National Advanced School of Public Works

(ENSTP) Yaoundé
Masters in Architecture Programme
(MARC4)
Hydrology for Engineers (ARC 303)
Prof. Andrew Ako Ako
Center for Research on Water and Climate Change (CRECC)
Yaoundé-Cameroon
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel: (+237) 675768471/693263497
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Chapter 4

Hydrology

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-Hydrologic cycle
-Precipitation measurements,
-Return period,
-Intensity-Duration – Frequency (IDF) curve (data interpolation)
-Estimation of extreme rainfall values by Gumbel Distribution.
-Altimetric and Planimetric plan of a drainage system.

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 Introduction
•Hydrology is the study of the distribution and movement of water both on
and below the Earth’s surface, as well as the impact of human activity on
water availability and conditions.

•A science dealing with the properties, distribution, and circulation of

water on and below the earth's surface and in the atmosphere.

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•Hydrology subdivides into surface water hydrology, groundwater hydrology
(hydrogeology), and marine hydrology.
•Domains of hydrology include hydrometeorology, surface hydrology,
hydrogeology, drainage-basin management, and water quality

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•Hydrology is the science that encompasses the occurrence,
distribution, movement and properties of the waters of the earth and
their relationship with the environment within each phase of the
hydrologic cycle.
•The water cycle, or hydrologic cycle, is a continuous process by which
water is purified by evaporation and transported from the earth's
surface (including the oceans) to the atmosphere and back to the land
and oceans.
•All of the physical, chemical and biological processes involving water as
it travels its various paths in the atmosphere, over and beneath the
earth's surface and through growing plants, are of interest to those
who study the hydrologic cycle.

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•There are many pathways the water may take in its continuous cycle of
falling as rainfall or snowfall and returning to the atmosphere.
• It may be captured for millions of years in polar ice caps.
• It may flow to rivers and finally to the sea. It may soak into the soil to be
evaporated directly from the soil surface as it dries or be transpired by
growing plants.
•It may percolate through the soil to ground water reservoirs (aquifers)
to be stored or it may flow to wells or springs or back to streams by
seepage. The cycle for water may be short, or it may take millions of
years.

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•People tap the water cycle for their own uses. Water is diverted temporarily
from one part of the cycle by pumping it from the ground or drawing it from a
river or lake. It is used for a variety of activities such as households,
businesses and industries; for irrigation of farms and parklands; and for
production of electric power.
•After use, water is returned to another part of the cycle: perhaps discharged
downstream or allowed to soak into the ground. Used water normally is lower
in quality, even after treatment, which often poses a problem for downstream
users.

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•The hydrologist studies the fundamental transport processes to be able to
describe the quantity and quality of water as it moves through the cycle (
evaporation, precipitation, streamflow, infiltration, groundwater flow, and
other components).
•The engineering hydrologist, or water resources engineer, is involved in the
planning, analysis, design, construction and operation of projects for the
control, utilization, and management of water resources.
•Water resources problems are also the concern of meteorologists,
oceanographers, geologists, chemists, physicists, biologists, economists,
political scientists, specialists in applied mathematics and computer science,
and engineers in several fields.

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•Hydrologists apply scientific knowledge and mathematical principles to
solve water-related problems in society: problems of quantity, quality
and availability.
•They may be concerned with finding water supplies for cities or
irrigated farms, or controlling river flooding or soil erosion.
•Or, they may work in environmental protection: preventing or cleaning
up pollution or locating sites for safe disposal of hazardous wastes.

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 The Water Cycle and Climate
•The water cycle has a dramatic influence on earth's climate and ecosystems.
•Climate is all the weather conditions of an area, evaluated over a period of
time.
•Two weather conditions that contribute to climate include humidity and
temperature.
•These weather conditions are influenced by the water cycle.

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•Humidity is simply the amount of water vapor in the air.
•As water vapor is not evenly distributed by the water cycle, some regions
experience higher humidity than others.
•This contributes to radically different climates.
•Islands or coastal regions, where water vapor makes up more of the
atmosphere, are usually much more humid than inland regions, where water
vapor is scarcer.

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•A region's temperature also relies on the water cycle.
•Through the water cycle, heat is exchanged and temperatures fluctuate.
• As water evaporates, for example, it absorbs energy and cools the local
environment.
•As water condenses, it releases energy and warms the local
environment.

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 The Water Cycle and the Landscape

•The water cycle also influences the physical geography of the Earth.
•Glacial melt and erosion caused by water are two of the ways the water cycle
helps create Earth's physical features.
• The process of erosion and the movement of runoff also create
varied landscapes across the Earth's surface.
•Erosion is the process by which earth is worn away by liquid water, wind, or
ice.
•Erosion can include the movement of runoff.

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 Reservoirs and Residence Time
•Reservoirs are simply where water exists at any point in the water cycle.
•An underground aquifer can store liquid water, for example.
•The ocean is a reservoir. Ice sheets are reservoirs.
•The atmosphere itself is a reservoir of water vapor.
•Residence time is the amount of time a water molecule spends in one reservoir.

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•For instance, the residence time of "fossil water,«
ancient groundwater reservoirs, can be thousands of years.
•Residence time for water in the Antarctic ice sheet is about 17,000 years.
•That means that a molecule of water will stay as ice for about that amount
of time.
•The residence time for water in the ocean is much shorter—about 3,200
years.
•The residence time of water in the atmosphere is the shortest of all—about
nine days.

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 Surface Water
•Most cities meet their needs for water by withdrawing it from the
nearest river, lake or reservoir.
•Hydrologists help cities by collecting and analyzing the data needed to
predict how much water is available from local supplies and whether it
will be sufficient to meet the city's projected future needs.
•To do this, hydrologists study records of rainfall, snowpack depths
and river flows that are collected and compiled by hydrologists in various
government agencies.
•They inventory the extent river flow already is being used by others.

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•Managing reservoirs can be quite complex, because they generally serve
many purposes.
•Reservoirs increase the reliability of local water supplies.
•Hydrologists use topographic maps and aerial photographs to determine
where the reservoir shorelines will be and to calculate reservoir depths
and storage capacity. This work ensures that, even at maximum capacity,
no highways, railroads or homes would be flooded.
•Deciding how much water to release and how much to store depends
upon the time of year, flow predictions for the next several months, and
the needs of irrigators and cities as well as downstream water-users that
rely on the reservoir.

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•If the reservoir also is used for recreation or for generation of hydroelectric
power, those requirements must be considered.
•Decisions must be coordinated with other reservoir managers along the
river. Hydrologists collect the necessary information, enter it into a
computer, and run computer models to predict the results under various
operating strategies.
• On the basis of these studies, reservoir managers can make the best
decision for those involved.
•The availability of surface water for swimming, drinking, industrial or other
uses sometimes is restricted because of pollution.
Pollution can be merely an unsightly and inconvenient nuisance, or it can be
an invisible, but deadly, threat to the health of people, plants and animals.

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 Groundwater
•Groundwater, pumped from beneath the earth's surface, is often
cheaper, more convenient and less vulnerable to pollution than surface
water.
• Therefore, it is commonly used for public water supplies.
•Groundwater provides the largest source of usable water storage in the
United States.
•Underground reservoirs contain far more water than the capacity of all
surface reservoirs and lakes, including the Great Lakes. In some areas,
ground water may be the only option.
• Some municipalities survive solely on groundwater.

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•Hydrologists estimate the volume of water stored underground by
measuring water levels in local wells and by examining geologic
records from well-drilling to determine the extent, depth and
thickness of water-bearing sediments and rocks.
•Before an investment is made in full-sized wells, hydrologists may
supervise the drilling of test wells.
•They note the depths at which water is encountered and collect
samples of soils, rock and water for laboratory analyses.

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•They may run a variety of geophysical tests on the completed hole,
keeping and accurate log of their observations and test results.
•Hydrologists determine the most efficient pumping rate by monitoring
the extent that water levels drop in the pumped well and in its nearest
neighbors.
• Pumping the well too fast could cause it to go dry or could interfere
with neighboring wells.
•Along the coast, overpumping can cause saltwater intrusion.
•By plotting and analyzing these data, hydrologists can estimate the
maximum and optimum yields

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 Polluted groundwater
•Polluted groundwater is less visible, but more insidious and difficult to
clean up, than pollution in rivers and lakes.
•Ground water pollution most often results from improper disposal of
wastes on land.
•Major sources include industrial and household chemicals and garbage
landfills, industrial waste lagoons, tailings and process wastewater from
mines, oil field brine pits, leaking underground oil storage tanks and
pipelines, sewage sludge and septic systems.

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•Hydrologists provide guidance in the location of monitoring wells around
waste disposal sites and sample them at regular intervals to determine if
undesirable leachate — contaminated water containing toxic or hazardous
chemicals — is reaching the ground water.

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•In polluted areas, hydrologists may collect soil and water samples to
identify the type and extent of contamination.
• The chemical data then are plotted on a map to show the size and
direction of waste movement.
•In complex situations, computer modeling of water flow and waste
migration provides guidance for a clean-up program. In extreme cases,
remedial actions may require excavation of the polluted soil.
•Today, most people and industries realize that the amount of money
invested in prevention is far less than that of cleanup.
•

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•Hydrologists often are consulted for selection of proper sites for new
waste disposal facilities.
•The danger of pollution is minimized by locating wells in areas of
deep ground water and impermeable soils.
• Other practices include lining the bottom of a landfill with watertight
materials, collecting any leachate with drains, and keeping the landfill
surface covered as much as possible.
•Careful monitoring is always necessary.

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Precipitation

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 What is Precipitation?
•Precipitation is defined as the liquid or solid products of the
condensation of water vapour falling from clouds or deposited from air
onto the ground.
•It includes rain, hail, snow, dew, rime, hoar frost and fog precipitation.
• The total amount of precipitation which reaches the ground in a stated
period is expressed in terms of the vertical depth of water (or water
equivalent in the case of solid forms) to which it would cover a horizontal
projection of the Earth’s surface

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•Precipitation intensity is defined as the amount of precipitation
collected per unit time interval.
•According to this definition, precipitation intensity data can be derived
from the measurement of precipitation amount using an ordinary
precipitation gauge.
• In that sense, precipitation intensity is a secondary parameter, derived
from the primary parameter precipitation amount.
•However, precipitation intensity can also be measured directly

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 Units of mesurements
•The unit of precipitation is linear depth, usually in millimetres
(volume/area), or kg m–2 (mass/area) for liquid precipitation.

•The measurement unit of rainfall intensity is linear depth per hour, usually
in millimetres per hour (mm h–1).
•Rainfall intensity is normally measured or derived over one-minute time
intervals due to the high variability of intensity from minute to minute.

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 Precipitation measurement
•Precipitation is expressed in terms of the vertical depth to which water from it
would stand on a level surface area if all the water from it were collected on
this surface.
•The depth is to which water would accumulate on the horizontal projection of
the earth’s surface, if there were no losses by evaporation, infiltration and
runoff and if any part falling as snow etc melted.
•The amount of precipitation is measured using a rain gauge (also
called pluviometer, ombrometer, hyetometer etc).

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 Measurement of Rainfall Using Raingauges
•A rain gauge consists of a cylindrical vessel assembly kept in the open to collect
rain.
•Rainfall collected in the rain gauge is measured at regular intervals.
•Rainfall catch is affected by the exposure conditions of the rain gauge.
•Rain gauges may be broadly classified into 2 categories:
1.Non-recording raingauges and
2.Recording raingauges

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 Non-recording Raingauge
•These rain gauges just collect the rainwater but do not record the quantity
of rainfall.
•The most extensively used non-recording rain gauge is Symon’s gauge.
• Circular collecting area of 12.7 cm diameter connected to a funnel.
•The rim of the collector is set in a horizontal plane at a height of 30.5cm
above the ground level.
•The funnel discharges the rainfall catch into a receiving vessel. The funnel
and collecting vessel (bottle) are housed in a metallic container.
•Water collected in the bottle is measured using a suitably graduated
measuring jar with 0.1mm accuracy.
•Rainfall is measured in mm or cm of water depth

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Symon’s rain gauge
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 Recording Rain Gauges
•Recording raingauges give a permanent automatic record of rainfall.
•It has a mechanical arrangement by which the total amount of rainfall since
the start of record gets automatically recorded on a graph paper.
•It produces a plot of cumulative rainfall vs time (mass curve of rainfall).
•These rain gauges are also called integrating raingauges since they record
cumulative rainfall.

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•In addition to the total amount of rainfall at a station, it gives the times
of onset and cessation of rains (thereby gives the duration of rainfall
events).
•The slope of the plot gives the intensity of rainfall for any given time
period.
•They can provide continuous record for a number of days. They are very
useful in hilly and far off areas.
•In other areas, they are installed along with a non-recording raingauge.

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The types of Recording Rain Gauges are:
1. Tipping Bucket Type
•This is ideally suited for use as a telemetering rain gauge.
•The catch from the funnel falls onto one of a pair of small buckets.
•These buckets are so balanced that when 0.25mm of rain falls into one bucket,
it tips bringing the other bucket in position.

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•The water from the tipped bucket is collected in a can.
•Tipping actuates an electrically driven pen to trace a record on the graph
paper mounted on a clockwork driven drum.
•Water collected in the can is measured at regular intervals to check the
total rainfall recorded.
•The record from this rain gauge gives the intensity of rainfall. These can be
installed in stations located in hilly and inaccessible areas.

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Tipping bucket type rain gauge
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Disadvantages of the Tipping or tilting bucket type rain gauges:
•When tipping of pockets takes place, rainfall at that instant is not
recorded.
•Very high-intensity of rainfall gives close signals, which can make it
difficult to record the number of tips.
•Calibration of tips may change due to rusting and dirt accommodation.

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2. Weighing Bucket Type
•The catch empties into a bucket mounted on a weighing scale.
•The weight of the bucket and its contents are recorded on a clock work
driven chart.
•The instrument gives a plot of cumulative rainfall against time (mass curve of
rainfall).
•In some of the instruments, the recording unit is so devised that the pen
reverses its direction at a preset value.

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Recording Mechanism of Weighing Type Recording Rain Gauge
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Disadvantages of waiting bucket type rain gauges:
•When very heavy precipitation occurs, there is a good chance that the
bucket will overflow
•Expensive instruments are used

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 3. Syphon ( Float) type automatic rainfall recorder
•The working principle of float-type rain gauge is similar to the waiting
bucket-type rain gauge.
•The reason water enters into the container of the gauge through the
funnel.
•A float is provided at the bottom of the container as shown in the figure
below.
•This float is lifted off by the rainwater which is collected in the container.

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•When the float rises, a pen (pointer) attached to the float through a level system
records the elevation of the float on a rotating drum driven by a clock
mechanism.
•When the float has reached a preset maximum level, the siphon arrangement
empties the float chamber

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Float type Rain gauge 47
•All types of information about the storm can be obtained from the
accumulator plot of graph paper.
•The beginning and end of the storm, its intensity, duration, distribution of
rain, and the depths of total storm precipitation can easily e be obtained
from the plot of the graph.

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Disadvantages of syphon type automatic rainfall recorder:
-Cost instruments than other recording-type instruments.
-Mechanical defects sometimes give enormous results.

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 Rainfall Measurements by Radar
•Until now, we have only discussed devices that can provide measurements of
rainfall at a precise location.
• Rain gauges only give you an idea of the rain that fell on them, but not on the
surrounding areas or 20 km away.
•To create rainfall maps, which are maps with the amount of rain that has fallen
over a given timespan (for example, 5 min or 1 h) at multiple locations, we need
to rely on weather radars

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•The functioning of weather radar is summarized in the figure below.
• First, the radar equipment transmits an electromagnetic wave in one
direction, which transfers some energy through the atmosphere.
•When this energy reaches a water drop in a cloud, a tiny part of that energy is
sent back to the radar equipment.
•Then, the equipment measures this very small amount of energy received
from all the drops.

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•Using special computer programs, it is possible to convert the amount of
energy received into the amount of rain.
•It is important to remember that a radar does not directly measure the
amount of rain, but instead measures the amount of energy sent back by
the drops.
•The computer program enables the radar equipment to estimate the
amount of rainfall in places that are far away it.
•The radar equipment can spin around and can also change its angle, so
that it can estimate the rain rate in its entire surroundings.

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•A. Weather radar works by sending a wave in the atmosphere where the drops return a
portion of it to the radar. The equipment shown is located on the campus of Ecole des
Ponts ParisTech. B. A rainfall map created using data obtained with this radar on 15
September 2016 over 3 min and 40 s. Two very intense rainfall cells are visible on the
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lower part of the map.
•Depending on the type of radar, it is possible to estimate rainfall up to
150–200 km from the radar equipment.
•Numerous developed countries have a network of radar equipment.
•By combining the data collected by all of the different radar equipment, we
can obtain maps of rainfall over the whole country.
•The Figure above shows an example of a rainfall radar map measured by
radar equipment at Ecole des Ponts ParisTech.
•The variability of the rainfall can be seen—notice the two very intense cells
on the lower part of the map, in yellow and red.

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Return Period

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•Information on the frequency of heavy rainfalls is often required by
engineers, architects and others, usually in connection with design
criteria for water management or drainage schemes.
• In most cases it would be uneconomic to construct a system capable of
coping with the most extreme rainfall possible, even if the magnitude
of this is known.
•Instead, it is usual to design the system so that it will be capable of
accommodating a rainfall likely to be exceeded only once in a specified
number of years (return period).

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•Sometimes the record length of river flows may be insufficient for
representing the river's entire flow history.
• Floods or droughts that occur infrequently may be under-represented in a
limited streamflow record.

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•For accurate and reliable statistical hydrologic guidance about possible
events, it is necessary to use a dataset that includes a representative sample
of as many different events as possible.
•The longer the period of record, the better the likelihood of capturing the
range of possible events.

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•There are several different return periods traditionally used by hydrologists.
•Common return periods include the 2-, 10-, 25-, 50-, 100-, and even 500-year
flood.
•Values for each of these return periods can be calculated based on the
statistics of the flow record.

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•However, there is a question of just how representative extreme values, such
as the 500-year flood value, might be.
•If possible, it is best to avoid estimating return period flood values that are
greater than twice the record length.
• So you might not want to put much faith in your 500-year flood estimate
unless you have at least 250 years of data.

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Confidence in Return Period Estimates

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•Estimates of flood return periods can be made with relatively short periods of
record.
•But the associated confidence level in the flood frequency statistics is much
higher with a longer period of data.
•For example, to estimate a 10-year flood with no more than a ±10 percent
error, one would need 90 years of record.

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•If you are willing to accept a ±25 percent error, then only 18 years of
record is needed.
•Here we can see the length of data record needed to be within either
±10 percent or ±25 percent errors for the 10-, 25-, 50-, and 100-year
floods.

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 Exceedance Probability
•Sometimes a hydrologist may need to know what the chances are over a given
time period that a flood will reach or exceed a specific magnitude.
•This is called the probability of occurrence or the exceedance probability.

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•Let's say the value "p" is the exceedance probability, in any given year.
•The exceedance probability may be formulated simply as the inverse of the
return period.
•For example, for a two-year return period the exceedance probability in any
given year is one over two = 0.5, or 50 percent.

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 Exceedance probability = 1 - (1 - p)n

But we want to know how to calculate the exceedance probability for a

period of years, not just one given year.
To do this, we use the formula 1- (1-p)n .

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 In this formula we consider all possible flows over the period of interest
"n" and we can represent the whole set of flows with "1."
Then (1-p) is the chance of the flow not occurring, or the non-
exceedance probability, for any given year.
(1-p)n is all the flows that are less than our flood of interest for the whole
time period

Finally, "1," all possible flows, minus (1-p)n, all flows during the time period
than are lower than our flood of interest, leaves us with 1 - (1-p)n, the
probability of those flows of interest occurring within the stated time period.

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68
•This table shows the relationship between the return period, the annual
exceedance probability and the annual non-exceedance probability for any
single given year.
•So, if we want to calculate the chances for a 100-year flood (a table value of p
= 0.01) over a 30-year time period (in other words, n = 30), we can then use
these values in the formula for the exceedance probability.
•We can also use these same values of p and n to calculate the probability of
the event not occurring in a 30-year period, or the non-exceedance probability.

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 Example of Exceedance Probability
1. Let's say you want to know what the probability is for a 50-year flood over a
50-year period.

Calculation for Probability of 50-Year Flood Over 50-Year Period

1 - (1 - p)n
n = 50
p = 0.02

We know that n = 50 since we are looking at a 50-year period of time and

using the probability of occurrence table we see that p=0.02 for a 50-year
return period.

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 1 - (1 - 0.02)50
= 1 - (0.98)50

So, applying these values in the equation, the (1-p) value is (1-0.02), or 0.98.

= 1 - 0.36
= 0.64 or 64%

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1-p) to the n is 0.98 raised to the 50th power. That comes out to 0.36.
(

Now we have (1-0.36), which is 0.64.

There is a 64 percent chance of a 50-year flood in a 50-year period.

That means there is a 36 percent chance we won't see a 50-year flood in the 50-
year period.

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2. Now let's determine the probability of a 100-year flood occurring over a
30-year period of a home mortgage where the home is within the 100-year
floodplain of a river.

Calculation for Probability of 100-Year Flood Over 30-Year Period

1 - (1 - p)n
n = 30
p = 0.01
n=30 and we see from the table, p=0.01 .

1 - (1 - 0.01) 30
= 1 - (0.99) 30
= 1 - 0.74
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 (probability of non-occurrence = 0.74)
= 0.26 or 26% probability of occurrence

The 1-p is 0.99, and .9930 is 0.74.

There is a 0.74 or 74 percent chance of the 100-year flood not occurring in

the next 30 years

But 1-0.74 is 0.26, which shows there is a 26 percent chance of the 100-year
flood in that time.

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Independent and Homogeneous Data

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•Flood frequency analysis requires that data be independent and homogeneous.
•The independence requirement means that floods occur individually and do
not influence each other.
•For example, two peak flows that are above flood stage are independent floods
if the flow completely returned to baseflow in between those two events.
•On the other hand, if there is not a return to baseflow level between the peaks,
the floods are not independent because the first flood has influenced the
second flood.

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•The homogeneous requirement means that each flood needs to occur
under the same type of conditions.
•Two flood events are homogeneous if both are caused by rainfall only.

•An example of non-homogeneity is when one flood is caused by rainfall while

another flood is caused by a dam failure.

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 Intensity-Duration – Frequency (IDF) curve
•Precipitation is one of the most relevant atmospheric variables for humans, for
electrical energy generation, risk management, agriculture and planning of
outdoor events.
•Every year, thousands of people are put at risk because of extreme weather
events .
•For example, floods can trigger infectious disease outbreaks and damage public
and private infrastructure.

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•In fields such as hydrology, meteorology, and civil engineering, the study
of extreme precipitation events is useful to prevent rainfall related
disasters.
• A widely-used practice to address such a problem is by using statistical
inferences about precipitation intensity, duration and frequency (IDF).

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•Intensity Duration Frequency curves describe the connection between rainfall
intensity, rainfall duration and return period.
• Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) curves are one of the most often applied
implements in water resource engineering in areas aimed at controlling floods.
•In particular, IDF curves for precipitation answer problems of improper drainage
systems or conditions and extreme characters of precipitation which are the main
cause of floods.

80
•In general, when modeling extreme environmental events, like precipitation, it is
often desired to understand their behavior over a region.
• In that matter, modeling the rainfall regime and knowing the distribution in the
time span of intense storms serves
of great purpose for designing and operating projects related to meteorology,
hydrology,
civil engineering, among others .
•Therefore, practitioners around the world rely on Intensity-Duration-Frequency
(IDF) curves, by using them as a graphical representation of the underlying
mathematical relationship among precipitation intensity, its duration
and observed frequency

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•The rainfall intensity–duration–frequency (IDF) curves are graphical
representations of the probability that a given average rainfall intensity
will occur within a given period of time .
•Providing mathematical relationship between the rainfall intensity i , the
duration d , and the return period T (or equivalent to the annual
frequency of exceedance f ), the IDF curves allow for the estimation of
the return period of an observed rainfall event or conversely of the
rainfall intensity corresponding to a given return period .

82
•Design storms derived from IDF curves are commonly adopted in water resources
engineering for designing of urban drainage systems, evaluating the endurance of
hydraulic structures, and assessing regional flood vulnerabilities.

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•The typical steps to derive the IDF curves are as follows:
1. Retrieve the extreme rainfall intensities for a specific duration through
annual maximum analysis;
2. Fit the extreme rainfall intensity time series, for each duration, to a
theoretical distribution function, e.g. Generalised Extreme Value (GEV),
Gumbel, Pearson III;
3. Calculate the rainfall intensity, for each duration and return period, based
on the selected distribution function;
4. Construct the IDF curves following the empirical formulae, e.g. Talbot,
Bernard, Kimijima, Sherman, through regression techniques.

84
85
•The deriving procedure of IDF curves involves utilization of long-term historical
rainfall observations.

86
 Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) Curves
Example
•Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) curves describe the relationship
between rainfall intensity, rainfall duration, and return period (or its
inverse, probability of exceedance).
•IDF curves are commonly used in the design of hydrologic, hydraulic,
and water resource systems.
•IDF curves are obtained through frequency analysis of rainfall
observations.

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 Procedure

•Data.
•From rainfall measurements, for every year of record, determine the
annual maximum rainfall intensity for specific durations (or the
annual maximum rainfall depth over the specific durations).
•Common durations for design applications are: 5-min, 10-min, 15-
min, 30-min, 1-hr, 2-hr, 6-hr, 12-hr, and 24-hr (see for example Table 1
below.)

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•The development of IDF curves requires that a frequency analysis be
performed for each set of annual maxima, one each associated with each
rain duration.
•The basic objective of each frequency analysis is to determine the
exceedance probability distribution function of rain intensity for each
duration.
•:

89
 •There are two options for this frequency analysis:

1) Use an empirical plotting position approach to estimate the exceedance

probabilities based on the observations.
2) Fit a theoretical Extreme Value (EV) distribution (e.g., Gumbel Type I) to the
observations and then use the theoretical distribution to estimate the rainfall
events associated with given exceedance probabilities.

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1. Empirical Plotting Position Approach
•To illustrate the first approach, select for example the 30-min duration data
from Table 1 and proceed as follows:

1) Rank the observations in descending order (Table 2, Column 1)

2) Compute the exceedance probability associated with each rainfall
volume using the following expression (Table 2, Column 4):

where m is the number of observations, p is the exceedance probability

and T is the corresponding return period (Table 2, Column 5).

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3) Transform the volume data into rainfall intensity by dividing volume by
the corresponding duration (Table 2, Column 6).
4) Plot empirical distribution of rainfall intensity (Columns 5 and 6 in Figure
1). As indicated above, this procedure is repeated for each of the desired
durations.

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Figure 1.
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2.Theoretical Extreme Value (EV) Distribution Approach
•To illustrate the second approach, let us select the Gumbel
(Type I) distribution as our EV distribution.
•The Gumbel Type I distribution is,

where μ is the location parameter and is the scale parameter

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•It can be shown that the value of the random variable XT associated
with a given return period, T, may be obtained from the following
expression;

where is the mean of the observations (e.g., arithmetic average of the

observations), and S is the standard deviation of the observations.

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•The frequency factor associated with return period T, KT is given by

Equations (1), (2) and (3) are applied to each set of annual maxima
corresponding to each duration, as follows:

1. Compute the frequency factors associated with the desired return

periods (e.g., 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 1000) using equation (4).

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2. For each duration (e.g., 5-min, 10-min, …etc.), compute the sample mean
and sample standard deviations of the series of annual maxima, (x1,…….,xm)
(see Table 1).

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3. Use equation (3) to compute the precipitation intensity associated
with each return period.

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4. Plot the results (Figure 2).

Figure 2. 101