RUNOFF

BSc Civil Engineering level 3

Learning objectives

• RUNOFF

• Catchment characteristics
• Runoff hydrographs
• Implications on water availability
• Implications on catchment management
Definitions

 Streamflow is a general term used to represent

volumes or rates of flow in a river, creek, stream, or
channel.

 Discharge is a term used primarily for flow rate

measurements.

 Discharge, or rate of flow, is the volume of water that

passes a particular reference point in a unit of time
Why study streamflows
The study of streamflow helps us to know

 Volumes and flow rates from a particular precipitation

event or over an extended period of time

 The maximum probable flood that may occur at a given

site and its frequency; this is required for the safe design of
drains, bridges and culverts, dams and reservoirs,
channels and other flood control structures

 The water yield from a basin – its occurrence, quantity and

frequency, etc; this is necessary for the design of dams,
municipal water supply, water power, river navigation etc.

 The maximum intensity of storm and its frequency for the

design of a drainage project in the area affected
Catchment definition

 Using the concept that “water runs downhill”, a

catchment is defined by all points enclosed within an
area from which rain falling at these points will
contribute water to the outlet.
Processes
 Horton overland flow

 Overland flow is the movement of water over the land,

downslope toward a surface water body.

 Horton overland flow describes the tendency of water

to flow horizontally across land surfaces when rainfall has
exceeded infiltration capacity and depression storage capacity. It is
named after Robert E. Horton, the engineer who made the first
detailed studies of the phenomenon.

 Infiltration Excess Overland Flow, also known as Hortonian Flow,

occurs when water enters a soil system faster then the soil can
absorb or move it, such as when precipitation exceeds the
infiltration capacity of the soil.
 Saturation overland flow
•Saturation Excess Overland Flow occurs when the soil
becomes saturated, and any additional precipitation or irrigation causes
runoff.
Processes

Interception as rainfall Ss/I 1 min – 1 dy

Transpiration catchment Su/T wks - mnths

Open water evaporation water body So/Eo mnths - yrs

Overland flow- water drainage
across the land but not in channels

Interflow-lateral movement of
water in the vadose zone

Baseflow- groundwater flow to

stream

Streamflow
Processes
- All processes can occur at the same time

- Rapid sub-surface flow can act as a pressure wave with old

water

- distinguish between:
- runoff production (the component of the rainfall that
generates runoff = Peffective)
- runoff routing (the temporal distribution of the effective
rainfall)
 RUNOFF

 RUNOFF from a given catchment is defined as surface

water discharge over time.

 The relationship between discharge over time is expressed

in a graph called a hydrograph

CATCHMENT CHARACTERISTICS AND RUNOFF

 Catchment characteristics govern the relationship between

rainfall and resultant runoff or runoff hydrograph.
 RUNOFF

Catchment characteristics can be grouped into 2 categories

 TOPOGRAPHIC – areas, slopes, shapes, drainage

patterns, land use, land properties, channel properties,
drainage slopes, depression areas, etc.

 INFILTRATION – influences amount of ppt absorbed into

soils and what runs off.
 RUNOFF

- Runoff from a given catchment is influenced by:

- Soil type and land cover

- Slope and travel time

- Hydraulic roughness

- Channel storage and length

- Impervious area

- Infiltration capacity
 CATCHMENT CHARACTERISTICS
AREA
- The catchment can be subdivided into the pervious and impervious
area. The pervious area allows for soil infiltration while the
impervious area does not.

- Precipitation which falls on an impervious area will be stored, or will

fall directly to the watershed outlet.
 CATCHMENT CHARACTERISTICS

DRAINAGE SYSTEM AND

LAND COVER

- After initial abstraction, water

flows over land to a natural or
man-made drainage system.

- The system’s slope, hydraulic

roughness, channel storage or
length, impervious area,
infiltration capacity, and the
catchment shape affect the
discharge hydrograph shape’s.
 CATCHMENT CHARACTERISTICS
DRAINAGE SYSTEM AND
LAND COVER

- The greater the slope, the less

the time it takes for water to
flow to a discharge point.

- The rising limbs of

hydrographs for directly
drained watersheds is
steeper than that for
watersheds with storage.
 CATCHMENT CHARACTERISTICS
AREA STORM COVERAGE

-The area coverage of a storm on a watershed also affects the

hydrograph shape.

- The location of the localised storm will affect the time of

occurrence of the peak discharge.

- A rainfall event near the outlet of the catchment will result in a

peak near the start of the storm and rapid passage of the
streamflow while rainfall in remote portions of the catchment
will result in the runoff at the outlet being spread out over a
long time period. The peak will occur later in time and will be
lower.
 TIME OF CONCENTRATION
- The time of concentration is the longest travel time it takes a
particle of water to reach a discharge point in the catchment.

- There are three common ways that waters are transported:

overland flow, pipe flow (storm sewer), and channel flow.
Each method has a separate formula for estimating time of
concentration.

INFILTRATION
- It is the rate of entry of water into the ground. The rate and
quantity of water which infiltrates is a function of the soil
type, soil moisture, soil permeability, groundcover, drainage
conditions, depth of water table, and intensity and volume of
precipitation.
 RUNOFF
The simplest model of runoff is the RATIONAL EQUATION:

Q  CIA
 Q = Runoff rate, C = Rational Coefficient, A = Catchment Area, I =
Intensity of rainfall

 Runoff is modelled with only two characteristics, the Rational

Coefficient C and catchment area A.

 Influences of such factors as infiltration and depression storage are

incorporated into values of C
 RUNOFF

-The following MASS BALANCE equation is useful in estimating total

runoff resulting from a defined ppt event over a defined catchment.

Q=P-E-Qgw+D S
Where:
P = Total volume of ppt
Q = Total volume of rainfall excess (Runoff)
E = Total volume of evapotranspiration
Qgw = Total volume of infiltration/deep groundwater recharge
∆S= Total volume of abstraction (Surface storage)

- All these parameters are expressed in DEPTH units (inches,

centimetres, millimetres) and are independent of area.

- When area is brought in this results in VOLUME

 Water balance
Rainfall P Evapotranspiration E

Storage S

Deep Runoff Q
groundwater
recharge Qgw

Q=P-E-Qgw+D S
 HYDROGRAPH
- A HYDROGRAPH is a graph of FLOW RATE vs TIME for a specific
conduit

- Its shape results from rainfall rates and watershed conditions

Flow evolution

convolution
HYDROGRAPH
 Runoff hydrograph
 A unit hydrograph for a given catchment shows the flow resulting from
unit effective rainfall in unit time on the catchment, e.g. the flow
following, say, 10 mm effective rainfall falling in 1 hour.

 Excess rainfall-Rainfall that is neither retained on the land surface nor

infiltrated into the soil
 Abstractions/losses – difference between total rainfall and excess rainfall
 HYDROGRAPH

- A STREAMFLOW HYDROGRAPH is composed of both SURFACE

RUNOFF and GROUNDWATER infiltrating into a stream.
 HYDROGRAPH

- Groundwater flow has two components that are:

INTERFLOW – flow from groundwater areas close to the stream and

flow for shorter periods of time.

BASEFLOW – constant flow over longer time periods

HYDROGRAPH
HYDROGRAPH
 HYDROGRAPH PROPERTIES
- Rising limb or concentration curve

- Crest segment of peak discharge

- Recession curve or falling limb

NB. RAINFALL EXCESS = Effective rainfall volume = Runoff volume

under the runoff hydrograph
 HYDROGRAPH PROPERTIES
LAG TIME (L): The time interval from the centre of mass of the rainfall
excess to the peak of the resulting hydrograph

TIME TO PEAK (tp): The time interval from the start of rainfall excess to
the peak of the resulting hydrograph
 HYDROGRAPH PROPERTIES

TIME OF CONCENTRATION (tc): The time from the end of rainfall excess
to the inflection point (change of slope) on the recession curve. Also
the longest time for water to flow to a discharge point from any point
in the catchment.

TIME BASE (tb): Time from the beginning to the end of surface runoff
 HYDROGRAPH RECORDS
- Discharge records are normally reported as daily flow rates.

- Flow rate is measured at specified time intervals

- For rainfall excess passing from a catchment in less than a day, the
hydrograph time must be in hours or minutes

- Mean (arithmetic average) daily discharge represents flow from

midnight to midnight over a 24-hr period.

- Flow rate measurements are a useful aid in predicting peak flow rates
and volume discharges
 CATCHMENT CHARACTERISTICS
DRAINAGE SYSTEM AND
LAND COVER
- After initial abstraction, water
flows over land to a natural
or man-made drainage
system.

- The system’s slope, hydraulic

roughness, channel storage
or length, impervious area,
infiltration capacity, and the
catchment shape affect the
discharge hydrograph
shape’s.
 DISCHARGE HYDROGRAPH

STREAM CONFIGURATION
- The type and density of the
drainage system will have an
influence on the shape of the
hydrograph at the outlet.

- Dendritic system
- Trellis system
- Radial system
- Multi basin system
- Meandering system
- Braided system
- Anabranching system
- Reticulating system
 ANNUAL HYDROGRAPHS
PERENNIAL STREAMS
- Rarely have zero flow volumes
- Have relatively long recession times
- Have dependable water yield potentials during the year. Water yield is
sustained by groundwater influent to the stream
- Groundwater table is always maintained above the bottom of the stream
 ANNUAL HYDROGRAPHS
INTERMITTENT STREAMS
- Have limited groundwater storage and release water at faster rates.
- Have shorter recession times and discharges fall to zero during
extended dry periods.
- Baseflow and interflow ONLY exists during and just after a heavy
rainfall period
- Water yield is primarily based on surface runoff
 ANNUAL HYDROGRAPHS
EPHEMERAL STREAMS
- In areas where the bed and side walls of a drainage channel are
dominated by impervious soils, the streams have neither baseflow nor
interflow
- Groundwater table is always below the stream’s bottom
- In the event of river runoff, the stream actually recharges the
groundwater from the stream bed.
- This stream type is not dependant on water yields
Applications of hydrograph theory

The study of hydrographs helps us to know

 The maximum probable flood that may occur at a given

site; this is required for the safe design of drains, bridges
and culverts, dams and reservoirs, channels and other
flood control structures

 The water yield from a basin; this is necessary for the

design of dams, municipal water supply, water power, river
navigation etc.
Applications of hydrograph theory

 The groundwater component of streamflow, i.e. recharge

capacity and rates for the design of groundwater projects
and guidelines for policies like pumping rates, setting
environmental flows, etc

 The maximum intensity of a storm for the design of drainage

projects in the area affected
Thank you