of an event in this series is studied
by frequency analysis of this annual data series. A brief description of the terminology and
a simple method of predicting the frequency of an event is described in this section and for
details the reader is referred to standard work on probability and statistics. The analysis of
annual a series, even though described with rainfall as a reference is equally applicable to
any other random hydrological process, e.g. stream flow.

First, it is necessary to correctly understand the terminology used in frequency

analysis. The probability of occurrence of an event (e.g. rainfall) whose magnitude is equal
to or in excess of a specified magnitude X is denoted by P. The recurrence interval (also
known as return period) is defined as

T = 1/p (3.1)

This represents the average interval between the occurrence of a rainfall of

magnitude equal to or greater than X. Thus if it is stated that the return period of rainfall of
20 cm in 24 h is 10 years at a certain station A, it implies that on an average rainfall
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magnitudes equal to or greater than 20 cm in 24 h occur once in 10 years, i.e. in a long
period of say 100 years, 10 such events can be expected. However, it does not mean that
every 10 years one such event is likely, i.e. periodicity is not implied. The probability of a
rainfall of 20 cm in 24 h occurring in any one year at station A 1/T = 1/10 = 0.1.

If the probability of an event occurring is P, the probability of the event not

occurring in a given year is q = (1-p). The binomial distribution cam be used to find the
probability of occurrence of the event r times in n successive years. Thus

n!
Pr ,n = n Cr P r q n−r = P r q n−r (3.2)
(n − r )! r!
where Pr , n = probability of a random hydrologic event (rainfall) of given magnitude and
exceedence probability P occurring r times in n successive years. Thus, for example,

(a) The probability of an event of exceedence probability P occurring 2 times in n

successive years is
n!
P2 , n = P 2q n − 2 (3.3)
(n − 2)!2!
(b) The probability of the event not occurring at all in n successive years is
P0,n = qm=(1-P)n (3.4)

(c) The probability of the event not occurring at least once in n successive years
P1 = 1- qn = 1 – (1-P)n (3.5)
Example 3.1
Analysis of data on maximum one – day rainfall depth at Madras indicated that a
depth of 280 mm had a return period of 50 years. Determine the probability of a one – day
rainfall depth equal to or greater than 280 mm at Madras occurring (a) once in 20
successive years (b) two times in 15 successive years and (c) at least once in 20 successive
years.

Solution : Here P = 1/50 = 0.02

By using Eq. (3.2):

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 a) n = 20, r = 1
20!
P1, 20 =  0.02  (0.98)19
19!1!
= 20  0.02  0.69123 = 0.272
b) n = 15, r = 2
15!
P2,15 =  (0.02) 2  (0.98)13
13!2!
14
= 15   0.0004  0.769 = 0.323
2
By Eq. (3.3)
c) P1 = 1 – (1 – 0.02)20 = 0.332

3.2 PLOTTING POSITION

The purpose of the frequency analysis of an annual series is to obtain a relation
between the magnitude of the event and its probability of exceedence. The probability
analysis may be made either by empirical or by analytical methods.

A simple empirical technique is to arrange the given annual extreme series in descending
order of magnitude and to assign an order number m. Thus for the first entry m = 1, for the
second entry m = 2, and so on, till the last event for which m = N= Number of years of
record. The probability P of an event equalled to or exceeded is given by the Weibull
formula
𝑚
P= ( 𝑁+1 ) ----------- (3.6)

The recurrence interval T = 1/P= (N+1)/m.

Equation (3.6) is an empirical Formulae and there are several other such empirical formulae
available to calculate P (Table 3.1). The exceedence probability of the event obtained by
the use of an empirical formula, such as Equation (3.6) is the most popular plotting position
formula and hence only this formula is used in further sections of this book.

19
Table 3.1 Plotting position Formulae

Method p
California m/N
Hazen (m – 0.5)/N
Weibull m/(N +1)
Chegodayev (m-0.3)/(N + 0.4)
Blom (m-0.44)/(N + 0.12)
Gringorten (m-3/8)/(N + 1/4)

Having calculated P (and hence T) for all the events in the series, the variation of
the rainfall magnitude is plotted against the corresponding I on a semi-log paper (Fig. 3.1)
or log-log paper. By suitable extrapolation of this plot, the rainfall magnitude of specific
duration for any recurrence interval can be estimated.

Fig.3.1 Return period of Annual Rainfall at Station A

This simple empirical procedure can give good results for small extrapolations and the
errors increase with the amount of extrapolation. For accurate work, various analytical
calculation procedures using frequency factors are available. Gumbel's extreme value
distribution and Log Pearson Type III method are two commonly used analytical methods.

If P is the probability of exceedence of a variable having a magnitude M, a common

practice is to designate the magnitude Mass having (100 P) percent dependability, For
example, 75% dependable annual rainfall at a station means the value of annual rainfall at
the station that can be expected to be equaled to or exceeded 75% times, (i.e., on an average
20
30 times out of 40 years). Thus 75% dependable annual rainfall means the value of rainfall
in the annual rainfall time series that has P = 0.75, i.e., T=1/P = 1.333 years.

Example 3.2 The record of annual rainfall at Station A covering a period of 22 years is
given below. (a) Estimate the annual rainfall with return periods of 10 years and 50 years.
(6) What would be the probability of an annual rainfall of magnitude equal to or exceeding
100 cm occurring at Station A? (b) What is the 75% dependable annual rainfall at station
A?

SOLUTION: The data are arranged in descending order and the rank number assigned to
the recorded events. The probability P of the event being equalled to or exceeded is
calculated by using Weibull formula (Eq. 3.6). Calculations are shown in Table below. It
may be noted that when two or more events have the same magnitude (as for m = 13 and 14
in Table 3.2) the probability P is calculated for the largest m value of the set. The return
period T is calculated as T=1 /P.

21
 Table 3.2 Calculation of Return Period

A graph is plotted between the annual rainfall magnitude as the ordinate (on arithmetic
scale) and the return period T as the abscissa (on logarithmic scale), (Fig. 3.1). It can be
seen that excepting the point with the lowest T, a straight line could represent the trend of
the rest of data.

(a) (i) For T = 10 years, the corresponding rainfall magnitude is obtained by interpolation
between two appropriate successive values in Table 2.5, viz. those having T = 11.5 and
7.667 years respectively, as 137.9 cm (ii) for T=50 years the corresponding rainfall
magnitude, by extrapolation of the best fit straight line, is 180.0 cm

(b) Return period of an annual rainfall of magnitude equal to or exceeding 100 cm, by
interpolation, is 2.4 years. As such the exceedence probability P= = 0.417 lock 2.4

(c) 75% dependable annual rainfall at Station A = Annual rainfall with probability P = 0.75,
i.e. T = 1/0.75 = 1.33 years. By interpolation between two successive values in Table 2.7
having T = 1.28 and 1.35 respectively, the 75% dependable annual rainfall at Station A is
82.3 cm.

22
 LECTURE 4
Runoff – Definition – Components of runoff – direct runoff and base flow, overland flow
and interflows, their definitions based on time delay between rainfall and runoff and
pictorial representation of different routes of runoff. Factors affecting runoff- Climatic
factors (Type of rainfall, rainfall intensity, duration and distribution, direction of the storm.
Physiographic factors (size, shape, slope, watershed orientation, land use, soil moisture and
soil type)
4.1 RUNOFF
Runoff means the draining or flowing off of precipitation from a catchment area
through a surface channel. It thus represents the output from the catchment in a given unit
of time.
Consider a catchment area receiving precipitation. For a given precipitation, the
evapotranspiration, initial loss, infiltration and detention – storage requirements will have
to be first satisfied before the commencement of runoff. When these are satisfied, the
excess precipitation moves over the land surfaces to reach smaller channels. This portion of
the runoff is called overland flow and involves building up of a storage over the surface and
draining off of the same. Usually the lengths and depths of overland flow are small join
bigger channels and flows from these in turn combine to form a larger stream, and so on,
till the flow reaches the catchment outlet. The flow in this mode where it travels all the time
over the surface as overland flow and through the channels as open – channel flow and
reaches the catchment outlet is called surface runoff.
A part of the precipitation that infilters moves laterally through upper crusts of the
soil and returns to the surface at some location away the from the point of entry into the
soil. This component of runoff is known variously as interflow, through flow, storm
seepage, subsurface storm flow or quick return flow (Fig.4.1). The amount of interflow
depends on the geological conditions of the catchment. A fairly pervious soil overlying a
hard impermeable surface is conducive to large interflow is sometimes classified into
prompt interflow, i.e. the interflow with the least time lag and delayed interflow.
Another route for the infiltered water is to undergo deep percolation and reach the
groundwater storage in the soil. The groundwater follows a complicated and long path of
travel and ultimately reaches the surface. The time lag, I,e, the difference in time between
the entry into the soil and out flows from it is very large, being of the order of months and
23
years. This part of runoff is called groundwater runoff or ground water. Flow. Groundwater
flow provides the dry – weather flow in perennial streams.

Fig. 4.1 Different routes of runoff

Based on the time delay between the precipitation and the runoff, the runoff is
classified into two categories; a

1. Direct runoff, and

2. Base flow.
These are discussed below.

4.1.1 Direct Runoff

It is that part of runoff which enters the stream immediately after the precipitation.
It includes surface runoff, prompt interflow and precipitation on the channel surface. In the
case of flow – melt, the resulting flow entering the stream is also a direct runoff. Sometimes
terms such as direct storm runoff and storm runoff are used to designate direct runoff.

4.1.2 Base Flow

The delayed flow that reaches a stream essentially as groundwater flow is called
base flow. Many times delayed interflow is also included under this category.

24
 Runoff, representing the response of a catchment to precipitation reflects that
integrated effects of a wide range of catchment, climate and precipitation characteristics.
True runoff is therefore stream flow in the natural condition, i.e. without human
intervention. Such a stream flow unaffected by works of man, such as structures for storage
and diversion on a stream is called virgin flow. When there exist storage or diversion works
on a stream, the flow in the downstream channel is affected by structures and hence does
not represent the true runoff unless corrected for storage effects and the diversion of flow
and return flow.

4.2 FACTORS AFFECTING RUNOFF

The type of runoff and its volume resulting fro a catchment area, are mainly
influenced by following two factors:
1. Climatic factors ; and
2. Physiogrphic factors

4.2.1 Climatic Factors.

The climatic factors of the catchment area, are mainly associated with the
characteristics of rainfall, which are as under:

1. Types of Precipitation
2. Rainfall intensity
3. Forms of precipitation
4. Duration of rainfall
5. Rainfall distribution
6. Direction of prevailing wind
7. Other climatic factors

All these factors are described as under.

4.2.1.1 Types of Precipitation The types of precipitation have great effect on the runoff.
For example: a precipitation, which occurs in the form of rainfall, starts moving
immediately in the form of runoff over the land surface, depending upon its intensity and
25
magnitude. While another precipitation, which takes place in the form of show or hails, the
flow of water on the ground surface will not take place immediately, but after melting of
the same. During this time interval, a large amount of melted water is absorbed by the soil,
resulting into very less runoff generation.

4.2.1.2 Rainfall Intensity Intensity of rainfall has dominating effect on the runoff yield. If
rainfall intensity is greater than the infiltration rate of the soil, then surface runoff is
generated very rapidly, while in case of low intensity rainfall, there a reverse trend is found.
Thus, a high intensity rainfall causes higher runoff and vise-versa.

4.2.1.3 Duration of Rainfall Rainfall duration is directly related to the runoff volume due
to the fact that, infiltration capacity of the soil goes on decreasing with the advancement of
time, till it attains a constant value. As a result a mild rainfall occurring for longer duration
may produce considerable runoff from the catchment.

4.2.1.4 Rainfall Distribution Runoff from a catchment, depends very much on the rainfall
distribution pattern. The effect of rainfall distribution on runoff, can be presented by a
term known as “distribution coefficient”. The distribution coefficient can be defined as, the
ratio of maximum rainfall at a point to the mean rainfall of the concern catchment. I.e.

Maximum rainfall amount

Cd = ---------------------------------
Mean rainfall

For a given total rainfall, if all conditions are the same, greater the coefficient of
distribution, higher will be the peak runoff and vice-versa. However, for the same
distribution coefficient, the peak runoff would be resulted very shortly from, for the
storm falling on the lower part of the basin i.e. near to the outlet than the storm occurring
on upper part of the brain.

4.2.1.5 Direction of Prevailing Wind The direction of prevailing wind affects the
runoff flow, greatly. If the direction of wind is same as the runoff flow direction in the
drainage system of the catchment, it makes a great effect on resulting the peak runoff as

26
 well as duration of surface runoff. That is why, a storm moving in the stream flow
direction, results higher peak very shortly, compared to the storm, moving in opposite
direction.

4.2.1.6 Other climatic factors It includes temperature, wind velocity, relative

humidity, annual rainfall etc. All these factors also affect the runoff producing
characteristics of watershed to some extent. Actually these factors affect the initial losses
of precipitation water. Thus, if the losses are more, the runoff will be less and vice-versa.

4.2.2 Physiographic Factor

It includes both the watershed and channel characteristics, which affect the
runoff yield from the area. The factors affecting water-shed characteristics are given as
under:

1. Size of watershed
2. Shape of watershed
3. Slope of watershed
4. Watershed orientation
5. Land use
6. Soil moisture
7. Soil type; and
8. Topographic characteristics

4.2.2.1 Size of Watershed Regarding the size of watershed, if all other factors such as
depth and intensity of rainfall being same, the two watersheds irrespective of their size, will
produce the same runoff. However, large watershed area, takes longer time for passing the
runoff to the outlet and hence the peak flow expressed as depth will be smaller advice-
versa. But larger watershed produces greater runoff per unit area to that of smaller
watershed.

4.2.2.2 Shape of Watershed The shape of watershed is divided in two types, given as
under

27
 1. Fan shape and
2. Fern shape

The fan shape watershed produces higher peak rate of runoff in shorter duration
than the fern shape watershed, due to the reason that, in former one all parts of the
watershed contribute the runoff to the outlet simultaneously, comparatively in little time
period.
Generally, the shape of watershed is expressed by form factor and compactness
factor, described as under
4.2.2.2.1 Form factor It is defined as the ratio of average width to the axial length of
watershed, expressed as:
Average watershed width
From factor = --------------------------------
Axial watershed length

B
F1 =
L

Regarding axial length of the watershed, it is the distance between outlet and
remotest point of the area, while average width is concerned, it is obtained by dividing the
watershed area (A) with the axial length of the same. Thus

B
F1 =
L
A/ L A
Ff = = 2
L L

4.2.2.2.2Compactness factor It is the ratio of perimeter of watershed to the circumference

of circle whose are is equal to the watershed area, i.e.

Perimeter of watershed
Compactness coefficient = -------------------------------------------
Circumference of circle whose area is equal to the watershed area

28
 P
=
2A

where, P = Perimeter of watershed

A = Area of the watershed
 = 3.14

4.2.2.3 Slope of Watershed The watershed slope has an important role on runoff
producing characteristics of the watershed. But its effect is complex on the causes
responsible for making the initial losses. The watershed slope decreases the time of
concentration and thus, peak runoff occurs relatively at shorter duration. For example :
incase of sloppy land, the runoff velocity is more, and infiltration loss is less resulting into
higher peak runoff and vice-versa.

4.2.2.4 Orientation of Watershed This factor affects the evaporation and transpiration loss
by making influence on the amount of heat received from the sun. The north or south
orientation of the watershed affects the melting time of collected snow and accordingly to
the runoff, too. Similarly, in mountainous watershed the wind ward side of the mountain
receives comparatively higher intense rainfall than the leeward side of the same due to
orientation effect.

4.2.2.5 Land Use The land use pattern or land management practices used have great effect
on the runoff. For example – an area that is under forest on which a thick layer of mulch of
leaves and grasses have been accumulated, the soil due to increase in infiltration rate and
formation of resistance in the flow path of the water over the ground surface, while in
barren lands just reverse trend is found.

4.2.2.6 Soil Moisture Amount of runoff produced from the catchment area is mainly
dependent upon the amount of moisture present in the soil at the time rainfall. If rain
occurs over the land, which has more soil moisture, the water absorbing capacity of the soil
becomes too less and thus, resulted more runoff yield. Similarly, if the rain occurs after a
long dry spell, the soil becomes to dry and total rain water is absorbed by the soil causing

29
no extra water to make runoff. In this way runoff amount approaches to zero. In this
condition even intense storm becomes unable to produce the runoff in appreciable amount.
But on the other hand, if rain occurs at close time interval, a reverse effect on runoff yield
is obtained.
4.2.2.7 Soil Types The yield of surface runoff is also dependent upon the types of soil of
the catchement area, acts an important parameter, because absorption of rain water varies
from soil to soil. For example – a light texture soil (sandy soil) consists of coarser soil
particles and has large pore spaces, results rapid absorption of water and thus it has less
runoff potential. But in heavy texture soil (clay soil), the soil particles are fine and size of
pore spaces are too small, which results little absorption of rain water, causing formation of
huge runoff volume.
4.2.2.8 Topographic characteristics It includes topographical features such as 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 to the outlet due to slope of the
area.
Regarding channel characteristics, the cross-section, roughness, storage, channel
density are considered for study of their effect on runoff.

Drainage Density. It is defined as the ratio of the total channel length existing in
the watershed to the total drainage area, expressed as m/ha. Drainage density is given as :
Drainage density = Total channel length
Drainage Area
𝐿
or D.D. = 𝐴

If value of drainage density is more then runoff yield is relatively more, as rain water enters
the drains, immediately and reaches to the outlet.
The flow characteristics of a stream depend upon :
1. The rainfall characteristics, such a magnitude intensity, distribution in time and
space and its variability;
2. Catchment characteristic such a soil, vegetation, slope, geology, shape and drainage
density; and
3. Climatic factors which influence evapotranspiraction.

30
 The interrelationship of these factors is extremely complex. However, at the risk of
oversimplification, the following salient points can be noted:
1. The seasonal variation of rainfall is clearly reflected in the runoff. High stream
discharges occur during monsoon months and low flow, which is essentially due to
base flow, is maintained during the rest of the year.
2. The shape of the storm hydrograph and hence the peak flow is essentially controlled
by the storm and physical characteristics of the catchment. Evapotranspiration plays
a minor role in this.
3. The annual runoff volume (yield) of a stream is mainly controlled by the amount of
rainfall and evapotranspiration. The geology of the catchment is significant to the
extent of deep percolation losses.

31
 LECTURE 5
Runoff characteristics of streams – perennial, intermittent and ephemeral streams,
measurement of stream flows: methods of direct and indirect determination of stream flow,
Catchment characteristics - size, shape, slope, relief, drainage density, compaction
coefficient, hypsometric curve (definitions only)
5.1 TYPES OF STREAMS
A study of the annual hydrographs of streams enables one to classify streams into
three classes as (i) perennial, (ii) intermittent and (iii) ephemeral.

Fig. 5.1 Perennial stream

A perennial stream is one which always carries some flow (Fig.5.1). There is
considerable amount of groundwater flow throughout the year. Even during dry seasons the
water table will be above the bed of the stream

An intermittent stream has limited contribution from the ground water. During the
wet season the water table is above the stream bed and there is a contribution of the base
flow to the stream flow. However, during dry seasons the water table drops to s level lower
than that of the stream bed and the stream dries up. Excepting for an occasional storm
which can produce a short – duration flow, the stream remains dry for the most part of the
dry months (Fig.5.2.).

32
 Fig. 5.2 Intermittent stream
An ephemeral stream is one which does not have any base – flow contribution. The
annual hydrograph of such a river show series of short – duration spikes marking flash
flows in response to storms (Fig .5.3.). The stream becomes dry soon after the end of the
storm flow. Typically an ephemeral stream does not have any wll defined channel. Most
river in arid zones are of the ephemeral kind.

Fig. 5.3 Ephemeral stream

5.2 STREAM FLOW MEASUREMENT

Stream flow representing the runoff phase of the hydrologic cycle is the most
important basic data for hydrologic studies. It was seen in the previous chapters that
precipitation, evaporation and Evapotranspiration are all difficult to measure exactly and
the presently adopted methods have severe limitations. In contrast the measurement of
streamflow is amenable to fairly accurate assessment. Interestingly, stream flow is the only
part of the hydrologic cycle that can be measured accurately.

A stream can be defined as a flow channel into which the surface

runoff from a specified basin drains. Generally, there is considerable exchange of water
between a stream and the underground water. Stream flow is measured in units of discharge

33
(m33/s) occurring at a specified time and constitutes historical data. The measurement of
discharge in a stream forms an important branch of Hydrometry, the science and practice of
water measurement.

Streamflow measurement techniques can be broadly classified into two categories as

(i) direct determination and

(ii) indirect determination. Under each category there are a host of methods, the
important ones listed below:

1. Direct determination of stream discharge:

a. Area – velocity methods,

b. Dilution techniques,
c. Electromagnetic method, and
d. Ultrasonic method.
2. Indirect determination of stream flow:
a. Hydraulic structures, such as weirs, flumes and gated structures an
b. Slope – area method.

Barring a few exceptional cases, continuous measurement of stream discharge is very

difficult to obtain. As a rule, direct measurement of discharge is a very time – consuming
and costly procedure. Hence, a two step procedure is followed. First, the discharge in a
given stream is related to the elevation of the water surface (stage) through a series of
careful measurements. In the next step the stage of the stream is observed routinely in
relatively inexpensive manner and the discharge is estimated by using the previously
determined stage – discharge relationship. The observation of the stage is easy,
inexpensive, and if desired continuous readings can also be obtained. This method of
discharge determination of streams is adopted universally.

5.2.1 Dilution techniques

The dilution method of flow measurement, also known as the chemical method depends
upon the continuity principle applied to tracer which is allowed to mix completely with the
flow.

34
 Consider a tracer which does not react with the fluid or boundary. Let C0 be the small
initial concentration of the tracer in the streamflow. At section 1 a small quantity (volume
∀1) of high concentration C1 of this tracer is added (Fig.5.4). Let section 2 be sufficiently
far away on the downstream of section 1 so that the tracer mixes thoroughly with the fluid
due to the turbulent mixing process while passing through the reach. The concentration
profile taken at section 2 is schematically shown in Fig.5.4. The

concentration will have a base value of C0, increases from time t1 to a peak value and
gradually reaches the base value of C0 at time t2. The stream flow is assumed to be steady.
By continuity of the tracer material

Fig. 5.4 Sudden- injection method

M1 = mass of tracer added at section 1 = ∀1 C1

neglecting the second term on the right – hand side as insignificantly small, Neglecting the
second term on the right – hand side as insignificantly small,

35
Thus the discharge Q in the stream can be estimated if for a known M1 the variation of C2
with time at section 2 and C0 are determined. This method is known as sudden injection or
gulp or integration method.

Another way of using the dilution principle is to inject the tracer of concentration C1 at a
constant rate Qt at section 1. at section 2, the concentration gradually rises from the
background value of Co at time t1 to a constant value C2 (Fig.5.5). At the steady state, the
continuity equation for the tracer is

This technique in which Q is estimated by knowing C1, C2, Co and Qt is known as

constant rate injection method of plateau gauging.

Fig. 5.5 Constant rate Injection method

It is necessary to emphasise that the dilution method of gauging is

based on the assumption of steady flow. If the flow is unsteady and the flow rate changes
appreciably during gauging, there will be a change in the storage volume in the reach and
the steady – state continuity equation used to develop the above equation is not valid.
Systematic errors can be expected in such cases.

1. It should not be absorbed by the sediment, channel boundary and vegetation. Is should
not chemically react with any of the above surfaces and also should not be lost by
evaporation. 2. It should be non – toxic. 3. It should be capable of being detected in a
distinctive manner in small concentrations. 4. It should not be very expensive.
36
The tracers used are of three main types.
1. Chemicals (common salt and sodium dichromate are typical);
2. fluorescent dyes (Rhodamine – WT and Sulpho – Rhodamine B Extra are typical); and
3. radioactive materials (such as Bromine – 82, Sodium – 24 and Iodine – 132).

Common salt can be detected with an error of + 1 % up to concentration of 10 ppm.

Sodium dichromate can be detected up to 0.2 ppm concentrations. Fluorescent dyes have
the advantage that they can be detected all levels of tens of nanograms per litre (~ 1 in
1011) and hence required very small amounts of solution for injections. Radioactive tracers
are detectable up to accuracies of tens of picocuries per litre (~ 1 in 1014) and therefore
permit large – scale dilutions. However, they involve the used of very sophisticated
instruments and handling by trained personnel only. The availability of detection
instrumentation, environmental effects of the tracer and overall cost of the operation are
chief factors that decide the tracer to be used.

Length of Reach

The length of the reach between the dosing section and sampling should be adequate to
have complete mixing of the with the flow. This length depends upon the geometric
dimensions of the channel cross – section, discharge and turbulence levels. An empirical
formula suggested by Rimmar (1960) for estimation of mixing length for point injection of
a tracer in a straight reach is where L = mixing length (m)

B = average width of the stream (m), d = average depth of the stream (m), C = Chezy
coefficient of roughness and g = acceleration due to gravity. The value of L varies from
about 1 km for a mountain stream carrying a discharge of about 1.0 m3 /s to about 100 km
for river in plain with a discharge of about 300 m3 /s. the mixing length becomes very
large for large for large rivers and is one of the major constraints of the dilution method.
Artificial mixing of the tracer at the dosing station may prove beneficial for small streams
in reducing the mixing length of the reach.
37
Use

The dilution method has the major advantage that the discharge s estimated directly in an
absolute way. It is a particularly attractive method for small turbulent streams, such as those
in mountainous areas. Where suitable, it can be used as an occasional method for checking
the calibration, stage – discharge curves, etc. obtained by other methods.

5.2.2 Electromagnetic Method

The electromagnetic method is based on the Faraday’s principle that an emf is

induced in the conductor (water in the present case) when it cuts a normal magnetic field.
Large coils buried at the bottom of the channel carry a current I to produce a controlled
vertical magnetic field, (Fig.5.5). Electrodes provided at the sides of the channel section
measure the small voltage produced due to flow of water in the channel. It has been found
that the signal output E will be of the order of millivolts and is related to the discharge Q as

Fig. 5.5 Electromagnetic method

C = Conductivity sensor
V = Voltage probe
N = Noise cancellation probe
B = Bed conductivity probe

n
 Ed 
Q = K1  + K2  (1)
 1 

38
Where d = depth of flow, I = current in the coil, and n, K1 and K2 are system constants.

The method involves sophisticated and expensive instrumentation and has been
successfully tried in a number of installations. The fact that this kind of set – up gives the
total discharge when once it has been calibrated. Makes it specially suited for field
situations where the cross – sectional properties can change with time due to weed growth,
sedimentation, etc. another specific applications is in tidal channels where the flow
undergoes rapid changes both in magnitude as well as in direction. Present day
commercially available electromagnetic flowmeters can measure the discharge to an
accuracy of suited for field situations where the cross – sectional properties can change
with time due to weed growth, sedimentation, etc. another specific applications is in tidal
channels where the flow undergoes rapid changes both in magnitude as well as in direction.
Present day commercially available electromagnetic flowmeters can measure the discharge
to an accuracy of + 3%, the maximum channel width that can be accommodated being 100
m. the minimum detectable velocity is 0.005 m/s.

5.2.3 Ultrasonic Method

This is essentially an area – velocity method with the average velocity being
measured by using ultrasonic signals. The method was first reported by Swengel (1955);
since then it has been perfected and complete systems are available commercially.

Fig. 5.6 Ultrasonic method

Consider a channel carrying a flow with two transducers A and B fixed at the same
level h above the bed and on either sides of the channel (Fig.5.6). Theses transducers can
receive as well as send ultrasonic signals. Let A send an ultrasonic signal to be received B

39
after an elapse time t1. similarly, let B send a signal to be received at A after an elapse time
t2.If C = velocity of sound in water,

t1 = L / (C + vp) (2)
where L = length of path from A to B and vp = component of the flow velocity in the sound
path = v cos . Similarly, from Fig. 5.6 it is easy to see that

L
=
t2
(C − v p ) (3)

1 1 2v p 2 v cos 
Thus − = =
t1 t 2 L L
or
L 1 1
v =  −  (4)
2 cos   t1 t 2 

Thus for a given L and , by knowing t1 and t2, the average velocity along the path AB, i.e.
v can be determined. It may be noted that v is the average velocity at a height h above the
bed and is not the average velocity V for the whole cross – section. However, for a given
channel; cross – section v can be related to V and by calibration a relation between v/V can
h can be obtained. For a given set – up, as the area of cross – section is fixed, the discharge
is obtained as a produce of area and mead velocity. V. Estimation of discharge by using one
signal path as above is called single – path gauging. Alternatively, for a given depth of
flow, multiple single paths can be used to obtain v for different h values. Mean velocity of
flow through the cross - section is obtained by averaging these v values. This techniques is
known as multi – path gauging.

Ultrasonic flowmeters using the above principal have frequencies of the order of
500 kHz. Sophisticated electronics are needed to transmit, detect and evaluate the mean
velocity of flow along the path. In a given installation a calibration (usually performed by
the current – meter method) is needed to determine the system constants. Currently
available commercial systems have been installed successfully at many places and

40
accuracies of about 2% for the single – path method and 1% for the multipath method are
reported. The systems are currently available for rivers up to 500 m width.
The specific advantage of the ultrasonic system of river gauging are:
1. It is rapid and gives high accuracy;
2. It is suitable for automatic recording of data;
3. It can handle rapid changes in the magnitude and direction of flow, as in tidal rivers;
and
4. the cost of installation is independent of the size of rivers.
The accuracy of this method is limited by the factors that affect the signal velocity and
averaging of flow velocity, such as (i) unstable cross – section, (ii) fluctuating weed
growth, (iii) high loads of suspended solids, (iv) air entrainment and (v) salinity and
temperature changes.

5.3 INDIRECT METHODS

Under this category are included those methods which make use of the relationship
between the flow discharge and the depths at specified locations. The field measurement is
restricted to the measurements of these depths only. Two board classification of these
indirect methods are:
1. Flow measuring structures, and
2. Slope area methods.

5.3.1 Flow – Measuring Structures

Use of structures like notches, weirs, flumes and sluice gates for flow measurement
in hydraulic laboratories is well known. These conventional structures are used in field
conditions also but their use is limited by the ranges of head, debris or sediment load of the
stream and the back – water effects produced by the installations. To over come many of
these limitations a wide variety of flow measuring structures with specific advantages are in
use.

The basic principle governing the use of a weir, flume or similar flow – measuring
structure is that these structures produce a unique control section in the flow. At these

41
structures, the discharge Q is a function of the water – surface elevation measured at a
specified upstream location,

Q = (H) (5)

where H = water surface elevation measured from a specified datum. Thus, for example, for
weirs, Eq. (4.20) takes the form

Q = K Hn (6)

where H = head over the weir and K, n = system constants. Equation (5) is applicable so
long as the downstream water level is below a certain limiting water level known as the
modular limit. Such flows which are independent of the downstream water level are known
as free flows. If the tail water conditions do affect the flow, then the flow is known as
drowned or submerged flow. Discharges under drowned condition are obtained by applying
a reduction factors to the free flow discharges. For example, he submerged flow over a weir
is estimated by the Villemonte formula.

0.385
  H n 
Qs = Q1 1 −  2   ( 7)
  H1  

where Qs = submerged discharge, Q1 = free discharge under head H1, H1 = upstream water
surface elevation measured above the weir crest, H2 = downstream water surface elevation
measured above the weir crest, n = exponent of head in the free flow head discharge
relationship [Eq.(6]. For a rectangular weir n = 1.5.

The various flow measuring structures can be broadly considered under three
categories:

1. Thin – plate structures are usually made from a vertically set metal plate. The V –
notch, rectangular full width and contracted notches are typical examples under this
category.
42
 2. Long – base weirs, also known as broad – crested weirs are made of concrete or
masonry and are used for large discharge values.

Fig 5.7(a) Flow over a weir. (a) Free flow

Fig 5.7(b) Submerged flow

3. Flumes are made of concrete, masonry or metal sheets depending on their use and
location. They depend primarily on the width constriction to produce a control
section.

5.3.2 Slop – Area Method

The resistance equation for uniform flow in an open channel, e.g. Manning’s
formula can be used to related the depths at either ends of a reach to the discharge.
Figure 5.8 shows the longitudinal section of the flow in a river between two section, 1
and 2. knowing the water – surface elevations at the two sections, it is required to
estimate the discharge. Applying the energy equation to sections 1 and 2,
V12 V22
Z1 + y1 + = Z 2 + y2 + + hL
2g 2g

where hL = head loss in the reach. The head loss hL can be considered to be made up of
two parts (i) frictional loss h and (ii) eddy loss he. Denoting Z+y = h= water – surface
elevation above the datum,

43
 V12 V22
h1 + = h2 + + he + h f
2g 2g

Fig 5.8 Slope area method

V 2 V 2 
or hf = (h1 − h2 ) +  1 − 2  − he (8)
 2 g 2 g 
If L = length of the reach, by Manning’s formula for uniform flow,

hf Q2
= Sf energy slope =
L K2
where K = conveyance of the channel = 1/n AR2/3
In non uniform flow an average conveyance is used to estimate the average energy
slope and

hf Q2
= Sf = (9)
L K2

1 1
where K = K1 K 2 ; K1 = A1 R12 / 3 and K2 = A2 R22 / 3
n1 n2

n = Manning’s roughness coefficient the eddy loss he is estimated as

V12 V22
he = Ke − (10)
2g 2g

where K e = eddy – loss coefficient having as below,

44
 Cross - section characteristics of the Value K
reach Expansion Contraction
Uniform 0 0
Gradual transition 0.3 0.1
Abrupt transition 0.8 0.6

Equation (8), (9) and (10) together with the continuity equation Q = A1 V1 = A2 V2
enable the discharge Q to be estimated for known values of h, channel cross – sectional
properties and n.

The discharge is calculated by a trial and error procedure using the following
sequence of calculations:

V12 V2
1. Assume V1 = V2. This leads to = 2 and Eq. (4.23) h = h1 – h2 = F= fall in
2g 2g

the water surface between sections 1 and 2

2. Using Eq. (9) calculate discharge Q
3. Compute V1 = Q / A1 and V2 = Q / A2. Calculate velocity heads and eddy – loss he.
4. Now calculate a refined value of h by Eq. (8) and go to step (2). Repeat the
calculations till two successive calculations give values of discharge (or h )
differing by a negligible margin.

This method of estimating the discharge is known as the slope – area method. It is a
very versatile indirect method of discharge estimation and requires
(i) the selection of a reach in which cross – sectional properties including bed
elevations are known at its ends,
(ii) the value of Manning’s n and
(iii) water – surface elevations at the two end sections.

45
 LECTURE 6
Measurement of stage and velocities in streams; Area – velocity method; staff gauge, point
gauge, automatic stage recorders, floats and Stevens Type-F recorder,, current meters
(Horizontal and vertical axis). Area-Velocity method: typical stream section for area-
velocity method of stream flow determination.
6.1 MEASUREMENT OF STAGE
The stage of river is defined as its water – surface elevation measured above a datum. This
datum can be mean – sea level (MSL) or any arbitrary datum connected independently to
the MSL.
6.1.1 Staff Gauge
The simplest of stage measurements are made by noting the elevation of the water surface
in contact with a fixed graduated staff. The staff is made of a durable material with a low
coefficient of expansion with respect to both temperature and moisture. It is fixed rigidly to
a structure, such as an abutment, pier, wall, etc. The staff may be vertical or inclined with
clearly and accurately graduated permanent markings. The markings are distinctive, easy to
read from a distance and are similar to those on a surveying staff. Sometimes, it may not be
possible to read the entire range of water – surface elevations of a stream by a single gauge
and in such cases the gauge is built in
sections at different locations. Such gauges are called sectional gauges (Fig.6.1). When in
stalling sectional gauges, care must be taken to provide an overlap between various gauges
and to refer all the sections to the same common datum.

Fig 6.1 Staff Gauge

6.1.2 Wire Gauge

It is a gauge used to measure the water – surface elevation from above the surface such as
from a bridge or similar structure. In this a weight is lowered by a reel to touch the water

46
surface. A mechanical counter measures the rotation of the wheel which is proportional to
the length of the wire paid out. The operating range of this kind of gauge is about 25 m.

6.2 AUTOMATIC STAGE RECORDERS

The staff gauge and wire gauge described earlier are manual gauges. While they are
simple and inexpensive, they have to be read at frequent intervals to define the variation of
stage with time accurately. Automatic considerable use in stream-flow measurement
practice. Twp typical automatic stage recorders are described below.

6.2.1 Float – gauge recorder

The Float – operated stage recorder is the most common type of automatic
stage recorder in use. In this a float operating in a stilling well is balanced by means of a
counterweight over the pulley of a recorder. Displacement of the float due to the rising or
lowering of the water – surface elevation causes an angular displacement of the pulley and
hence of the input shaft of the recorder. Mechanical linkages covert this angular
displacement to the linear displacement of a pen to record over a drum driven by
clockwork. The pen traverse is continuous with automatic reversing when it reaches the full
width of the chart. A clockwork mechanism runs the recorder for a day, week or fortnight
and provides a continuous plot of stage vs time. A good instrument will have a large – size
float and least friction. Improvements over this basic analogue model consists of models
that give digital signals recorded on a punched tape, magnetic tape or transmit directly onto
a central data – processing centre.

To protect the float from debris and reduce the water surface wave effects on
the recording, stilling wells are provided in all float – type stage recorder installations.
Figure 6.2 shows a typical stilling well installation. Note the intake pipes that communicate
with the river and flushing arrangement to flush these intake pipes off the sediment and
debris occasionally. The water – stage recorder has to be located above the highest water
level expected in the stream to prevent it from getting inundated during floods. Further, the
instrument must be properly housed in a suitable enclosure to protect it from weather

47
elements and vandalism. On account of these, the water – stage – recorder instillations
prove to be costly in most instances. A water – depth recorder is shown in fig.6.3.

Fig. 6.2 Stilling well installation

Fig. 6.3 Water-depth recorder – Stevens Type F recorder

6.3 MEASUREMENT OF VELOCITY

The measurement of velocity is an important aspect of many direct stream flow
measurement techniques. A mechanical device, called current meter, consisting essentially
of a rotating element is probably the most commonly used instrument for accurate
determination of the stream – velocity field. Approximate stream velocities can be
determined by floats.

48
6.3.1 Current Meters
The most commonly used instrument in hydromerty to measure the velocity at a point in
the flow cross – section is the current meter. It consists essentially of a rotating element
which rotates due ti the reaction of the stream current with an angular velocity proportional
to the stream velocity. Historically, Robert Hooke (663) invented a propeller – type current
meter to measure the distance traversed by a ship. The present – day cup – type instrument
and the electrical make – and – break mechanism were invented by Henry in 1868. there
are two main types of current meters.

1. Vertical – axis meters, and

2. Horizontal – axis meters.
These are discussed below.
6.3.1.1 Vertical – Axis Meters

Fig. 6.4 Vertical –axis Current Meter

Fig. 6.5 Cup type Current Meter with sounding weight-‘Lynx’ Type

49
These instruments consist of a series of conical cups mounted around a vertical axis
[Fig.6.4 and 6.5]. The cup rotate in a horizontal plane and a cam attached to the vertical
axial spindle records generated signals proportional to the revolutions of the cup assembly.
The Price current meter and Gurley current meter are typical instruments under this
category. The normal rage of velocities is from 0.15 to 4.0 m/s. the accuracy of these
instruments is about 1.50% at the threshold value and improves to about 0.30% at speeds in
excess of 1.0 m/s. vertical – axis instruments have the disadvantage that they cannot be
used in situations when there are appreciable vertical components of velocities. For
example, the instrument shows a positive velocity when it is lifted vertically in still water.

6.3.1.2 Horizontal – Axis Meters These meters consist of a propeller mounted at the end
of horizontal shaft [Fig6.6 and 6.7]. These come in a wide variety of size with propeller
diameters in the range 6 to 12 cm, and can register velocities in the range of 0.15 to 4.0 m/s.
Ott, Neyrtec [Fig,4,12 (Plate 4)] and Watt – type meters are typical instruments under this
kind. These meters are fairly rugged and are not affected by oblique flows of as much as
150. These accuracy of the instrument is about 1% at the threshold value and is about
0.25% at a velocity of 0.3 m/s and above.

Fig 6.6 Propeller- type Current – Neyrtec Type with Sounding weight

50
 Fig.6.7 Horizontal axis Current Meter

6.4 AREA – VELOCITY METHOD

This method of discharge measurement consists essentially of measuring the area
of cross – section of the river at a selected section called the gauging site and measuring the
velocity of flow through the cross – sectional area. The gauging site must be selected with
care to assure that the stage – discharge curve is reasonably constant over a long period of
about a few years. Towards this the following criteria are adopted:
1. The stream should have a well – defined cross – section which does not change in
various seasons.
2. It should be easily accessible all through the year.
3. The site should be in straight, stable reach.
4. The gauging site should be free from backwater effect in the channel.

At the selected site the section line is marked off by permanent survey marking and the
cross – section determined. Towards this the depth at various locations are measured by
sounding rods or sounding weights. When the stream depth is large or when quick and
accurate depth measurements are needed, an electro acoustic instrument called echo – depth
recorder is used. In this a high frequency sound wave is sent down by a transducer kept
immersed at the water surface and the echo reflected by the bed is also picked up by the
same transducer. By comparing the time interval between the transmission of the signal and
the receipt of its echo, the distance to the bed is obtained and is indicated or recorded in the
instrument. Echo. Depth recorders are particularly advantageous in high – velocity steams,
deep streams and in streams with soft or mobile beds.

51
 For purposes of discharge estimation, the cross – section is considered to be
divided into a large number of subsections by verticals (Fig.6.8). The average velocity in
these subsections are measured by current meters or floats. It quite obvious that the
accuracy of discharge estimation increases with the number of subsections used. However,
the larger the number of segments, the larger is the effort, time and expenditure involved.
The following are some of the guidelines to select the number of segments:

Fig. 6.8 Stream Section for Area- Velocity Method

1. The segment width should not be greater than 1/15 to 1/20 of the width of the river.
2. The discharge in each segment should be less than 10% of the total discharge.
3. The difference of velocities in adjacent segments should not be more than 20%. It should
be noted that in natural rivers the verticals for velocity measurement are not necessarily
equally spaced. The area – velocity method as above using the current meter is often called
as the standard current method.
Calculation of Discharge
Figure (6.8) shows the cross section of a river in which N – 1 verticals are drawn. The
velocity average over the vertical at each section is known. Considering the total area to be
divided into N-1 segments, the total discharge is calculated by the method of mid – sections
as followings:

52
53
Discharge in the stream = 6.454 m3/s

54
 LECTURE 7
Hydrographs – Definition and components, Rising limb, falling limb and crest segments in
hydrograph and factors affecting their shapes, elements of a flood hydrograph showing
Direct Runoff and Base flow, Factors affecting flood hydrographs- Physiographic factors
and Climatic factors (List only).

7.1 INTRODUCTION
While long – term runoff concerned with the estimation of yield was discussed in
the previous chapter, the present chapter examines in detail the short – term runoff
phenomenon. The storm hydrograph is the focal point of the present chapter.

Consider a concentrated storm producing a fairly uniform rainfall of duration, Tr

over a catchment. After the initial losses and infiltration losses are met, the rainfall excess
reaches the stream through over land and channel flows. In the process if translation a
certain amount of storage is built up in the overland and channel – flow is a time lag
between the occurrence of rainfall in the basin and the time when that water passes the
gauging station at the basin outlet. The runoff measured at the stream – gauging station will
give a typical hydrograph as shown in Fig.7.1. The duration of the rainfall is also marked in
this figure to indicate the time lag in the rainfall and runoff. The hydrograph of this kind
which results due to an isolated storm is typically single – peaked skew distribution of
discharge and is known variously as storm hydrograph, flood hydrograph or simply
hydrograph. It has three characteristics regions: (i) the rising limb AB, joining point A, the
starting point of the rising curve and point B, the point of inflection, (ii) the crest segment
BC between the two points of inflection with a peak P in between, (iii) the falling limb of
depletion curve CD starting from the second point of inflection C.

55
 Fig 7.1 Elements of flood hydrograph

Other points of interest are tpk, the time to peak from the starting point A, the time interval
from the center of mass of rainfall to the center of mass of hydrograph called lag time TL,
the peak discharge Qp and the time base of the hydrograph TB.

The hydrograph is the response of a given catchment to a rainfall input. It consists

of flow in all the three phases of runoff, viz, surface runoff, interflow and base flow, and
embodies in itself the integrated effects of a wide variety of catchment and catchment
produce hydrographs differing from each other. Similarly, identical storms in two
catchments produce hydrographs that are different. The interactions of various storms and
catchments are general extremely complex. If one examines the record of a large number of
flood hydrographs of a stream, it will be found that many of them will have kinks, multiple
peaks, resulting I shapes much different from the simple single – peaked hydrograph of
Fig.7.1. These complex hydrographs are the result of storm and catchment peculiarities and
their complex interactions. While it is theoretically possible to resolve a complex
hydrograph into a set of simple hydrographs for purposes of hydrograph analysis, the
requisite data of acceptable quality are seldom available. Hence, simple hydrographs
resulting from isolated storms are preferred for hydrograph studies.

56
7.2 COMPONENTS OF A 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.

Fig. 7.2 Elements of a Flood Hydrograph

7.2.1 Rising Limb

The rising limb of a 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. 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. As indicated earlier, the basin and storm
characteristics control the shape of the rising limb of a hydrograph.

7.2.2 Crest Segment

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 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 center of mass of rainfall to the peak being essentially controlled by basin and storm
57
characteristics. Multiple – peaked complex hydrographs in a basin can occur when two or
more storms occur in close succession. Estimation of the peak flow and its occurrence,
being very important I flood – flow studies are dealt in details elsewhere in this book.

7.2.3 Recession Limb

The recession limb which extends from the point of inflection at the end of the crest
segment to the commencement of the natural groundwater flow represents the withdrawal
of water from the storage built up in the basin during the earlier phases of the hydrograph.
The stating point of the recession limb, i,e, 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.

The storage of water in the basin exists as (i) surface storage, which includes both
surface detention and channel storage, (ii) interflow storage, and (iii) groundwater storage,
i.e. base – flow storage. Barnes (1940) showed that the recession of a storage can be
expressed as
Qt = Q0 Krt (7.1)
Ii which Q0 and Qt are discharges at a time interval of t days with Q0 being the initial
discharge; Kr is a recession constant of value less than unity. Equation (7.1) can also be
expressed in an alternative form of the exponential decay as
Qt = Q0 e –at (7.2)

Where a = 1n Kr
The recession constant Kr can be considered to be made up of three components to
take care of the three types of storages as

Kr = Krs Kri Krb (7.3)

where Krs = recession constant for surface storage, Kri = recession constant for interflow
and Krb = recession constant for base flow. Typically the values of these recession
constants, when t is in days, are

58
 Krs = 0.05 to 0.20
Kri = 0.50 to 0.85
Krb = 0.85 to 0.99
If the interflow is not significant Krr can be assumed to be unity. When Eq. (7.1) or
(7.2) is plotted on a semilog paper with the discharge on the log – scale, it plots as a straight
and from this the value of Kr can be found.

7.3 FACTORS AFFECTING FLOOD HYDROGRAPH

The factors that affect the shape of the hydrograph can be broadly grouped into
climatic factors and physiographic factors. Each of these two groups contains a host of
factors and the important ones are listed in Table 6.1. Generally, the climatic factors control
the rising limb and the recession limb is independent of storm characteristics, being
determined by catchment characteristics only. Many of the factors listed in Table 7.1 are
interdependent. Further, their effects are very varied and complicated. As such only
important effects are listed below in qualitative terms only.
TABLE 7.1. FACTORS AFFECTING FLOOD HYDROGRAPH
Physiographic factors Climatic Factors
1. Basin characteristics : 1. Storm characteristics : precipitation,
a) Shape intensity, duration, magnitude and
b) size movement of storm.
c) slope
d) nature of the valley
e) elevation
f) drainage density
2. Infiltration characteristics : 2). Initial loss
a) land use and cover
b) soil type and geological conditions
c) lakes, swamps and other storage
3. Channel characteristics : cross – section, 3. Evapotranspiration
roughness and storage capacity.

59
 LECTURE 8
Unit Hydrographs – Conceptual theory and definition and explanation of the two basic
assumptions (linear response and time invariance), derivation of a unit hydrograph from
simple storms, uses and limitations of unit hydrographs
8.1 UNIT HYDROGRAPH
The problem of predicting the flood hydrograph resulting from a known storm in a
catchment has received considerable attention. A large number of methods are proposed to
solve this proposed to solve this problem and of them probably the most popular and
widely used method is the unit – hydrograph method. This method was first suggested by
Sherman in 1932 and has undergone many refinements since then.

A unit hydrograph is defined as the hydrograph of direct runoff resulting from one
unit depth (1 cm) rainfall excess occurring uniformly over the basin and at a uniform rate
for a specified duration (D hours). 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 characteristics,
is used as 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.
The definition of a unit hydrograph implies the following.

1. The unit hydrograph represents the limped response of the catchment to a unit
rainfall excess of D-hduration to produce a direct – runoff hydrograph. 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. As 1 cm depth of rainfall
excess is considered the area of the unit hydrograph is equal to a volume given by 1
cm over the catchment.
2. The rainfall is considered to have an average intensity of excess rainfall (ER) of 1/D
cm/h for the duration D – h of the storm.
3. The distribution of the storm is considered to be uniform all over the catchment.

Fig.8.1 shows a typical 6-h unit hydrograph. Here the duration of the rainfall excess
is 6 h

60
 Fig. 8.1 Typical 6-h unit hydrograph
Area under the unit hydrograph = 12.92 x 106 m3
Hence
Catchment area of the basin = 1292 km2

Two basic assumptions constitute the foundations for the unit – hydrograph theory.
These are :
(i) The time invariance and
(ii) The linear response.

8.1.1 Time invariance

This first basic assumption is that the direct – runoff response to a given effective
rainfall in a catchment is time – variant. This implies that the DRH a give ER in a
catchment is always the same irrespective of when it occurs.

8.1.2 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 is
an input x1 (t) causes an output y1 and an input x2 (t) causes an output y2(t), then an input x1
(t) + x2(t) gives an output y1 (t) + y2(t). Consequently, if x2 (t) + r x1 (t), then y2 (t) + r y1 (t).

61
 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 increases by the ratio r, the base of the DRH will be the
same as that of the unit hydrograph.

The assumption of linear response in a unit hydrograph enable the method of

superposition to used to derive DRHs. Accordingly, 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. These
aspects resulting from the assumption of linear response are made clearer in the following
two illustrative example.

Example 8.1
Given below are the ordinates of a 6-h unit hydrograph for a catchment. Calculate
the ordinates of the DRH due to a rainfall excess of 3.5 cm occurring in 6 hr.
Time (h) 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 24 30 36 42 48 54 60 66
UH ordinate 0 25 50 85 125 160 185 160 110 60 36 25 16 8 0
(m3/s)

Solution:
The desired ordinates of the DRH are obtained by multiplying the ordinates of the
unit hydrograph by a factor of 3.5 as a in Table 6.3.The resulting DRH as also the unit
hydrograph are shown in Fig.8.2. Note that the time base of DRH is not changed and
remains the same as that of the unit hydrograph. The intervals of coordinates of the unit
hydrograph (shown in column 1) are not in any way related to the duration of the rainfall
excess and can be any convenient value.

62
 Fig.8.2 Typical 6-h unit hydrograph

Table 8.1 calculation of DRH due to 3.5 cm ER – Example 8.1

Time Ordinate of 6-h unit Ordinate of 3.5 cm
(h) hydrograph (m3/s) DRH (m3/s)
1 2 0
0 0 87.5
6 25 175.0
9 50 297.5
12 85 437.5
15 125 560.0
18 160 647.5
24 185 560.0
30 160 385.0
36 110 210.0
42 60 126.0
48 36 87.5
54 25 56.0
60 16 28.0
66 8 0

63
8.2 DERIVATION OF UNIT HYDROGRAPH
It is accomplished under following steps:

Step (1): Selection of Hydrograph

Several isolated storm hydrographs resulted from short spells of rainfall excess for
the duration ranging from 0.9 to 1.1 D hour are selected for development of unit
hydrograph) In case of flood hydrograph to be considered for derivation of unit hydrograph,
the following points are essentially taken into consideration :

1. Isolated storms occurring individually, should be preferred.

2. There should be temporal and spatial uniformity in the rainfall.

3. Rainfall duration should be from 1/5 to 1/3 of the basin lag of the watershed.

4. A high rainfall excess producing storm should be preferred. Normally preferable depth of
ER varies from 1 to 4.0 cm.

Step (2): Separation of Base flow

The base flow separation is performed to determine the volume of direct runoff
produced by the selected storm in the watershed. In case of perennial rivers, the base flow
is generally off-season flow i.e. in summer or winter seasons. On the other hand, in
ephemeral or intermittent rivers, there is no appearance of base flow. In such case, the
measured runoff data at gauging point of the watershed is considered as the direct runoff,
due to the given storm.

There are several methodologies have been developed (for base flow separation
(section 6.4); any suitable method can be used for it.)

Step (3) : Determination of volume of direct runoff

It is determined for computation of rainfall excess of the selected storm. The

volume of direct runoff is the leftout runoff after separation of base flow from the storm
hydrograph. In other words, it is the enclosed area of the hydrograph above the line of base
flow. The formula for computation of volume of direct runoff from the hydrograph is given
as,

Volume of direct runoff = 60 x 60 x Δt x sum of ordinates of DRH (m3/s)

where, Δt = time interval of DRH (hour)

64
DRH = direct runoff hydrograph.

The DRH is the remaining hydrograph after separating the base flow.

The features of DRH are given below:

(i) It has its well demarcated boundary i.e. start and end point.

(ii) It starts from origin (i.e. 0, 0 coordinate) and ends somewhere at (x, 0)
coordinate.

(iii) It has no base flow.

(iv) It is equivalent to the ER of the given storm.

(v) Its area is the volume of direct runoff produced by the storm.

Step (4) : Determination of ER

The ER of selected storm is computed for determining the ordinates of DRH per unit ER or
OUHG (i.e. ordinate of unit hydrograph), and thus to develop the UHG. The effective
rainfall or rainfall excess is given by
Volume of direct runoff
ER= rea of watershed

The determined ER should preferably be either in the unit of cm or mm.

Step (5) : Determination of OUHG

( It is given by the following formula :

Ordinates of DRH
OUHG= ER

If the computed ER appears to be as 1 cm or 1 mm, then OUHG is the ordinate of DRH as

such. The above formula is used, when ER# 1 cm or 1 mm.

Step (6): Sketching of UHG

The determined ordinates of OUHG at different time intervals are plotted on linear graph
paper, keeping the time intervals on X- axis and OUHGs at Y-axis. The plotted points are
joined by smooth line. A precaution should always be kept in mind that the area enclosed
by the sketched UHG should represent unit depth of ER. It can be verified by dividing the
enclosed area of UHG (i.e. volume of direct runoff) with the area of watershed, which
should be come to 1. However, if it is not obtained as the unit depth of ER, then some
adjustments in sketched UHG is required.)
65
Step (7): Averaging of unit hydrograph

The unit hydrographs of a given watershed are not identical because of temporal and spatial
variations in rainfall. In this situation, it is suggested to average the unit hydrograph. The
averaging of UHG is carried out by computing the following components of the graph:

1. Average peak flow

2. Average time to peak

3. Average base length

After determining the average values of peak flow, time to peak and base length, a
mean curve of best fit by eye judgment is drawn by passing through the point of average
peak and closed on the average base length. A precaution is also taken that the area
enclosed by the average unit hydrograph should represent unit depth of rainfall excess,
otherwise sketching of curve should be adjusted, accordingly. At the same time, the average
ERH is also determined and is drawn in the plot of unit hydrograph to indicate the type and
duration of rainfall, considered for developing the unit hydrograph.

Example 8.2 Derive the ordinates of 3-h unit hydrograph for a watershed. The measured
discharg rates at the outlet of watershed are given below. The area of watershed is 500 sq
km. Assume base flow is 10 m3/s

Time (h) -3 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30
Discharge 10 10 10 37.0 50 75 115 110 101 79 65 61
(m3/s)
Time (h) 33 36 39 42 45 48 51 54 57 60 63 66
Discharge 57 50 47 45 40 33 30 25 17 15 10 10
(m3/s)

Solution: The steps-wise computations are given below :

Step (1): Compute the ordinates of DRH - It is done by determining the base flow and
then separting it from the ordinates of given hydrograph. In this example, the base flow is
10m/s.

Step (2): Determine the ER — The depth of ER is computed by dividing the total volume
of direct runoff with the area of watershed. It is given as under:

66
 3 x 60 (⅀ of ordinates of DRH)
ER(cm)= Area of watershed

= 3 X 60 X 862/500 X (10)6

=0.0186m or 1.86 cm

Step (3): Compute the ordinates of UHG – It is computed by dividing the ODRH with
ER.

The detail computations are shown in following table.

Time (h) Ordinate of Base flow Ordinate of Ordinate of

hydrograph (m3/s) DRH (m3/s) 3-hunit
(m3/s) hydrograph
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)*
-3 10 0 0
0 10 0 0
3 10 0 0
6 37 27 14.52
9 50 40 21.51
12 75 65 34.95
15 115 105 56.95
18 110 100 53.76
21 101 91 48.92
24 79 69 37.10
27 65 55 29.57
30 61 10 m3/s 51 27.42
33 57 47 25.27
36 50 40 21.51
39 47 37 19.89
42 45 35 18.82
45 40 30 16.13
48 33 23 12.37
51 30 20 10.75
54 25 15 8.06
57 17 7 3.76
60 15 5 2.69
63 10 0 0
66 10 0 0
• Col(4) /1.86

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Example 8.3 Drive a 9-h unit hydrograph from the ordinates of 3-h unit hydrograph given
in example 8.1

Solution: Computation are shown in following table.

Time Ordinate of Ordinate of 3 -h Ordinate of DRH due to Ordinate of 9-h

3
U.G.H(m /s) UHG Lagged by 3 cm ER in 9- h (m3/s) UHG (m3/s)
3-h 6- h
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
0 0 0 0 0 0
3 30 0 0 30 10
6 70 30 0 100 33.33
9 105 70 30 205 68.33
12 150 105 70 325 108.33
15 180 150 105 435 145.00
18 205 180 150 535 178.33
21 170 205 180 555 185.00
24 100 170 205 475 158.33
27 85 100 170 355 118.33
30 60 85 100 245 81.67
33 50 60 85 195 65
36 35 50 60 145 48.33
39 25 35 50 110 36.67
42 15 25 35 75 25
45 0 15 25 40 13.33
48 0 15 15 5.00
51 0 0 0

.8.3 LIMITATIONS OF UNIT HYDROGRAPH

Various limitations of unit hydrograph are grouped in two parts i.e.

8.3.1 Limitations Regarding Assumptions of U.H.G.

These are as follows:

(a) The unit hydrograph assumes that the rainfall excess should be uniformly distributed
over the watershed in addition to constant intensity of rainfall excess within its duration.

68
This assumption is never satisfied in the watershed during any storm. In this way, it poses a
limitation. However, non-uniformity in areal distribution of rainfall and variations in
rainfall intensity within storm duration are very common. With all these limitations the unit
hydrograph can still be developed, provided that the areal distribution of rainfall must be
consistent amongst different storm events.

(b) Unit hydrograph also involves the limitation about the size of watershed. In a very large
size watershed, the centre of storm is likely to vary from storm to storm, causing variations
in DRHs. It poses the errors in development of unit hydrograph. The watershed ranging
from 200 ha to 5000 sq km is found satisfactory for development of unit hydrograph. In
large watersheds, the total area is divided into different sub-watersheds and individual DRH
is developed for each of them. These DRHs are again routed through their respective
channels to result a composite DRH at the outlet.

8.3.2. Other Limitations

(a) The precipitation should always be in the form of rainfall. Snow or other solid forms of
precipitation do not result satisfactory unit hydrograph.

(b) The watershed should not consist of large size storages i.e. tanks, ponds etc. because
these affect the linearity assumption of the unit to hydrograph.

(c) A decidedly non-uniform precipitation results inaccurate unit on hydrograph.

Variation in base of hydrograph to the tune of + 20% and + 10% in the discharge is
generally considered as the acceptable range for the unit hydrograph.

8.4 USES OF UNIT HYDROGRAPH

The unit hydrograph shows the relationship between effective rainfall hyetograph
(ERH) and direct runoff hydrograph (DRH) for a given watershed. This relationship is very
useful for approximation of amount of direct runoff likely to be generated due to rain storm
from the watershed. Besides, it is also useful for following purposes:

1. Development of flood hydrographs for extreme rainfall events, which can be used for
design and construction of hydraulic structures, such as culverts, bridges etc.

2. It is useful for extension of flood-flow records based on the available rainfall database.

3. Flood forecasting and development of warning system about occurrence of floods in the
watershed can also be done by using the unit hydrograph as a tool.
69
 LECTURE 9

Application of Hydrology – Flood control- Definition and classification of floods (design

flood, standard project flood, maximum probable flood, peak flood, maximum observed
flood, annual flood and ordinary flood) (definitions only). Flood mitigation and control
measures (List of structural and non-structural measures), Effect of watershed management
practices on reduction in flood peaks (explanation in figure only)

9.1 FLOOD
It is an unusual large flow of runoff resulted from rainfall or due to melting of snow,
which causes very high flow stage in the river at which the excess runoff tends to over top
the river bank and spread in the adjoining areas.
Flood and some specific flows through the river are not the same but are quite
different. A flow at some reaches in the stream may not be flood, if it does not overtop the
stream bank.
9.2. FLOOD CLASSIFICATION
Floods are classified as
1. Design flood.
2. Standard project flood.
3. Maximum probable flood.
4. Peak flood.
5. Maximum observed flood.
6. Maximum known flood.
7. Annual flood
8. Ordinary flood
9. Foundation design flood.
All these types of floods are described as under:
9.2.1 Design flood
It is also known as maximum flood, is considered for design of hydraulic structures,
such as drop structures, bridge openings, flood banks etc. The design floods may be
Standard Project Flood (SPF), Maximum Probable Flood (MPF) or flood of any desired
recurrence interval, depending on the degree of flood protection measures employed against

70
possibilities of failure of structures. Selection of design flood is generally done on the basis
of cost-benefit ratio. The detail of design flood is described in coming section.
9.2.2 Standard Project Flood
It is also known as SPF which is defined as the flood that is likely to occur from the
most severe combinations of hydrological and meteorological characteristics of the
watershed, but not due to the extremely rare combinations. This flood is approximately
80% of the MPF
9.2.3 Maximum Probable Flood (MPF)
This flood is extremely rare and catastrophic. In other words, this flood is resulted
from the severe most combinations of critical hydrological as well as metereological
characteristics of the watershed. The design of spillway used in very high dams is done on
the basis of maximum probable flood.
9.2.4 Peak Flood
It is also known as maximum intensity flood or momentary flood, is defined as the
maximum instantaneous flow during flood.
9.2.5 Maximum Observed Flood
Highest flood during a specified length of record is known as maximum observed
flood. The length of record may be from a week to the year or so.
9.2.6 Maximum Flood
It is the largest flood which has been occurred in the past. This type of flood is get
to know by the memory of inhabitants of the locality.
9.2.7 Annual Flood
It is the highest flood that occurs in a water year or hydrologic year. The water year
is the duration of 12 months, is considered for presenting the flow data. The annual flood is
either equal to or greater than the magnitude of specified flood, generally once in year.
9.2.8 Ordinary Flood
It is the flood, which occurs once or more times during project period. 8.2.
Guidelines for Selection of Design Flood

71
9.3 CAUSES OF FLOOD
Surface runoff is the source of flood. When volume of incoming runoff becomes
greater than the out flowing volume from the river or stream, then excess runoff tends to
accumulate in the river course and increases the water level. If rising of water level is
continued for longer time period, then excess water starts spreading in the adjoining areas
and thus resulting into occurrence of flood. Floods are affected by the characteristics of
precipitation and watershed, in which precipitation characteristics are main. The type, form,
intensity of rainfall etc. are the main characteristics of precipitation. The watershed
characteristics, such as the soil type, texture & structure, shape & size of watershed etc,
affect the occurrence of flood. Amongst all above, the following three are the main cause of
flood occurrence,
1. High intensity rainfall over small hilly catchment.
2. Intense rainfall over large catchment for longer duration
3. Rainfall over accumulated snow. These causes are described as under:
9.3.1 Occurrence of high intensity rainfall over small hilly catchment
A high intensity rainfall is also known as intense storm, which occurs for a small
areal extent with greater intensity. Due to this reason greater runoff volume is generated
from the area, which reaches to the stream or river very soon. If generated runoff volume is
greater than the river capacity then excess water starts flooding in the nearby areas of
stream. The severness of flood due to intense storm mainly depends on following points :
(a) Intensity and duration of rainfall.
(b) Land slope
(C) Land use
(a) Intensity and duration of rainfall: The rainfall intensity and its duration directly affect
the size of flood. An intense storm occurring over small watershed results high flood,
because whatever rainfall takes place in the watershed, is quickly drained to the outlet
which meets to the tributaries. Similarly, if storm duration is more, then the volume of
runoff becomes more and size of flood gets increase, accordingly.
(b) Land slope: Land slope also affects the runoff rate and its volume. As slope increases,
the runoff also increase which resulted into occurrence of flood, provided that the out flow
rate of river is less than the inflow rate of runoff from the area.

72
(C) Land use: The nature of land surface affects greatly by affecting the runoff producing
characteristics of the watershed. A land under vegetation has reduced runoff rate and affects
the flood, accordingly. Similarly, the lands having less moisture content, absorb more rain
water and accordingly the flood occurrence gets affected.
9.3.2 Intense rainfall over large catchment
As earlier, it has been stated that the high intensity rainfall occurs over a small area
and generates high rate of runoff very quickly at the outlet, but when it is distributed on
larger catchment area, a large percentage of runoff is lost due to infiltration, as result the
amount of net available runoff for resulting the flood, is reduced. In addition, the runoff
yield from small area draining into its tributary can cause the over flow from its bank, but
as it is linked with the river or big size stream, the effect becomes negligible. On the other
hand, incase of large size watershed a reverse trend is observed and thus the occurrence of
flood is also affected, accordingly.
9.3.3 Occurrence of rainfall over accumulated snow
In winter season, if there is accumulation of snow in the catchment, then there is
arising of dangerous problem of occurrence of flood during spring season due to rainfalls.
Because rainfall melts the snow deposits along with addition of rainwater to the melted
water from the area, which causes flood in the area.
9.4. FLOOD CONTROL MEASURES
The flood control measures are applied for the following two main purposes :
1. Modifying the flood, and
2. Modifying the susceptibility of flood damages.
The modifications in flood are performed by using various physical control
measures and altering the land use of the watershed.
Similarly, the modifications in susceptibility of flood damage are performed by
diverting the runoff, recharging into soil, etc. Various flood control measures used for this
purpose are as under:
1. By constructing flood protection structures
2. By reducing flood stages
3. Storage of flood water by constructing reservoirs
4. By reducing the soil erosion from watershed
5. Reducing flood discharge by land management practices
73
9.4.1 Flood Protection Structures
The flood protection structures are the levee, flood walls, close conduits, embankments,
retarding basins etc. These are described as :
Levee: It is an earthen dike like structure, is one of the economical structures for protecting
the flood. Its effect is immediate on the flood. The design and construction of levee is the
same as the earthen dam. It is constructed, parallel to the river course as shown in Fig. 9.1.
In its construction, there should be provided few curves in alignment to make the levee safe
against flood water.

Fig. 9.1 Levee

Advantages:
Various advantages of levee are given as under:
1. It protects the areas adjacent to the river course.
2. It is constructed by locally available materials.
3. Involves less constructional cost.
4. Easy to maintain.
5. Construction can be done, part-wise.
Disadvantages:
These are as follows:
1. A large area of the land adjacent to the river is lost permanently
2. For all places, it is not possible to construct for flood protection.
3. If proper drainage facilities are not available, then low lying areas may be infested by
malaria problem.
4. Always, there is possibility of its failure due to piping etc.
5. It deteriorates the river course by high silt charge.
6. During high flood the sudden breaching of levee may lost the human lives and important
properties of the area.
74
7. Creates the problem of rising of high water-table in the adjacent areas.
8. Large areas are sterilized by silt deposition.
9. During flood, it needs high level of inspection

Causes of Levee's Failure

The following reasons are mainly responsible for making the failure of levee:
1. Overtopping due to wave action or high level of flood water.
2. Flow of seepage water through the section.
3. Caving action.
4. Breaching due to saturation of levee's section.
5. Direct flow of water through the cracks developed in the levee's section.
Maintenance of levee during the flood, before the flood and after the flood is most
essential. During flood occurrence, a large portion of levee is constantly under water
pressure, which may failure the levee. Similarly, before and after the flood, the maintinance
and supervision also become necessary to check the development of any types of damage in
the body of the levee.
9.4.2 Flood Wall
It is a kind of retaining wall, constructed about parallel to the river course, The
flood walls are constructed with R.C.C. or masonry materials, depending on their
availability in nearby area. Design of floodwall is done on the basis of water pressure likely
to be developed on the wall. A key is provided at base for making the wall safe against
sliding. For checking the overtopping of flood water, a sufficient free-board is also
provided to the flood wall. Sea wall is an example of the flood wall. The sea-walls are
constructed in sea-shore areas for protecting the sea-bank from soil erosion due to wave
action. The view of flood wall is shown in Fig. 9.3.

Fig. 9.3 Flood wall

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9.4.3 Reduction of Flood Stage
The flood stage can be reduced by using the following methods :
1. Straightening and deepening the river bed.
2. Construction of by-pass channels.
3. Using cut-offs etc.

9.4.3.1Straightening and deepening of the river bed The discharge passing through the
river's section is the product of flow velocity and cross-sectional area of the flow. Under
straightening and deepening works the net carrying capacity (i.e., cross-sectional area) of
the river is increased, by virtue of which the flood stage gets reduced. The reduction in
flood stage also depends on the gradient of the riverbed. If it is less, then reduction of the
flood level will be less because of less flow velocity and discharge. Under deepening and
straightening works, the bed gradient is also improved to reduce the flood stage

9.4.3.2 Constructing by-pass channels It is very common that, the large cities are situated
on the river bank and are mostly affected by occurrence of floods during monsoon season.
Sometimes, human beings of these areas are badly affected due to flood consequence.
Under such condition, if construction of flood control structures is neither feasible nor
economical, then alternate way to control the effect of flood is the construction of by-pass
channel for diverting the flood water from that particular area. A by-pass channel is shown
in Fig. 9.4.

Fig.9.4 By-pass channel

9.4.3.3 Cut-off Generally, when tortuosity of river is less, then slope of river bed increases
towards upstream side, which causes erosion from the river bank and scouring of soil
particles from the bed due to increase Cut off in flow velocity. At this situation, the cut-off
plays an impressive role for reducing the flood stage and its duration, as well. Cut-off is
constructed better in alluvial rivers, in the form of hair-pin bends. Under Silted bends
76
favorable conditions, these bends become in the form of large loop with narrow neck. Fig.
9.4. Cut-off is shown in Fig. 9.5.

Fig. 9.5 Cut-off

9.4.4 Flood Control By Storing Water

The reservoirs, retarding basins etc. are the structures used for controlling the flood by
storing flood water. These are described as under:
9.4.4.1 Flood control by reservoirs The reservoirs are constructed for storage of flood
water to reduce the flood peaks. These are constructed at upstream end of the area, which is
required to protect and from where the stored water can be safely discharged into the
channel downstream side. The degree of flood reduction depends on the storage capacity of
the reservoir. If reservoir's capacity is more, then reduction in flood peak will be more and
vice-versa. The storage capacity of reservoir is determined by substracting the volume of
water already collected in the reservoir from its total capacity. However for design of
reservoir, one third area of the catchment is considered as the storage capacity of the
reservoir.

9.4.4.2Flood control by retarding basins The retarding basins are also used as water
storage structure for flood control. These are equipped with spillway as outlet and sluices.
Discharge of water through sluice takes place like an orifice, while from spillway it is as
weir. In full reservoir's condition, there is heavy throttling of flow in the sluice as compared
to the spillway. The capacity of basin should be equal to the discharge capacity of the
channels at down stream side. In addition, basin's storage should also be equal to the

77
difference of volume of design flood and volume of flood water released during occurrence
of flood.
Retarding basins have limitation that, the discharge is likely to get synchronized
with the flood likely to be occurred in the tributary, located at down stream side. Due to this
reason these basins are not recommended to construct on small size streams.
9.4.4.3 Channel improvement The channel improvement involves providing of proper
grade, deepening and widening of the channel section, to increase the flow carrying
capacity. The main objective of this work is to decrease the stage and duration of the flood
by increasing the flow velocity. The work of channel improvement is recommended for
narrow and shallow depth channels having very small catchment. The enlargement of width
of channels varies from 30 to 40 m. However, deepening of the channel is more preferred
than the widening, because depth increases the hydraulic mean radius, causing increase in
the flow velocity.

9.4.5 Flood Control by Adopting Soil Conservation Measures

Occurrence of flood is closely associated to the condition of river course. Siltation
badly affects the condition of river course. The runoff generated from the watershed
contains large amount of soil particles in suspension form and when it reaches into the
river, then due to gradual decrease in flow velocity, the suspended soil particles tend to
settle down over the bed called siltation. In long course of time, a situation arrives when silt
deposition makes the river bed to the level of adjoining land. In this condition, runoff water
gets spread in the adjoining area and thus causes flood occurrence.
Soil conservation measures for flood control consist of construction of contour
bunds, terraces, check dams, installation of temporary and permanent gully control
structures, establishment of vegetative cover, afforestation, land management practices,
stream bank erosion control measures etc. All these measures check the soil erosion or soil
loss by enhancing the absorption of water and thereby reduction in the volume of runoff
from the area.
Amongst different soil conservation measures, the upstream measures (i.e. at watershed)
are more important. The u/s measures may be agronomical or mechanical both. However,
agronomical measures are very effective, than the mechanical measures.

78
9.4.6 Flood Plain Management for Flood Control
It is general recommendation that in the area adjacent to the river, where flood
occurrence is common phenomena, the construction of colonies etc. is strictly prohibited
but such areas are kept under other types of uses, such as in the form of parks, recreational
spots etc., so that inundation of these areas may not hinder the human population.
For flood plain management, the total area in which flood is expected to occur is
taken into consideration. The flood plains are divided in different zones as per degree of
hazards. Generally, extent of hazard decreases away from the river. Following three zones
are mainly identified under flood plain management works :
1. Warning zone
2. Restrictive zone, and
3. Prohibitive zone
In warning zone the effect of flood is more. This zone is extended from the river
bank to the boundary of affected area by the flood. Since in this zone, the flood risk is
more, therefore adoption of necessary measures against flood is very essential
The restrictive zone is also referred as flood fringe zone. This is ahead of the
warning zone. Effect of flood is not severe as compared to the warning zone. The
construction of houses etc. is not prohibited in this zone.
Prohibitive zone is extended from middle of the river course to some distance away
in the adjoining area on both sides of the river. In this zone, the effect of flood is more,
causing restrictions on the development of housing apartments etc.

79
 LECTURE 10
Watershed – Definition, identification and delineation, Physiographic characteristics of
watershed – Size, shape, slope, stream order, drainage density, relief, ruggedness and
hypsometric curve. Importance of these characteristics in watershed management

10.1 DEFINITION OF A WATERSHED

Various definitions have been proposed over the recent years for the term
'watershed'. While the definitions use a wide variety of words, they all mean practically the
same thing. Since big watersheds consist of many smaller watershed, it is necessary to
define the watershed in terms of a point. This point is usually referred to as the watershed
'outlet. With respect to the outlet, the watershed consists of all land area that sheds water to
the outlet during a rainstorm (McCuen 1989).

A watershed is a topographically delineated area that is drained by a stream system,

i.e. the total land area that is drained to some point on a stream or river. A watershed is a
hydrological unit that has been described and used as a physical-biological unit and also, on
many occasions, as a socio-economic-political unit for planning and management natural
resources (Sheng, 1990).

Generally a watershed can be defined as an area from which runoff resulting from
precipitation flows past a single point into a stream, river, lake or an ocean. The terms
watershed, catchment area or drainage basin are used synonymously. The watershed
boundary is called drainage divide. Rains received on opposite sides of drainage divide do
not contribute runoff and reach to the adjoining areas.

10.2 IDENTIFICATION OF FAVOURABLE LOCATIONS/SPOTS FOR

NEW WATERSHEDS

In order to identify the most favourable spots for water storage, the surface run
off from a particular basin area, the amount of rainfall, storage capacity, drainage density,
slope and physiographic etc., have been generally taken into consideration. The rainfall is
the basic source of water for any watershed. The soil water, runoff, stream flow and ground

80
water are all determined by the rainfall intensity. It directly affects the vegetation and
climate of the area. In semi-arid zones like Gadag district moisture conservation during
period of rainfall and its effective use becomes important (Lenka D. 1991). Lenka D.
(1991) has stated the relationship between the runoff and rainfall in the following way.
(Table 10.1)

However, this again depends on duration of rainfall and continuity (continuous

or discontinuous) a rainfall of 10 cm occurring with an intensity of more than 7 cm/hr. (in
1.5 hours) will cause more surface and sub-surface run-off than that occurring with
intensity of 2 cm/hr (in 5 hours). The latter intensity will offer more opportunity for
infiltration and change the surface and sub-surface water content of the profile
substantially. This will reflect in growth and duration of the crop and vegetation. If rainfall
rate is less than infiltration rate the 183 function will be rate dependent and run off will
decrease. High intensity storm produces more water than medium or low volume storms in
all categories of run-off surface, sub surface and ground water. If rainfall showers (storms)
are spaced closer (more storm frequency) the succeeding showers will produce more run-
off than its preceding ones.

Table – 10.1 Effect of Rainfall Intensity on Run-off

Rainfall intensity Nature and characteristics Ground water

(mm/hr) Surface Sub-surface
More than 7(high) High High Low
1.5 – 7 (medium) Medium Medium Medium
Less than 1.5 (Low) Low Low Low

The time of concentration (TOC) is another important aspect. It is the time

taken for water to travel from the hydraulically most distant part of the watershed to the
point of the watershed outlet. If the duration of rainfall equals time of concentration, all
parts of the catchment contribute to the discharge at the outlet and the discharge becomes
maximum. The time of concentration depends on the velocity of stream flow, vegetation,
slope and other hydraulic elements of the stream channel (Lenka D. 1991).

81
 The average annual rainfall of Gadag district is 612.5 mm and it indicates the
semi-arid climate. There are frequent 184 droughts in the district generally one severe
drought occurs for every four years. The district experiences constantly acute water
shortages and needs watershed development.

The topography of the district has been characterized by rolling land

characteristics. The topographical features have given rise to a large number of streams.
May, June, July, August, September and October months receive maximum amount of
rainfall. The April and November months also receive fairly well rainfall. There is a
sufficient stream length and basin area available for the development watershed by storing
the water at favourable spots. The maximum amount of water can be stored during the
months from June to October as these months receive maximum rainwater. The
morphometric analysis of the drainage network in Gadag district reveals the fact that a
water reservoir such as tanks may be developed across the third order streams. These are
the most favourable locations mainly for two reasons.

i) They have sufficiently large basin areas to collect the water from surface run-
off.
ii) Sufficient stream segments of 1st and 2nd order are available and the total
stream length facilitates to receive maximum volume of rain water.

10.3. WATERSHED DELINEATION

The delineation of priority area can be performed to some extent by reconnaissance
survey and study of topo-sheets. However, this technique is slow and also not provide very
accurate result. Demarcation of priority areas can also be done in better way by using the
areal photograph. Normally, the contour maps of 1:60.000 scale are most suitable, but the
photographs of larger scale such as 1:15.000 can also be used for the purpose.
The demarcation of priority areas should be accomplished on watershed basis,
because a comprehensive watershed management approach is essential for use of proper
soil conservation measures. For demarcating priorities areas on watershed basis, the
preparation of framework of watershed delineation over the entire watershed is essential.
Furthermore, it is also necessary that the size of watershed to be delineated should be from
10,000 to 20,000 ha, because for small watersheds the formulation of soil conservation
plans and their execution over a reasonable period is practically possible and easy, also.
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The steps for demarcation of small size watersheds are described as under:
1. Divide the entire watershed into different sub-watersheds considering important
tributaries. The size of sub-watershed should be few lakh hectares. Use suitable scale for
delineation. Normally, 1:1 million and 1:250,000 scales are followed.
2. Again, divide each sub-watershed into small, following distinct tributaries and streams
passing through the respective sub-watersheds. The size of small watersheds should be in
the range of 50,000 to 1,00000 ha. Delineate these small watersheds using the scale
1:50,000. And superimpose the delineated sub-watersheds in step (1) on the base map of
the area.

3. Further, sub-divide each small watershed (as obtained in step 2) in the size ranging from
10,000 to 20,000 ha.

In the watershed i there are large number of small streams, that drain the runoff
directly into the main stream, then demarcation of small size watershed is difficult. For
such conditions the demarcation is carried out by combining all the streams into sub-
watershed, small watershed etc as per size indicated earlier. This should be started from the
down stream end and proceeded to upstream side.

10.4 GEOMORPHOLOGY OF WATERSHEDSA

10.4.1 Watershed size and shape

A watershed or a catchment defines the boundary of the surface runoff system (Fig.
10.1), and the line which divides the runoff between catchments is called the topographic
water divide (Fig. 10.2). The size and shape of a watershed has a significant effect on its
hydraulic behavior. A small watershed has a predominance of overland flow which has a
significant effect on the peak flow rate of runoff from it. Large watersheds are dominated
by channel flow and thus show lesser effects of new watershed management programmes.

Similarly the shape of a watershed also has a significant effect on the watershed
discharge pattern. There are three main types of watershed shapes, which are square,
rectangular and triangular; the watershed shape is described by the shape index (S); which
is a ratio of the stream length and the watershed width. That is,

83
 𝐿
Si = 𝑊 --------------------(10.1)

where

L = watershed length along the main stream, measured from the stream outlet to the most

remote ridge of the watershed, km

W = average width of the watershed, km

𝐴
If the area of the watershed, A = L x W, i.e. W = 𝐿 then Si = L2/A ----------------(10.2)

10.4.2 Watershed slope

When the topographic map of a watershed is available, then its average slope in per cent
can be determined as
CL × Ci
| Sp = × 100 --------------(10.3)
A

where

Sp = average watershed slope, per cent

CL = contour length, m

Ci= contour interval, m

A = area of watershed, m2

Fig. 10.1 Delineation of catchment boundary

84
 Fig. 10.2 Groundwater and topographic divides between two catchments A and B

10.4.3 Stream order

When stream channels in a basin are classified based on their degree of branching or
bifurcation, they are called stream orders. Stream orders are marked as 1, 2, 3, 4 and so on
and are dimensionless terms. On the map of a basin channel network (Fig. 10.3), stream
orders are classified as detailed below:

Ist order. The smallest finger tip tributaries are designated Ist order streams and are marked
as order 1 on the map.

IInd order. When two stream channels of order 1 join, a channel segment of order 2 is
formed.

IIIrd order. When two stream channels of order 2 join, a channel segment of order 3 is
formed.

Similarly, further stream orders are designated on the map of channel network as
shown in Fig. 10.3. The trunk or the main stream channel to which all the tributaries join
and through which all the runoff discharge along with the sediment passes gets the highest
order number. This order number of the main stream also reflects the extent of branching of
the main stream.

85
 Fig. 10.3 Stream order in a catchment

10.4.4 Drainage density

Drainage density Dd has been defined by Horton (1932 and 1945) as the total length of
streams of all the orders of the basin to the basin area, that is,
𝐿
Dd = 𝐴 --------------(10.4)

Drainage density may be considered as a measure of closeness of the stream channel

spacings.

A low drainage density will reflect poor drainage conditions in the catchment. Generally
poor conditions are observed in areas where soils are resistant to erosion, are permeable,
and have small land slopes, and for good conditions it is the reverse of the poor conditions.

10.4.5 Basin relief

In a basin, the elevation difference between its outlet h1 and its highest point on its
perimeter h2 gives the maximum basin relief H (see Fig. 10.1). That is,

H = h2 – hı ----------------(10.5)

10.4.6 Ruggedness
It is the product of relief of basin and drainage density

86
10.4.7 Hypsometric analysis
A hypsometric curve is the relationship between horizontal cross-sectional areas and
altitudes of the watershed. Langbeen (1947) applied this analysis on large watersheds in a
dimensionless form. Later, Strahler (1952) and many other workers also applied it on small
drainage basins. The method is used in case of soil erosion and hydrological studies.

The analysis is done by plotting a curve between relative heights (altitudes) (h/H) on the
ordinate and relative areas (alA) on the abscissa, where

h = height of a given contour H = total basin height a = horizontal cross-sectional area A =

entire basin area.

The plot is called hypsometric curve. The percentage hypsometric curve is a plot of the
continuous function relating the relative heights to the relative ares (Fig. 10.4).

Fig.10.4 Hypsometric analysis of small drainage basin (based on Chow (1964))

87
 LECTURE 11

Principles and objectives of watershed management, Summary of watershed management

plans prepared by Central Soil and Water Conservation Research and Training Institute,
Dehradun.

11.1 WATERSHED MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES

The watershed management tasks are very sensitive to each and every
involvements. The watershed management is assumed to be successful, when it is carried
out under proper planning approach, objectives, implementation methods and attitude of
associated staffs. However, it is also based on the concrete principle for better management.
There have been devised several principles to operate the watershed management tasks,
effectively; few important amongst them are outlined as below:

• Watershed should be in natural form.

• The watershed management should be on multi-disciplinary approach.

• A strong framework should support the watershed management, in proper way

• There should be proper team of personnel and with most appropriate technology, as well.
• The approach should be flexible.

The important watershed management principles based on the resource

conservation, resource generation and resource utilization are given as under:

• The utilization of land resource should be based on its capability.

• Protection of top fertile soil depth should be there.

• The silting of farm pond/tanks, reservoirs and foot hill fertile lands should be checked.

• There should be the provision for protecting the vegetative cover throughout the year, to
maintain the soil in proper form.

• In watershed there should be priority for in-situ rainwater conservation.

• In gullied areas there should be safe diversion of runoff and construction of check dams
for reclaiming the gullies, and also enhancing the ground water recharge.

88
• The cropping intensity should be high, which can be done by adopting inter-and
sequential cropping systems.

For ellicient use of marginal lands, there should be alternative land use systems. .
For development of supplemental irrigation facility in the watershed, there should be the
provisionn of rainwater harvesting.

• In order to maximize the farm income, there should be the introduction of agricultural
based activities, such as dairy, poultry, sheep and goat farming in the watershed.

• There should be very good infrastructures related to storage of farm produce,

transportation system and agricultural marketing.

• The overall objective of watershed management should be oriented to improve the socio-
economic condition of the people living in the watershed.

The watershed management implies the judicious use of all the resources, i.e. the
land, vegetations and water in the watershed to achieve maximum production with
minimum hazard of the natural resources and for the well being of people. The
management should be carried out on the watershed basis. The task of watershed
management includes the treatment of land by using most suitable biological and
engineering measures in such a manner that, the management work is economical and
socially acceptable.

11.2 WATERSHED MANAGEMENT OBJECTIVES

The formulation of watershed management objectives depends very much on the
problem to be removed from the watershed. For example: a watershed which is under
massive soil erosion problem, due to which there is very difficult to grow the crops with
better blc ratio. In this condition, for a planner it is very important to fix the objective on
control of soil erosion/soil loss for management point of there is the problem of water
logging or drainage in the watershed, then there must be an objective to reclaim the water
logging/drainage for management. Sometimes, the watershed management tasks are
synonymous to the soil and water conservation, with the difference that under soil
conservation the emphasis is given on flood protection and sediment control, in addition to
maximize the crop production. In this condition, the basic objective of watershed
management is decided to reclaim the problems associated to better utilization of land and

89
water; which should not be in terms of any one resource but on the basis of whole
interdependent resources. Overall, the watershed management aims is to improve the
standards of living of the population of the watershed by increasing their carning level,
cither by creating employment opportunity, developing marketing facility or creating the
facilities like electricity, drinking water, irrigation water, freedom from fears of floods,
droughts etc. However, depending on the common problems of majority of watersheds the
followings are few important management objectives:

• To recognize the watershed as a unit for development and efficient landuse according to
their capabilities for crop production.
• To control damaging runoff and land degradation, and thereby planning for soil and water
conservation.
• To control the flood by constructing small and multipurpose reservoirs, and also by other
water storage structures at the river head and in problem areas.
• To supply adequate water for satisfying domestic, agricultural and industrial needs.
• To abate the organic, inorganic and soil pollution.
• To improve the agricultural and allied productions by efficient use of natural resources.
• To expand recreation facilities such as picnic and camping sites.
• To manage and utilize the runoff water for conducive purposes.
• To protect/conserve and improve the land for more efficient and sustained crop
production
• To protect and enhance the water resources originating from the watershed.
• To check the soil erosion and to reduce the effect of sediment yield in the watershed.
• To rehabilitate the deteriorating lands.
• To moderate the flood peaks at down stream areas.
• To enhance the infiltration of rainwater.
• To improve and increase the production of timbers, fodder and wild life conservation
resources.
• To enhance the ground water recharge, wherever applicable.

90
 11.3 Summary of Watershed Management Plans prepared by Central Soil and Water Conservation
Research and Training Institute, Dehra Dun
S. Name of Watershed area, climate and soil Soil and water Vegetative measures Agronomic measures Total cost
No Watershed, conservation and cost and cost (Rs)
village, engineering measures
district, state and cost
1 Chinnatekur Area: 1,120 ha 1. Diversion drains 1. Afforestation in 1. Improvement in Rs 18,05,011
Watershed Slope : 0.5 to 5% 2. Graded bunds Class III land cropping pattern (including
Management Climate : Arid to semi-arid Rainfall : 654 3. Waterways 2. Afforestation in 2. Increase in intensity animal
Plan; Dist. mm (average of 23 years) 4. Gully control work, Class VI and VII lands of cropping pattern husbandry)
Kurnool Soil : Black clays developed from lime stream bank control 3. Gully planting 3. Fertilizer use and
(Andhra stones present below solum. They are measures 4. Areas by the side of seed requirements
Pradesh) rich in free lime 5. Farm ponds and land nalas and river beds 4. Pest and disease
levelling Cost: Rs 1,64,000 control
6. Improvement in Cost: Rs 1,36,650
irrigation potential
Cost: Rs 9,97,261
2 Siha Area : 660 ha Stock water ponds, grade 1. Hill area Land levelling, crop Rs 12,10,265
Watershed Slope : Nearly level to 10% slope stabilization structures afforestation demonstrations,
Management Climate : The area falls under subtropical Rejuvenation of village 2. Sand-dunes conveyance pipeline
Plan, Dist. semi-arid continental monsoon climate ponds Cost Rs 4,96,000 3. Gullied top land sprayers and dusters
Mahendragarh Rainfall : Varies from 500 to 750 mm afforestation etc. Cost: Rs 4,15,000
(Haryana) Soil : The soil is sandy to loamy sand 4. Gullied bottom land
with very low clay content. Highly Afforestation
permeable 5. Far forestry

3 Chindri Nala Area : 314 ha forms a part of Eastem 1. Diversion bund 1. Afforestation and 1. Improved cropping Rs 18,05,011
Watershed Ghats. The area containing gently (2%) 2. Bench terracing pasture development pattern and intensity (including
Management sloping to steeply sloping (50%). 3. Stone bunding 2. Plantation of tree 2. Improved varieties animal
Plan, Climate : Average annual rainfall is 4. Field bunding plants for conservation 3. Improved inter husbandry)
Dist. Koraput 1,403 mm. 5. Gully controlstructures purposes Cost : Rs culture and fertilizer
(Orissa) Soils : Soils are in general deep, ranging 6. Structures for paddy 1,64,000 use
from sandy loam to clay loam land improvement 4. Plant protection
7. Guhls Cost Rs 25,000
Cost: Rs 10,00,000
91
4 Navmota Area : 313 ha and falls in the Aravali belt 1. Contour bunds 1. Raising live hedge of 1. Contour farming Rs 16,83,330
Watershed Slope : Slopes vary from gentle to 2. Land levelling Agave and Prosopis 2. Land levelling
Management moderate steep and precipitous in the 3. Gully control juliflora 3. Lemon plantation
Plan, Dist. upper region measures 2. Raising plantations 4. Ber plantation
Sabarkanta Rainfall : Average rainfall is 819 mm 4. Gully plugs etc. of Acacia nilotica and 5. Seeds, fertilizer
(Gujarat) Soils : The soils are mainly light to Cost : Rs 6,86,300 neem 6. Field demonstrations
medium textured 3. Raising Eucalyptus
plantations
4. Raising silvi-pastoral
systems with Cenchrus
ciliaris grass with
Acacialsubabul/Prosopis
cineraria trees
Cost : Rs 3,14,730
5 .Radharamanp Area : 360 ha with rolling 1. Stock water dams 1. Forest plantation 1. Field demonstrations Rs 17,00,000
ur Watershed , topography 2. Modification of 2 Agro-horticulture 3. 2. Crop introduction
Management Rainfall : 1,335 mm with dry spells. existing dams Roadside plantation 3. Plant-protection
Plan, Bankura, Soils : The soils are acidic in reaction 3. Water conveyance 4. Horticulture measures 4. Improved
(West Bengal) with pH varying from 4.8 to 6-5. 4. Land improvement 5. Agroforestry implements
The soils have developed from old 5. Soil conservation 6. Fencing and Cost: Rs 1,77,000
alluvium material and falls within the red measures protection
and lateritic soils. On ridges, the effect of Cost : Rs 12,23,550 Cost Rs 2,72,500
progress of laterization is vivid
6 Rebari Area : 570 ha and falls within Panam 1. Small dams 1. Hilly area plantation 1. Crop production Rs 26,51,585
Watershed river catchment 2. Fam ponds with 2. Small hillocks 2. Assistance on inputs
Management Slope : Nearly 20% of area has steep pumping units. Plantation like seeds, fertilizers
Plan, Dist. slopes and rest has moderate to steep 3. Seepage wells 3. Fam forestry etc.
Panchmahal undulating slopes 4. Check dams in nala 4. Avenue plantation 3. Field demonstrations
(Gujarat) Rainfall : The watershed falls in tropical, bed Cost Rs 5,98,175 4. One agricultural
semi-arid climatic zone. The annual 5. Diversion channels graduate for three years
average rainfall is 1,083 mm Cast Rs 6,52,200 Cost: Rs 14,01,210
Soils : The soils are mainly sandy loam
with areas of loamy sand and loam
7 . Sheetalpur Area: 571 ha 1. Contour bunding 1. Horticulture on 1. Crop demonstrations Rs.
Watershed Slope : Mild to steep slope 2. Land levelling agriculture bunds 2. Sprayers and dusters 17,76,655
Management It is semi-arid climate zone 3. Terracing 2 Agro-horticulture 3. Implements
Plan, Dist. Rainfall : 854 mm of average June to 4. Gully plugs 3. Agroforestry in
92
 Hamirpur September accounts for 90% of the 5. Water conveyance field bunds
(Uttar rainfall
Pradesh) Soils : The soil in the watershed is deep
alluvium. The soils are brownish loamy
whereas on lower side, it is dark grey.
The soils contain calcarious nodules in
the sub-soil which has been exposed on
slopes due to excessive erosion
8 Burhia-ka-Tal, Area : The watershed is fan-shaped and 1. Desilting of Burhia- 1. Treatment of ravine 1. Land levelling and Rs 28,34,360
Etmadpur, has an area of 850 ha. ka-Tal area of Class VI terracing of 393 ha
Dist. Agra It has mild slope and long lengths of 2. Construction of 2 Treatment of ravine 2. Agroforestry and
(Uttar slope It falls in semi-arid region Rainfall grassed waterways for beds in Class VII lands agro-horticulture
Pradesh) : The region receives on an average 765 water disposal 3. Avenue plantations measures
mm 3. Land shaping of 4. Horticulture near 3. Crop demonstrations
Soils : The soil in the watershed is deep medium gullies and around tubewells. 4. Sprayers, dusters and
alluvial, neutral to slightly alkaline in 4. Check dams in gullies Cost : Rs 2,67,360 other implements
nature. Texturally the soil is sandy loam Cost: Rs 5,08,000 Cost Rs 20,09,000
to loamy sand having very low water-
holding capacity and low fertility
9 . Pali Area : 844 ha marked by steep rocky 1. Construction of 1. Afforestation in 56 1. Land levelling Rs 17,01,200
Watershed hills of Aravali earthem dams ha of hilly area 2. Water conveyance
Management Rainfall : Average (12 yr) annual rainfall 2. Stone check-dams 2. Sand-dune fixation from tube-wells
Plan, Dist. is 640 mm More than 80% of rainfall is 3. Diversion channels by planting Acacia 3. Sprinkler system
Mahendragarh received during monsoon period 4. Rejuvenating existing tortilis and A. nilotica 4. Ber cultivation
(Haryana) tanks 3. Farm forestry in Cost Rs 8,57,500
Cost Rs 2,36,500 irrigated and
unirrigated areas
Cost Rs 6,07,200
10 Genrua Area : 297 ha with rolling topography 1. Stock water dams 1. Forest plantation 1. Field demonstrations Rs 15,26,000
Watershed Slope : 10% 2. Modification of 2. Roadside plantation 2. Crop introduction including
Management The area falls under sub-tropical humid existing dams 3. Horticulture like groundnut livestock
Plan, Purulia, region 3. Water conveyance 4. Agroforestry 3. Plant protection implements
(West Bengal) Rainfall : Mean annual rainfall is 1,300 systems 5. Agro-horticulture 6. measures
mm About 80% of rainfall is received 4. Land improvement Fencing 4. Improved
during monsoon period Soils : The soils 5. Soil Conservation Cost Rs 3,08,000 implements
are essentially latexitic soils of West measures Cost Rs 1,77,000
Bengal Cost : Rs 10,18,290
93
 LECTURE 12
Watershed management case studies – Operational research projects: Fakot, Sukhomajri
and Chitra Durga.

12.1 OPERATIONAL RESEARCH PROJECT, FAKOT

12.1.1 Study Area

The Operational Research Project at Fakot (Bhaintan watershed) was undertaken to
find out some answers to several vexing problems of the hills. The area is located in the
outer Himalayas 37 km from Rishikesh on the Rishikesh-Tehri highway. The watershed,
having an area of 370 ha, forms part of the catchment of Hiul river, a tributary of the
Ganges. The ORP covered 8 hamlets with a population of 541. The cattle population is 533
(1975 data).

The elevation of the watershed ranges from 650 to 2,015 m above mean sea level
(m.s.1.). The average slope of the watershed is 72%. 22.4% of the watershed area is under
reserve forest and 56 % under Civil and Soyam lands, which are mostly Class VI to VIII
lands. Agriculture, thus, is practised only in 22.4% of the watershed area. The average
annual rainfall is 1,900 mm and 48% is expected to runoff.

The average cropped area is 79.29 ha. About 11 ha are cultivated in summer season
(zaid). The principal crops of the area are mandua (Eleusine coracana), jhingora (Paspalum
scrobiculatum), rice, wheat and some pulses. Only 0.1% of the area used to be under fruit
trees. The sub-tropical forest species include mango and citrus (malta). On temperate
northern slopes of the watershed, apple is the main species. The forest vegetation consists
of sub-tropical winter deciduous species usually forming scrub forests while among the
temperate species are the oak (Quercus incana), with its associates like Myrica esculenta
and Rhododendron sp. Oaks are extensively hacked for providing wood for agricultural
implements and leaves for fodder.

The main objectives of this ORP were to develop

(a) an integrated watershed development plan for a typical hill watershed for
improving the productivity while reducing the erosion hazards;

(b) a procedure for transfer of technology; and

94
 (c) identify the various technological and social constraints that exist in these areas
sothat suitable modifications could be incorporated in the future strategies for
these areas.

12.1.2 Actual Work Done

Project approach. The watershed development project was started with the funds provided
by the Institute and the Ford Foundation. The actual work involved setting up of
demonstration areas at selected locations in different toposequences. The 'saturation
approach', adopted at Sukhomajri/Nada was not adopted here because of the watershed
which would mean relatively more expenditure. The 'demonstration approach' adopted in
this watershed enabled the testing of an alternative strategy of development (Anonymous,
1978). In the different demonstrations, the pattern of subsidies followed by the Uttar
Pradesh Government for these areas was adopted.

The following is the progress of work done at Operational Research Project, Fakot :

Bench terracing. Bench terrace improvement/new construction was carried out in an area
of about 1.5 ha (Fig. 39). This includes 0.57 ha of irrigated and 0.93 ha of unirrigated
terraces.

Watershed resources. 610 m of new gules were constructed and 1,500 m of existing ones
reconstructed (Fig. 12.1.1). As a result, an additional 10.5 ha of terraces are now provided
with relatively more dependable irrigation water supply. Five new water-storage tanks with
a total storage capacity of 11.6 m3 were constructed (Fig. 12.1.3). Two existing tanks were
repaired (with a total storage capacity of 48 m).

Rainfed agriculture. Crop demonstrations for improved rainfed agriculture were laid in an
area of 8.5 ha, out of a total of 61.5 ha.

In other words, out of a total of 79.3 ha of agricultural land, 62 ha gross area of 8.5
ha/year were provided with the above improvements during 1975-82. During 1982, area
covered under demonstration is 7.7 ha.

95
Fg. 12.1.1. Improvement of rainfed bench terraces at Fakot (Tehri-Garhwal district),
leveling of the terraces and provision of bunds at the edge of the terraces
resulting in good growth of the agricultural crop in the hilly area.

Fg. 12.1.2. For effective conveyance of the irrigation water in hilly area, lined guls
are constructed. The photo shows lined guls at Fakot, located in West
Himalayan region(Tehri-Garhwal)

Fg. 12.1.3. In hilly area, excess runoff water can be successfully collected into small
tanks. In the photo such tank is shown(ORP, Fakot, Tehri-Garhwal)

96
12.1.3 People's participation
For protection of fuel-fodder plantations, people should be convinced in protecting
them and in adopting such proven practices like rotational grazing. The idea of 'social
fencing', introduced successfully by our scientists in Sukhomajri and Nada could be tried
here also for protection of the fuel-fodder plantations and soil conservation work in the
watershed. The interest of farmers should be linked to protection of catchment, which will
be to their benefit ultimately. Women should be involved in these progrmmes because they
constitute the main working force in the hills.

Participation of the state agencies. The participation and involvement of the various line
departments in state are only marginal at present. The success, achieved in the G.R. Halli
Operational Research Project, where the entire work was executed by the state agencies and
where our Bellary Centre had acted only as the 'Engine driver' is worth emulating here also.

12.1.4 Conclusion
Hill areas have many problems, relatively more complex than in those of the plains. Apart
from their remoteness and other physical factors, the sociological aspects demand special
attention of the development agencies in these areas. The development of appropriate
technologies for the hills, the participation of the people and the state agencies are key
elements for a successfull programme of this nature.

12.2 WATERSHED MANAGEMENT PLAN (SUKHOMAJRI)

It is generally accepted that soil and water conservation on watershed basis is the
basic infrastructure for development. The programme, however, did not gain momentum
owing to lack of social support. The piecemeal isolated efforts made for bunding, terracing
and afforestration have not been able to put anything substantially, with the result, hill
denudation has been increasing unabated.

The Sukhna Lake of Chandigarh, with a catchment of 40 km2 was constructed at a

cost of rupees one crore. The lake has lost its capacity by about 60% within a period of 15
years, due to high sedimentation rates. The village Sukhomajri was selected considering its
location near to 'Kanual Cho', a principal tributary, the lake constituting major sediment
loads.

97
1. The area receives about 1,200 mm of rainfall annually. About 60% of it goes as runoff
causing severe erosion and sedimentation problems.

2. Farmers cultivate lands with steep slopes. Hence the yield levels are low and crop
failures ale common. There is no source of irrigation in the area under consideration.

3. The vegetation in the watershed is recklessly removed to meet their immediate need of
fuel and fodder.

4. The average slope of hills is 30 to 40% which were cut up by numerous rills and gullies.
The average yield of grass was only 5 q/ha.

Table 12.2.1. Average yield of crops (q/ha) in good and bad years

Crop Average yield

Good rainfall year Bad rainfall year
Wheat 12 7
Chickpea 5 3
Maize 12 8
Taramira 4 1.5
Sugarcane 150 90

Table 11.2.2. Per capita land holding distribution as percentage of village population

Land-holding per 0.04-02 0.20-0.36 Above

capita (ha)
Percentage of village 86.93 10.39 2.59
population
5. An earthern dam with a storage capacity of 0.63 ha-m constructed in the untreated
watershed of 10 ha before the start of the project was completely filled with sediment in
one year only.

6. A ten-metre wide agricultural land got converted into 10-metre deep gully from
uncontrolled water coming from 4.3 ha catchment area.

1. Barren hilly slopes. The area has steep slopes and devoid of vegetation. The area also
experiences overgrazing.

2. Gullies. The gullies and steep slopes do not have any vegetation. These gullies should be
treated with various soil conservation and vegetative measures.

3. Main stream. The main stream also contributed considerable amount of sediment. The
experienced sediment inflow rates need to be checked.

98
Storage structures. Allowing for seepage, evaporation and dead storage, the reservoir will
be able to provide two supplemental irrigations of 7.5 cm each safely, to 16 ha command
area. The features of the storage structure including the cost involved are as under:

12.2.1 Evaluation
The watershed model is capable of generating benefits, both, tangible and intangible, some
of which are outlined below.

(i) Increase in crop yield. The average crop yield of wheat increased from 10 to 30 q/ha
with supplemental irrigation, improved seed and 40 kg N/ha . The average yield of maize
increased from 10 q/ha to 20 q/ha with the introduction of new variety. The risk due to
drought in 1979 was minimum because of proper rain water management. Hence they could
save maize crop with one irrigation and could also get sufficient water for two irrigations to
wheat. A third crop of moong was also taken up in about 2 ha during 1979. That was a
drought year.

(ii) Reduction in sediment yield. The sediment rate has been brought down from 300 to 30
tonnes/ha/year immediately after using treatments which will stabilize to 5 tonnes/ha/year.

99
(iii) Water yield. 50% of the total rainfall can be taken as a broad norm for determining the
total water yield that can be collected from similar areas. 60% of the stored water can be
made available for supplemental irrigation after allowing evaporation and seepage losses
and dead storage.

(iv) Increase in fodder yield. The fodder yield from the catchment is expected to increase
from 5 q to 50 q/ha within 3 to 4 years.

(v) Flood control. While 60% of the total rainwater and over 300 tonnes/ha/year of
sediment was going out annually earlier, only limited sediment went out with negligible
amount of water after increasing soil conservation measures. Here is, therefore, a definite
programme of total rainwater harvesting for flood and sediment control apart from
groundwater augmentation.

(vi) Employment value. The Sukhomajri model is labour-intensive and as such, is capable
of providing and generating gainful employment to the poor people.

(vii) Other programmes. With the development of water resource in the village several
other programmes have been taken up. In collaboration with the Fishery Department,
Government of Haryana, 10,000 fingerlings have been put in the reservoir which will fetch
about Rs 8,000 annually.

(viii) Similarly, in collaboration with the Horticultural Department, Government of

Haryana, the fruit plants like mango, citrus, litchi, guava and papaya have been introduced
for the first time in the village. The programme of farm-forestry has also been taken up in
the village.

12.3 WATERSHED MANAGEMENT PLAN (CHITRA DURGA)

In India, the drought-prone-area programme was taken up in 72 districts for
integrated development. A model plan for red soils of Deccan plateau was prepared by
CSWCRTI in 1976 (Anonymous, 1981).

12.3.1 Location
The project area is located at G.R. Halli village 8 km north of Chitra Durga town.
The longitude is 76°-23-55"E and latitude is `14°-17'-30" N. The total area of watershed is
314 ha, out of which, only 116 ha are cultivable. The remaining area includes hillocks,
ridges and marginal soils (class V to VIII) which are well-suited for planting, protection
100
from biotic influences (Fig. 42). Three nalas originating from the hills cause severe damage
to the arable lands below and heavy siltation in Mallapura tank.

12.3.2 Climate
The watershed receives about 612 mm rainfall annually distributed over 42 days. The
analysis of 15 years rainfall data indicates that about 443 mm rainfall is received during
June to October. The rainfall is high and assured in September and October.

12.3.3 Soils
The soils in the area are red-loams derived from acidic metamorphic rocks, granites
and gneisses. Shallow soils occur at foothills and deep soils in the valley portion and
exposed rocks on the ridges. The soils are highly eroded and hillocks are extensively
denuded.

12.3.4 Topography
The topography is undulating with a general slope towards south. The range of the
mean elevation in the plains is 2,300-2,350 feet above mean sea level (msl) while it is 3,072
feet in the hills.

Fig. 12.3.1. The barren hillocks at G.R. Halli watershed, located in red soil area in Chitradurga
district (Karnataka)—a low rainfall region with an average annual rainfall of 500 mm.

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12.3.5 Vegetation
The important vegetation observed in the watershed are Dodonaea viscosa, Cassia
auriculata, Randia spp., Morinda tinctoria, Ixora spp., Azadirachta indica, Pongamia
pinnata, Prosopis cineraria, Acacia leucopholea, Cymbopogon coloratus, Heteropogon
contortus, Bathriochloa pertusa.

12.3.6 Land capability classification

The watershed does not have class I, II and V land. The distribution of area classwise is
given below.

Land capability class III IV V VI VII VIII

Area(%) 28.4 8.6 0 23.5 22.0 17.5

The entire area is susceptible to erosion. The ground water table varies from 5 to 19 m,
depending on topography

12.3.7 Socio-economic status

More than 70% of the families depend on agriculture. About 47% of the total
holdings (2 ha) are held by small farmers, and only 22% of the total holdings comprise 6 ha
and above.

12.3.8 Crops and cropping

Agricultural cropping is mainly practiced in kharif season in red soils while both
kharif and rabi crops are cultivated in medium and deep-black soils. The principal kharif
crops in red soils are sorghum (jowar), setaria and pearlmillet (bajra) which account for
88% of the total cropped area. Redgram and horsegram are also grown as intercrops with
kharif cereals in various proportions. Setaria, cotton, sorghum and onion are the important
crops in black soils. Onion, maize, chillies, groundnut, coconut, arccanut, tomato and
betelvines are cultivated under well irrigation.

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 LECTURE 13
Components of watershed management - Land management (structural measures,
vegetative measures, production measures and protection measures), water management
(rain water harvesting, ground water recharge, maintenance of water balance, prevention of
water pollution) and Biomass management.

13.1 COMPONENTS OF WATERSHED MANAGEMENT

The land, water and biomass are the three main resources cxisting within the
watershed boundary. Keeping of these resources in their proper form is the main task of
watershed management. Based on this facts the main components of watershed
management are outlined as under:

• Land management

• Water management; and

• Biomass management.

13.1.1 Land Management

The land management refers to keep all those properties of land in proper order,
which likely to affect the soil yicld potency. The land characteristics such as terrain, slope,
formation, depth, texture, moisture, infiltration rate and soil capability are the main to
consider under land management activities for watershed development. In broad sense the
land management interventions includes following activities:

• Vegetative measures

• Structural measures

• Production measures and

• Protection measures

The vegetative measures are the primary land management measures. The
development of grass lands/ pasture lands for erosion/soil loss control; adoption of contour
farming and strip cropping practices on hill faces; growing of vegetations on barren lands
or simply keeping the land under vegetations are the common practices used under
vegetative measures for land management. These measures are very effective to check the
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soil erosion, along with less cost expensive and easily practicable for the farmers. The
practices such as development of vegetative cover, plant cover, mulching, vegetative
hedges, grassland management, agro forestry etc are also included under this kind of
measures.

The structural measures (mechanical conservation measures) such as bunding,

terracing, check dams etc are used at the steep lands for controlling the soil loss, especially
when vegetative measures are ineffective. These measures are not so common as the
vegetative measures because of involvement of heavy expenditure of money. Similarly, the
spurs and gabions used for stream bank erosion control; the gully plugging structures like
drop structures, spillways etc used for gully control; and farm ponds used for safe water
storage in the farmland area, are also considered as mechanical measures for land
management. These structures offer their immediate effect on soil erosion/soil loss check,
but very cost expensive, requires proper site selection, design and construction. Because of
this reason, their construction is not possible by the farmers: the government normally
executes it.

The production measures for land management include the practices such as mixed
cropping, strip cropping, cover cropping, crop rotations, cultivation of shrubs and herbs,
contour cultivation, conservation tillage, land leveling, use of improved variety seeds,
horticultural practices etc. The objective of these measures is to enhance the production
potential of the land either by conserving the soil or enriching the nutrient status.

The protective measures are the landslide control structures, gully plugging
structures, runoff collection structures etc. Adoption of these measures depends very much
on the land characteristics.

13.1.2 Water Management under Watershed Management

Under watershed management task the water management is one of the very
important components. A good water potential in watershed provides a conducive path for
its overall development. In watershed the main source of water is the rainfall; however, the
incoming ground water from surrounding areas also shares to some extent. A large portion
of rainwater is lost either due to flowing away (runoff) from the area or by some other
means. In order to manage the rainwater, it is very essential to check the out flowing rain
water. It could be done by constructing the structures like pond, reservoirs etc in the area.
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Also, the rain dependent farming systems can be practiced for better utilization of rainwater
is also considered as a measure for water management. Apart from conserving the
rainwater, their judicious use either for crop production or other farm operations, also play
very significant role in water management. As for as the water management regarding
irrigation point of view is concerned, the selection of most suitable irrigation method
depending on the crop, soil, land topography, availability of water in the area etc is very
important. Those irrigation methods should always be at priority, which have better water
use efficiency, lesser loss of water etc. Similarly, the choice on cropping system, crop
variety, crop duration etc based on the water availability can also be very effective in water
management. Overall, various interventions followed for water management are outlined
below:

• Rainwater harvesting

• Ground water recharge

• Maintenance of water balance

• Preventing water pollution

• Economic use of water

In watershed the water conservation by rainwater harvesting is most significant as

compared to the other means. The harvested rainwater can be retained for the duration of its
need by designing and constructing the suitable structures in light of the same. The
rainwater harvesting can be in the form of profile water conservation or surface water
storage. The water conserved in the topsoil profile is the profile water conservation. Using
the practices of tillage operations such as conservation tillage, zero tillage, mulch tillage
etc, it can be achieved. Depending on the moisture content in the topsoil profile a suitable
crop can be taken successfully. Also, if the quantum of rainwater is very high then a part of
that gets percolate to the lower soil profile and joins to the water table. This happening is
called ground water recharge. There have been formulated several water harvesting
techniques, worldwide. A detail about them has been described in chapter (16). However,
few simple and cost effective rainwater-harvesting structures are listed as under:

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 • Percolation pits/tanks

• Farm ponds

• Bunds and terraces

• Reservoirs

• Community tanks

• Water spreading

13.1.3 Biomass Management

In a watershed the task of biomass management can be achieved by following intervention
areas:

• Eco-preservation

• Biomass regeneration

• Forest management and conservation

• Plant protection and development of social forestry

• Increasing productivity of animals

• Income and employment generation activities

• Coordination of health and sanitation programmes

• Better standard of living of people

• Eco-friendly life style of people

• Formation of learning community

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 LECTURE 14
Watershed and people – Introduction, definition of peoples participation, Rationale of
people’s participation, factors affecting people’s participation, provision of incentives for
people’s participation, mobilization of people’s participation.

14.1 WATERSHED AND PEOPLE

Water, soil and vegetation are the most vital natural resources for the survival of
people. Watershed forms an integral component of these basic natural resources. A
watershed affects the people in every walk of life. Watershed conditions influence the
productivity of food, fuel, fodder, fibre and fruits. Growing demand for these items has
extensively depleted the protective vegetative cover and exposed surface soils which has
resulted in partial to complete loss of nutrients and thereby reducing productivity and
endangering vital life support system. Sediment build-up in reservoirs and stream beds
results decreased productivity of forests. Biomass production is dependent upon the
availability of right quantity and quality of water at the right time which in turn is
dependent upon the watershed conditions. Indian economy is based on adequate biomass
production. With the result that any destruction of biomass resource in the watershed will
have an extremely adverse impact on the well being of people.

It has been observed that watershed development projects under different

programmes often failed to meet their targets on account of inappropriate administrative
arrangements or inadequate management skills of the project staff. Even in those
watersheds where progress has been satisfactory, development has not been sustainable in
terms of operation and maintenance of assets created and common property resources due
to inadequate participation by the people.

People's participation is the key to the success of any watershed development

programme (Sharma and Singh, 1993). Watershed management implies rational utilization
of soil, water and vegetation for sustained productivity with minimum hazard to these
natural resources. If one takes the people of the watershed as the thrust area, management
could also be described as follows (Tideman, 1996):

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 (i) Watershed management is a process which aims to create a self-supporting
system essential for sustainability
(ii) While implementation of the programme could be done by an external agency
management of the schemes is essentially the task of the communities.
(iii) The community spirit is developed to such an extent that all liabilities and
benefits arising out of the programme are shared proportionately by the
community.
(iv) The concept emphasizes on an integrated approach. The process begins with the
management of soil and water which eventually leads to the development of
other resources.
(v) Human resource development and large scale participation towards this cause is
essential since finally it is the people who have to manage their resources.

14.2 DEFINITION OF PEOPLE'S PARTICIPATION

People's participation is defined as employing a method where the associated
communities are motivated to function and contribute as group to perform a predetermined
task. All adults living and making their livelihood from within the watershed area are
referred to as the community (Tideman, 1996)

Very often it has been observed that unless the direct and visible benefits of the
programme are in congruence with the interest of the people, participation comes slowly.
Experiences of many have also indicated that it is not very difficult to organise people
around a profitable activity for some time but sustaining of such interest for a long period
has been difficult. There is a difference between people's cooperation and people's
participation. If it is expected that the communities would protect a newly planted area or
would maintain a community water-harvesting structure which has been executed by an
external agency, it is possible to have a people's cooperation. Mobilization of people's
participation would need much more intensive interaction while the communities would be
needed to be involved in the process of planning, execution and management of the
watersheds to the extent possible.

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14.3 RATIONALE OF PEOPLE'S PARTICIPATION
Meaningful people's participation is concerned with redistribution of political,
administrative and financial powers so that decision-making process may be influenced.
Some of the important rationale for people's participation for watershed development
projects are as under:
(1) Reduction in development cost to the government or non-government organizations
(NGO) for planning, implementing and monitoring of watershed projects.
(2) Increase in the perceived and actual benefits to people participating in watershed
development programmes
(3) Correction of mistakes made by the watershed project authority in designing various
soil and water conservation structures.
(4) Increase in the political awareness of watershed community,
(5) Reaching the benefits of watershed project to all the legitimate beneficiaries,
(6) Decrease in the perpetual dependence of people on the government or NGOs and
there by
making the watershed development programme self-sustaining and the community
self-reliant.
(7) Gaining access to and control of watershed resources,
(8) Mobilization of watershed resources becomes easier when local people participate
(9) Implementation of watershed project becomes easier and smooth as a result of
participation of local people.
(10) People's participation generally results gradual empowerment of the socially and
economically disadvantaged people.

14.4 FACTORS AFFECTING PEOPLE'S PARTICIPATION

There are several factors that affect people's participation in watershed development
programmes. Many obstacles may come in the implementation of the watershed
development plan. These include: (i) obstacles within the project implementation authority,
(ii) obstacles within the watershed community, and (iii) obstacles within the society. Apart
from these obstacles the factors affecting people’s participation in watershed projects may
be biological, economic, political, social, physical, cultural and historical. The important
barriers to people's participation in watershed projects are as follows:
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 (i) Availability of grants and subsidies from government without much
difficulty.
(ii) Literacy and lack of awareness among watershed community.
(iii) Prejudices and discrimination against women.
(iv) Factionalism, casteism and heterogeneity of watershed population.
(v) Disparities in wealth and social status.
(vi) Interference by politicians,
(vii) Misunderstanding regarding the motivation and aims of people's
organization.

14.5 PROVISION OF INCENTIVES FOR PEOPLE'S PARTICIPATION

Watershed development works need heavy investment. Farmers may require
sacrificing part of the productive land for conservation purposes. It is likely that landscape
may completely be changed in the process of implementation of watershed development
programmes. Very often the land may initially suffer and yield is reduced. After
construction of a conservation structure, maintenance will be required in the years to come.
Moreover, the benefits cannot be easily seen or will take some time to show. Generally, soil
conservation measures change the existing farming systems and several traditional
practices. Any farmer would think twice before accepting such dramatic change without
any provision of incentives.

There are two views for provision of incentives to the farmers. According to one
view there is no need for incentives or subsidies because farmers may develop a subsidy-
dependent mentality for every government generated programme. Only well-designed and
executed education and extension campaign would suffice to convince most of the farmers
to participate in watershed development programme. However, another view advocates that
it is not appropriate for small farmers to meet the total cost of development activities when
their meager income could be reduced in the first few years and the benefit may accrue only
to the next generation or to the downstream areas. Incentives, either direct or indirect
should be provided to those farmers who participate in the development activities of the
watershed. This should be considered as a cost-sharing programme or a system to execute
equitable income distribution.

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 These views are not considered as mutually exclusive. Appropriate extension
methods are required to induce farmers for participation in development activities. Unless
farmers understand that conservation work will beneficial to them in the long run they may
not maintain the structures even after they have done the work. Proper education is the only
way to convince the farmers for participation. Several farmers have no resources and time
to start the work unless some tangible incentives are provided to them. It is the general
observation that in addition of extension and education, providing proper incentives in cash
or in kind (Including food) has accelerated farmer's participation in soil conservation
activities.

14.6 MOBILIZATION OF PEOPLE'S PARTICIPATION

It is generally agreed that land use management in watershed area must be modified.
However, it is difficult to bring about the changes in land use and land management
practices because traditions and culture are difficult to overcome in comparatively less
developed societies. The reasons being that: (i) farmer produces crops, fuel, fodder, species
from his small and fragmented holdings to meet his basic needs and a change means to him
getting away from the little wholeness, (ii) the land use changes, interrupt the cycle or
cause returns to flow in a longer time frame, which are not acceptable until the income gaps
are filled through a deliberate set of policies, (iii) scientific land use involves rotational
forest grazing and land closures which are generally not acceptable to local people until the
community itself is convinced and meet its need within the required set of constraints, (iv)
such changes are looked upon initially by the rural people as attempts aimed at depriving
them of access to these resources of which they have had full and free use earlier. So the
problem is not only suggesting changes, but are deeply related to the implications of such
changes for the affected communities. The real problems are of education, of persuasion, of
mobilisation, of compensatory actions where change will involve loss of income or
curtailment of resource drawls.

The watershed development must lead to people's self reliance, self support and self
esteem. It must enrich the life of the people and improve its quality at the grass root level.
Land use adjustment is very vital to the implementation of watershed programmes.
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Meaningful and effective management can be achieved only if land owners are aware of the
advantages that will accrue. Through people's institutions people's action can be organised.
It is necessary to develop local capabilities and local initiatives. Also the planning process
must be decentralized if comprehensive water shed / micro watershed is to be carried out on
regional or micro basis.

People's institutions and non-government voluntary organisations operating in

village, sub-watershed, block or regional level must be fully associated in the planning and
development efforts of a watershed. Gram Panchayats, Van Panchayats, voluntary
organisations and institutions of research and higher learning can play an important role in
this context. Many contacts of village leaders, community leaders, representative of youth
groups and other local associations and organisations doing work in the area of watershed
will put them in positions where they can respond more realistically and rapidly to the felt
needs and aspirations of rural people. They will constitute the most important catalyzer of
change.

14.6.1 Levels of Mobilization

Local communities can be mobilized and integrated in watershed management
programmes in the following ways:

(i) Ideological mobilization - mass participation of local people and organised community
groups on the basis of religious, political or ethical awareness.
(ii) Compulsory mobilization- by means of regulating measures, supervised credit, tied
land
leases etc. as grazing rights, fuel wood collection, water rights and rehabilitation scheme
where the local people have no choice but to participate without much conviction and
willingness or continues, to suffer hardships.
(iii) Voluntary mobilization - by appealing to the individual or collective interests
of the local people in such a way that there is a effective response to action.

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14.6.2 Mobilization Processes
Community participation is necessary for successful implementation of watershed
development programmes and maintenance of community assets created under the project.
Community involvement could also be visualized as an important mechanism through
which the responsibilities of management of watershed resources could be transferred to the
people so that a more holistic and sustainable development takes place. Adequate
participation is expected to be forthcoming only when a community is mobilized through
some or all of the processes (Tideman, 1996):
14.6.2.1 Awareness
(i) Use of promotional material.
(ii) Sharing information.
(iii) Attending subject - specific awareness camps / workshops.
(iv) Visit to another area to see similar projects already implemented.
14.6.2.2 Involvement
(i) Participating in the planning process.
(ii) Giving opinions, ideas and alternatives.
(iii) Raising doubts and hopes.
(iv) Promising contributions and cooperation.
14.6.2.3 Learning
(i) Improvement of knowledge and skills through training.
(ii) Visits to other areas.
(iii) Field trials and demonstrations.
(iv) Actual implementation.
(V) Application of innovation.
(vi) Developing a sense of self-appraisal.
14.6.2.4 Organizing
(i) Attending community meetings.
(ii) Developing attitude to work as community.
(iii) Resolving conflicts.
(iv) Establishing group dynamism and group norms.
(v) Developing a feeling of solidarity and fraternity.
(vi) Arriving at group decisions.

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 LECTURE 15
Formulation of participatory watershed development and management project, strategies
for strengthening field implementation, for transfer of technology, for financial control.
Strategies for farmers participation, strategies for proper maintenance of water sheds.

15.1 WATERSHED PLANNING STRATEGIES

All regions are not alike. Each region has its own problems and own conditions.
Therefore, the following strategies are for general use in watershed planning (Sheng, 1990):
15.1.1 Strategies for Strengthening Field Implementation
Field implementation of watershed projects is generally hampered by various
constraints. Strategies for strengthening field implement action which should be considered
during the planning stage include (Sheng, 1990):
I. Establishment of sufficient field office at strategic locations for accommodating
staff working in the field. Necessary amenities should be provided so that the staff
will not suffer when they are dispatched to the field.
II. Provision of incentives such as special allowances (or hardship allowance),
fellowships and better career opportunities should be made to field staff in order to
encourage on-going work.
III. Special achievement allowance is offered in many projects. The allowance is either
given annually according to areas treated in conservation extension or extra amount
is paid according to the progress of work done in the field.
IV. Vehicles and equipments should be provided as needed. Field work should receive
priority in allocation of vehicles and any abusive use should be prohibited.
V. Coordination among various agencies should be ensured by better liaison and
division of
labour. Any conflicts or duplication of duties should be addressed and corrected in
the shortest possible manner.
VI. Budget funds and supporting services from head offices should be streamlined to
back up the field operations.
VII. A field inspection, evaluation and reporting system should be established at
headquarters or regional office to supervise and control the progress of work.

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15.1.2 Strategies for Transfer of Technology
Transfer of technology is generally required in watershed projects including
information and experience from foreign countries, from other regions of the same country
and from technicians to the farmers.
For information collection, transfer and monitoring, a proper unit or post should be
established to perform the following duties (Sheng, 1990):
(i) Direct collect information and data from selected foreign institutions and translate
or outline the ones having immediate interest.
(ii) Liaise between national institutions or exchanges of information and data on
watershed management.
(iii) Systematically establish a data base for the use of technicians and farmers.

Foreign consultants can be hired if required and if there are adequate resources to
employ them. Fellowship abroad may be considered. After returning, their final reports
should be circulated and discussed among the staff of watershed project. Seminars,
workshops, and training courses should be organised so that international consultants, local
experts and returned fellows can share their knowledge and experiance with others.
In order to transfer knowledge and experiance to the farmers, result or method
demonstrations on both public and private lands should be conducted. Study tours should
be organised for staff and farmers to show them the techniques of watershed management.

15.1.3 Strategies for Financial Control

It is not uncommon that the activities of the project stops before completion because
of over-spending or because the original budget is not adequate to cover increased costs.
Although outside factors such as infiltration, devaluation or increase in minimum wages are
beyond control, the planners should make strategies to deal with such conditions. Some
strategies are as under (Sheng, 1990):
(i) Include an inflation factor in the cost estimates.
(ii) Set up contingency funds in the project for unforeseeable future expenses.
(iii) Exercise strict control of expenditure.
(iv) Order or purchase equipment, vehicles, or material promptly as soon as the funds are
approved.
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(v) Endeavour to reduce costs through improved work efficiency and other means.
(vi) Try alternative technology through research or field experiments to achieve the same
or better results at less expense.

15.1.4 Strategies for Ensuring Farmers' Participation

Farmers' participation is a key to success for protecting and developing watershed

lands. Various strategies should be considered in order to ensure farmers' participation in
different activities of watershed project. The following strategies are provided as examples
(Sheng, 1990):

(i) At the beginning of the project, small demonstration plots should be established in
sufficient numbers on private as well as public lands to show the real benefits of the
planned improvements, e.g. conservation farming.
(ii) An intensive education and extension campaign should follow, using the results of
the demonstration plots and experience of the farmers who participated in the
demonstration.
(iii) If needed, a financial incentive programme (subsidies and/or credits) should be
ready to help those farmers who are ready to participate in the proposed scheme.
(iv) A technical assistance programme should also be available to whoever wants to join
the watershed project. This is particularly important. Once interest is generated
among the farmers there must be a programme to help them to plan and start the
work, otherwise their enthusiasm will soon fade.
(v) A special effort should be made to organize interested farmers into neighborhood
self-help groups. The leader of each group can be designated as the contact farmer.
He will receive intensive training and, if possible, partial wages from the project
and will act as a bridge between the government and the local communities. He will
also share his training with the others, and thus supplement the usually insufficient
agents and over-worked extension service.
(vi) A regular fallow-up and inspection system should be established to help the farmers
in maintenance, cropping and marketing activities, etc.

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15.1.5 Strategies for Proper Maintenance
Maintenance is one of the most important activities of watershed programme but it
is generally neglected, with a resultant decrease in efficiency and increase in damage and
waste. Strategies for proper maintenance should be carefully considered at the time of
formulation of the project.

On public lands and for activities such as reforestation, roads and check dams, there
should be proper provision of budget for routine maintenance by the government. For
watershed conservation work on private lands, a small incentive in the form of subsidy
should be provided for maintenance until the structures are stabilized or plantations are
established. A sound inspection system should be established to oversee the maintenance
work of the project.

It has been observed in some watershed projects that farmers, for the sake of cash
subsidies undertook ambitious soil conservation or tree plantation activities which they
could not maintain. To avoid this type of mishap, cautions should be taken as suggested
below (Sheng, 1990):

(i) For planners, a realistic target for protecting and treating farmers land according to
their capabilities will be more fruitful than an ambitious one.
(ii) For field officers, proper maintenance inspection should be considered as one of
their major responsibilities
(iii) For farmers, treating or planting more lands than they can maintain should be
realized as a waste of energy and time.

For cultivable land after conservation treatment, follow-up or parallel services such as
credit and/or marketing arrangements should be established. If the land is not used the
conservation structures or measures will generally not be maintained.

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 LECTURE 16
Monitoring and evaluation of watershed projects- Monitoring and evaluation systems,
monitoring and evaluation methodology and Follow-up. Identification of constraints –
Budgetary, manpower, mobility and equipment, technical information, farmers
participation, policy constraints and other.

16.1 MONITORING AND EVALUATION SYSTEMS

A monitoring and evaluation system should be built into the project in order to
allow periodic appraisal of the project's performance, physical outputs, benefits,
expenditures and impacts.

In the past many watershed projects have been inadequately monitored and
evaluated, and results were poorly documented. Most of the difficulties were due to lack of
methodology and to the time and mechanisms required for such activities. The mechanisms
required for watershed projects may include the following:
(i) A data base and monitoring unit should be established within watershed project to
collect, collate and analyze data for the purpose of evaluations.
(ii) An independent evaluation body should be constituted to under-take periodic
appraisal work. Its members may be drawn from national planning agencies,
universities; research institutes interest groups and local people in addition to project
personnel.
(iii) A chapter in the project's annual and final reports on monitoring and evaluation
should be included. Achievements should be properly set out and compared to the
original objectives.

Independent evaluation should be carried on even after the completion of the project
to determine the long-term effects. Based on the availability of data and resources, the
whole or part of the watershed project should be evaluated periodically. The lack of
information on long-term results is a great concern to most of the planners, government
authorities and funding agencies.

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16.2 MONITORING AND EVALUATION METHODOLOGY
The final plan of the project should include proper methodology on monitoring and
evaluation. Although such activity depends on watershed management goals, the general
methodology may include the following major indicators of a project.

16.2.1 For erosion and sediment reduction

(i) Establish a hydro-meteorological network to collect and monitor rainfall, stream flow,
sediment and population data for long-term analysis and comparison.
(ii) Conduct reservoir, pond or check dam profile surveys to obtain data on sedimentation
rates and volumes
(iii) Set small plots on major soils and cropping systems with and without conservation
measures to monitor and evaluate differences in soil erosion and runoff.

16.2.2 For Changes in land use and vegetative cover

(i) Get aerial photographs or satellite remote sensing data and make studies on periodic
changes (every 5 to 10 years)
(ii) Make sampling surveys for special purpose or for required information.

16.2.3 For flood prevention benefits

(i) Set rainfall and stream gauging stations.
(ii) After major storms and floods conduct surveys for damages and make comparisons
with predictions and past events.

16.2.4 For farm improvement benefits

(i) Keep farm records from selected farms for monitoring and evaluation.
(ii) Make specially designed surveys on farm production and income.

16.2.5 For other socio-economic benefits

(i) Repeat the baseline socio-economic surveys every 5 to 10 years to make the comparison.
(ii) Conduct special survey, if required.

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 The unit which is responsible for establishing the data base and for routine
monitoring should help in the different phases of evaluation work. A computer will assist to
facilitate data storage, analysis and comparison.

16.3 FOLLOW-UP
Watershed planning cannot be considered complete if the project document ends up
in a filling rack. Whoever is responsible for planning should follow it up, to see that the
project is properly financed, either by the government or by international agencies and
sanctioned for implementation.
Finally, watershed inanagers and planners should realize that planning is a
continuous process. In many cases, original planners are also required to be involved in
project implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Experience thus gained may be used
for the planning of similar watershed projects in the future.

16.4 IDENTIFICATION OF CONSTRAINTS

The main aim of identifying constraints for implementation of watershed projects is
to consider counter measures for better management. Some of the constraints encountered
in the course of execution of watershed projects are as under:

16.4.1 Budgetary Constraints

In many watershed projects budgetary constraints are usually very serious. The
common phenomenon is lack of sufficient funds. Another type of constraint is the
uncertainty of forth coming funds even after approval of the budget. It is not uncommon
that project officers start work, sign agreements, promise subsidies to farmers in order to
complete the work, but they have to wait embarrassingly to obtain the required funds. It is
also not unusual that funds allocated for watershed work are diverted for another activities.

These constrains are discouraging and hamper the progress of the project. Planners,
therefore, should identify them with other problems during the planning stage and try to
ensure necessary budgeting and proper flow and use of funds.

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16.4.2 Manpower Constraints
This is one of the most important constraints. A lack of funds can be solved be
getting loans or grants from aid agencies or banks but work has to be done by trained
people. Without properly trained technical staff the project is bound to fail. To identify the
requirements of technical staff, the following factors should be considered:

(i) Numbers, levels, basic qualifications and sources of staff.

(ii) Training requirements including type of training and time schedule.
(iii) Provision of incentive for field staff especially for those stationed in remote areas.

Watershed work is generally labour intensive e.g. afforestation, terracing, gully

control, etc. It is not easy to find the required labours at the needed time. Temporary
migration to do a job in cities or working at factories may cause labour shortage in
watershed areas. Identifying such constraints will assist to prepare implementation
schedules and the establishment of realistic objectives for the watershed project.

16.4.3 Constraints Relating to Mobility and Equipment

Watershed work is field-oriented activity. There is no substitute for field work
regardless of a very good plan of watershed project. However, it has been observed that
many of the best trained technicians are kept in the office and do little field work due to
lack of vehicles and equipments. This is shear wastage of time and precious human
resources.

The lack of vehicles in many watershed projects has greatly hampered work
progress in the field. It is not easy to transport survey and other instruments by bus or by
other means of public transport. Moreover there is no provision of public transport in many
upland watersheds. Unless the watershed project can provide vehicles, ensure that most of
them are stationed in the field, and can make provision of proper ease and maintenance, this
will be always a major constraint.
In addition of vehicles, watershed project should provide for adequate travel
expenses. If instruments are to be imported from abroad, advance planning is essential.

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Generally the work in watershed project is delayed because vehicles and instruments have
not arrived well in time.
16.4.4 Constraints Relating to Technical Information
Watershed management is a relatively new area of specialisation. Few universities
and institutes offer formal training in this area, and research is also in its early stages.
Therefore, required technical information is not always available.

Books and publications on the subject are generally written in foreign languages and
contain information related to a different set of environmental conditions. Transfer of
technology is a serious constraint and should be taken into consideration early in the
planning stage of the project.

16.4.5 Constraints in Farmers' Participation

Farmers' participation is a key to success in most of the watershed projects. From a
government point of view, there may be no reason to believe that farmers will not
participate in the implementation of watershed project if there are adequate resources to
assist them. However, this may be far from the reality. The farmers themselves generally
face many constraints which hamper them from participating in watershed project, for
instance (Sheng, 1990):

(i) They may not sufficiently comprehend the goals of watershed management. They
may feel that the government is asking them to protect the watershed for the benefit
of others (downstream people).
(ii) Traditional practices, for example, shifting or slash and burn cultivation may not
easily be changed over a short period.
(iii) A conservative attitude may tend to resist any innovations or drastic measures.
(iv) Shortage of labour and capital may restrict them to participate in any improvement
work.
(v) Their economic status may not allow them to take any work.
(vi) They may be more interested in getting quick returns from their lands than in
conserving soils for future use.

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16.4.6 Policy Constraints and Others
Serious policy constraints on land use and management should be identified and
brought to the policy makers. For example, lack of policy on encouragement or incentives
for proper land use will result in difficulties in the proposed land use adjustment.
Conflicting policy on use and management of different resources in a watershed may create
problems in the implementation of watershed plans.

Whatever, the constraints, the planner should identify them in a proper way with the
help of socio-economic surveys and rapid rural appraisal methods. Solutions should be
sought and necessary arrangements be made to alleviate these constraints.

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