Unit Hydrographs

Transforming the Runoff

Unit Hydrograph Theory

 Moving water off of the watershed…

 A mathematical concept
 Linear in nature
 Uses convolution to transform the
excess precipitation to streamflow….
 The Basic Process Necessary for a
single basin
Unit
Hydrographs

Excess Precip. Excess Precip.

Model

Basin “Routing” Runoff

Excess Precip. UHG Methods Hydrograph

Stream and/or Downstream

Runoff Reservoir Hydrograph
Hydrograph “Routing”
Unit Hydrograph Theory
 Sherman - 1932
 Horton - 1933
 Wisler & Brater - 1949 - “the hydrograph of surface runoff
resulting from a relatively short, intense rain, called a unit
storm.”
 The runoff hydrograph may be “made up” of runoff that is
generated as flow through the soil (Black, 1990).
Unit Hydrograph “Lingo”

 Duration
 Lag Time
 Time of Concentration
 Rising Limb
 Recession Limb (falling
limb)
 Peak Flow
 Time to Peak (rise time)
 Recession Curve
 Separation
 Base flow
Graphical Representation
Duration of
excess precip.

Lag time

Time of
concentration

Base flow
Methods of Developing
UHG’s

 From Streamflow Data

 Synthetically
 Snyder
 SCS
 Time-Area (Clark, 1945)
 “Fitted” Distributions
Unit Hydrograph

 The hydrograph that results from 1-inch of excess

precipitation (or runoff) spread uniformly in space and
time over a watershed for a given duration.

 The key points :

 1-inch of EXCESS precipitation
 Spread uniformly over space - evenly over the
watershed
 Uniformly in time - the excess rate is constant
over the time interval
 There is a given duration
0.
00
0

0.0000
100.0000
200.0000
300.0000
400.0000
500.0000
600.0000
700.0000

0. 0
16
00
0.
32
0
0. 0
48
00
0.
64
0
0. 0
80
00
0.
96
0
1. 0
12
0
1. 0
28
00
1.
44
0
1. 0
60
00
1.
76
0
1. 0
92
00
2.
Surface

08
0
Response

2. 0
24
00
2.
40
0
2. 0
56
0
2. 0
72
00
2.
88
0
3. 0
04
00
Baseflow

3.
20
0
3. 0
36
00
3.
52
0
3. 0
68
00
Derived Unit Hydrograph
Derived Unit Hydrograph
700.0000

600.0000 Total
Hydrograph

500.0000

Surface
400.0000 Response

300.0000

Baseflow
200.0000

100.0000

0.0000
0.0000 0.5000 1.0000 1.5000 2.0000 2.5000 3.0000 3.5000 4.0000
 Derived Unit Hydrograph

Rules of Thumb :
… the storm should be fairly uniform in nature and the
excess precipitation should be equally as uniform throughout
the basin. This may require the initial conditions throughout
the basin to be spatially similar.
… Second, the storm should be relatively constant in time,
meaning that there should be no breaks or periods of no
precipitation.
… Finally, the storm should produce at least an inch of
excess precipitation (the area under the hydrograph after
correcting for baseflow).
Deriving a UHG from a
Storm
sample watershed = 450 mi2

25000 0.8

0.7

20000
0.6

Precipitation (inches)
0.5
15000
Flow (cfs)

0.4

10000
0.3

0.2
5000

0.1

0 0
4
2
0
8
0
8
16
24
32
40
48
56
64
72
80
88
96
10
11
12
12
Time (hrs.)
Separation of Baseflow
...generally accepted that the inflection point on the
recession limb of a hydrograph is the result of a change in the
controlling physical processes of the excess precipitation
flowing to the basin outlet.
In this example, baseflow is considered to be a straight line
connecting that point at which the hydrograph begins to rise
rapidly and the inflection point on the recession side of the
hydrograph.
the inflection point may be found by plotting the hydrograph
in semi-log fashion with flow being plotted on the log scale and
noting the time at which the recession side fits a straight line.
Semi-log Plot
100000

Recession side of hydrograph

10000 becomes linear at approximately hour
64.

1000
Flow (cfs)

100

10

1
4
9
4
9
4
9
4
29
34
39
44
49
54
59
64
69
74
79
84
89
94
99
10
10
11
11
12
12
13
Time (hrs.)
Hydrograph & Baseflow
25000

20000

15000
Flow (cfs)

10000

5000

0
0
7
14
21

28
35
42
49
56
63
70
77
84
91
98
105
112
119
126
133
Time (hrs.)
Separate Baseflow
25000

20000

15000
Flow (cfs)

10000

5000

5
2
9
6

3
0
7
14

21
28
35
42

49
56
63
70

77
84
91
98
10
11
11
12

13
Time (hrs.)
Sample Calculations

 In the present example (hourly time step), the flows are

summed and then multiplied by 3600 seconds to determine
the volume of runoff in cubic feet. If desired, this value may
then be converted to acre-feet by dividing by 43,560 square
feet per acre.
 The depth of direct runoff in feet is found by dividing the total
volume of excess precipitation (now in acre-feet) by the
watershed area (450 mi2 converted to 288,000 acres).
 In this example, the volume of excess precipitation or direct
runoff for storm #1 was determined to be 39,692 acre-feet.
 The depth of direct runoff is found to be 0.1378 feet after
dividing by the watershed area of 288,000 acres.
 Finally, the depth of direct runoff in inches is 0.1378 x 12 =
1.65 inches.
Again - Summing Flows

Continuous process
represented with
discrete time steps
 Obtain UHG Ordinates
• The ordinates of the unit hydrograph are
obtained by dividing each flow in the direct
runoff hydrograph by the depth of excess
precipitation.
• In this example, the units of the unit
hydrograph would be cfs/inch (of excess
precipitation).
Final UHG
25000
Storm #1 hydrograph

Storm#1 direct runoff

20000 hydrograph

15000
Flow (cfs)

Storm # 1 unit
hydrograph

10000

Storm #1
baseflow
5000

0
0
7
14
21
28
35
42
49
56
63
70
77
84
91
98
105
112
119
126
133
Time (hrs.)
Determine Duration of UHG

 The duration of the derived unit hydrograph is found by

examining the precipitation for the event and determining
that precipitation which is in excess.
 This is generally accomplished by plotting the precipitation
in hyetograph form and drawing a horizontal line such that
the precipitation above this line is equal to the depth of
excess precipitation as previously determined.
 This horizontal line is generally referred to as the F-index
and is based on the assumption of a constant or uniform
infiltration rate.
 The uniform infiltration necessary to cause 1.65 inches of
excess precipitation was determined to be approximately
0.2 inches per hour.
Estimating Excess Precip.
0.8

0.7

0.6
Precipitation (inches)

0.5

Uniform loss rate of

0.4 0.2 inches per hour.

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Time (hrs.)
Excess Precipitation

0.9

Derived unit hydrograph is the

0.8
result of approximately 6 hours
of excess precipitation.
0.7
Excess Prec. (inches)

Small amounts of
0.6
excess precipitation at
beginning and end may
0.5
be omitted.

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Time (hrs.)
 Changing the Duration
 Very often, it will be necessary to change the duration of the unit
hydrograph.
 If unit hydrographs are to be averaged, then they must be of the same
duration.
 Also, convolution of the unit hydrograph with a precipitation event
requires that the duration of the unit hydrograph be equal to the time
step of the incremental precipitation.
 The most common method of altering the duration of a unit hydrograph
is by the S-curve method.
 The S-curve method involves continually lagging a unit hydrograph by
its duration and adding the ordinates.
 For the present example, the 6-hour unit hydrograph is continually
lagged by 6 hours and the ordinates are added.
Develop S-Curve
60000.00

50000.00

40000.00
Continuous
Flow (cfs)

30000.00 6-hour
bursts
20000.00

10000.00

0.00

102
108
114
120
12
18
24
30
36
42
48
54
60
66
72
78
84
90
96
0
6

Time (hrs.)
Convert to 1-Hour Duration
 To arrive at a 1-hour unit hydrograph, the S-curve is lagged by 1
hour and the difference between the two lagged S-curves is
found to be a 1 hour unit hydrograph.
 However, because the S-curve was formulated from unit
hydrographs having a 6 hour duration of uniformly distributed
precipitation, the hydrograph resulting from the subtracting the
two S-curves will be the result of 1/6 of an inch of precipitation.
 Thus the ordinates of the newly created 1-hour unit hydrograph
must be multiplied by 6 in order to be a true unit hydrograph.
 The 1-hour unit hydrograph should have a higher peak which
occurs earlier than the 6-hour unit hydrograph.
Final 1-hour UHG
14000.00 60000.00

12000.00
50000.00
Unit Hydrograph Flow (cfs/inch)

S-curves are
10000.00 lagged by 1 hour
and the difference 40000.00
is found.

Flow (cfs)
8000.00 1-hour unit
hydrograph resulting
30000.00
from lagging S-
6000.00 curves and
multiplying the
difference by 6. 20000.00
4000.00

10000.00
2000.00

0.00 0.00
Time (hrs.)
Average Several UHG’s

 It is recommend that several unit hydrographs be derived

and averaged.
 The unit hydrographs must be of the same duration in order
to be properly averaged.
 It is often not sufficient to simply average the ordinates of the
unit hydrographs in order to obtain the final unit hydrograph.
A numerical average of several unit hydrographs which are
different “shapes” may result in an “unrepresentative” unit
hydrograph.
 It is often recommended to plot the unit hydrographs that are
to be averaged. Then an average or representative unit
hydrograph should be sketched or fitted to the plotted unit
hydrographs.
 Finally, the average unit hydrograph must have a volume of
1 inch of runoff for the basin.
Synthetic UHG’s

 Snyder
 SCS
 Time-area
Snyder
 Since peak flow and time of peak flow are two of the most
important parameters characterizing a unit hydrograph, the
Snyder method employs factors defining these parameters,
which are then used in the synthesis of the unit graph (Snyder,
1938).
 The parameters are Cp, the peak flow factor, and Ct, the lag
factor.
 The basic assumption in this method is that basins which have
similar physiographic characteristics are located in the same
area will have similar values of Ct and Cp.
 Therefore, for ungaged basins, it is preferred that the basin be
near or similar to gaged basins for which these coefficients can
be determined.
Basic Relationships
t LAG  Ct ( L  Lca ) 0.3

t LAG
t duration 
5.5

talt.lag  t LAG  0.25(talt.duration  tduration)

t LAG
tbase  3 
8

640 AC p
q peak 
t LAG
Final Shape

The final shape of the Snyder unit

hydrograph is controlled by the
equations for width at 50% and 75% of
the peak of the UHG:
SCS

SCS Dimensionless UHG Features

1

Flow ratios
Cum. Mass
0.8

0.6
Q/Qpeak

0.4

0.2

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
T/Tpeak
Dimensionless Ratios
Time Ratios Discharge Ratios Mass Curve Ratios
(t/tp) (q/qp) (Qa/Q)
0 .000 .000
.1 .030 .001
.2 .100 .006
.3 .190 .012
.4 .310 .035
.5 .470 .065
.6 .660 .107
.7 .820 .163
.8 .930 .228
.9 .990 .300
1.0 1.000 .375
1.1 .990 .450
1.2 .930 .522
1.3 .860 .589
1.4 .780 .650
1.5 .680 .700
1.6 .560 .751
1.7 .460 .790
1.8 .390 .822
1.9 .330 .849
2.0 .280 .871
2.2 .207 .908
2.4 .147 .934
2.6 .107 .953
2.8 .077 .967
3.0 .055 .977
3.2 .040 .984
3.4 .029 .989
3.6 .021 .993
3.8 .015 .995
4.0 .011 .997
4.5 .005 .999
5.0 .000 1.000
Triangular Representation
D SCS Dimensionless UHG & Triangular Representation
1.2 Excess
Precipitation

Tlag

0.8

Flow ratios
Cum. Mass
Q/Qpeak

Triangular
0.6

Point of
Inflection
Tc
0.4

0.2

0
0.0 Tp 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0
Tb
T/Tpeak
 Triangular Representation
D SCS Dimensionless UHG & Triangular Representation

Tb  2.67 x Tp 1.2 Excess

Precipitation

Tlag

Tr  Tb - Tp  1.67 x Tp 0.8

Flow ratios
Cum. Mass

Q/Qpeak
Triangular
0.6

Point of
Inflection
Tc
0.4

qpT p qpT r qp
Q= + = (T p +T r )
2 2 2 0.2

0
0.0 Tp 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0
Tb
T/Tpeak
2Q
qp=
T p +T r

654.33 x 2 x A x Q
qp = The 645.33 is the conversion used for
T p +T r
delivering 1-inch of runoff (the area
under the unit hydrograph) from 1-square
484 A Q
qp= mile in 1-hour (3600 seconds).
Tp
 484 ?
484 A Q
qp=
Tp

Comes from the initial assumption that 3/8 of the volume

under the UHG is under the rising limb and the remaining 5/8
is under the recession limb.

General Description Peaking Factor Limb Ratio

(Recession to Rising)
Urban areas; steep 575 1.25
slopes
Typical SCS 484 1.67
Mixed urban/rural 400 2.25
Rural, rolling hills 300 3.33
Rural, slight slopes 200 5.5
Rural, very flat 100 12.0
Duration & Timing?

Again from the triangle

D
T p= +L
2
L = Lag time
L  0.6 * Tc

Tc  D  1.7 T p

D
+ 0.6 T c = T p
2

For estimation purposes : D  0.133 Tc

Time of Concentration

 Regression Eqs.
 Segmental Approach
 A Regression Equation

L0.8 (S  1) 0.7
Tlag 
1900(% Slope) 0.5

where : Tlag = lag time in hours

L = Length of the longest drainage path in feet
S = (1000/CN) - 10 (CN=curve number)
%Slope = The average watershed slope in %
Segmental Approach
 More “hydraulic” in nature
 The parameter being estimated is essentially the time of
concentration or longest travel time within the basin.
 In general, the longest travel time corresponds to the longest
drainage path
 The flow path is broken into segments with the flow in each
segment being represented by some type of flow regime.
 The most common flow representations are overland, sheet, rill

and gully, and channel flow.

 1

A Basic Approach V  kS 2

K Land Use / Flow Regime

0.25 Forest with heavy ground litter, hay meadow
(overland flow)
0.5 Trash fallow or minimum tillage cultivation; contour
or strip cropped; woodland (overland flow)
0.7 Short grass pasture (overland flow) Sorell & Hamilton, 1991
0.9 Cultivated straight row (overland flow) Flow Type K
1.0 Nearly bare and untilled (overland flow); alluvial fans Small Tributary - Permanent or 2.1
in western mountain regions intermittent streams which appear as
1.5 Grassed waterway solid or dashed blue lines on USGS
2.0 Paved area (sheet flow); small upland gullies topographic maps.
Waterway - Any overland flow route 1.2
McCuen (1989) and SCS which is a well defined swale by
(1972) provide values of k elevation contours, but is not a stream
for several flow situations section as defined above.
(slope in %) Sheet Flow - Any other overland flow 0.48
path which does not conform to the
definition of a waterway.
Triangular Shape
 In general, it can be said that the triangular version will not
cause or introduce noticeable differences in the simulation of a
storm event, particularly when one is concerned with the peak
flow.
 For long term simulations, the triangular unit hydrograph does
have a potential impact, due to the shape of the recession limb.
 The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (HEC 1990) fits a Clark unit
hydrograph to match the peak flows estimated by the Snyder
unit hydrograph procedure.
 It is also possible to fit a synthetic or mathematical function to
the peak flow and timing parameters of the desired unit
hydrograph.
 Aron and White (1982) fitted a gamma probability distribution
using peak flow and time to peak data.
Fitting a Gamma Distribution
t a e t b
f (t ; a, b)  a 1
b (a  1)

500.0000

450.0000

400.0000

350.0000

300.0000

250.0000

200.0000

150.0000

100.0000

50.0000

0.0000
0.0000 1.0000 2.0000 3.0000 4.0000 5.0000 6.0000
Time-Area
Time-Area

100%

Time
Q % Area of conc.

Time Time
Time-Area
Hypothetical Example
 A 190 mi2 watershed is divided into 8 isochrones of travel time.
 The linear reservoir routing coefficient, R, estimated as 5.5
hours.
 A time interval of 2.0 hours will be used for the computations.
Rule of Thumb

R - The linear reservoir routing coefficient

can be estimated as approximately 0.75
times the time of concentration.
Basin Breakdown

Map Bounding Area Cumulative Cumulative

Area # Isochrones (mi2) Area (mi2) Time (hrs)
1 0-1 5 5 1.0
2 1-2 9 14 2.0
3 2-3 23 37 3.0
4 3-4 19 58 4.0
5 4-5 27 85 5.0
6 5-6 26 111 6.0
7 6-7 39 150 7.0
8 7-8 40 190 8.0
TOTAL 190 190 8.0
Incremental Area
40

35

Incremental Area (sqaure miles)

30

25

20

15

10

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Time Increment (hrs)
Cumulative Time-Area Curve
9

Cumulative Area (sqaure miles)

6

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Time (hrs)
Trouble Getting a Time-Area
Curve?

TAi  1.414Ti 1.5 for (0  Ti  0.5)

1  TAi  1.414(1  Ti )1.5 for (0.5  Ti  1.0)

Synthetic time-area curve -

The U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers (HEC 1990)
Instantaneous UHG
IUHi  cI i  (1  c) IUH( i1)

2 t
c
2 R  t

 t = the time step used n the

calculation of the translation unit
hydrograph
 The final unit hydrograph may be
found by averaging 2
instantaneous unit hydrographs
that are a t time step apart.
Computations
Time Inc. Inc. Inst. IUHG 2-hr
(hrs) Area Translated UHG Lagged 2 UHG
(mi2) Flow (cfs) hours (cfs)
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
0 0 0 0 0
2 14 4,515 1391 0 700
4 44 14,190 5333 1,391 3,360
6 53 17,093 8955 5,333 7,150
8 79 25,478 14043 8,955 11,500
10 0 0 9717 14,043 11,880
12 6724 9,717 8,220
14 4653 6,724 5,690
16 3220 4,653 3,940
18 2228 3,220 2,720
20 1542 2,228 1,890
22 1067 1,542 1,300
24 738 1,067 900
26 510 738 630
28 352 510 430
30 242 352 300
32 168 242 200
34 116 168 140
36 81 116 100
38 55 81 70
40 39 55 50
42 26 39 30
44 19 26 20
46 13 19 20
48 13
Incremental Areas

90

80

70
Area Increments (square miles)

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
0 2 4 6 8 10
Time Increments (2 hrs)
Incremental Flows

30000

25000
Translated Unit Hydrograph

20000

15000

10000

5000

0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Time Increments (2 hrs)
Instantaneous UHG

16000

14000

12000

10000
Flow (cfs/inch)

8000

6000

4000

2000

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time (hrs)
Lag & Average
16000

14000

12000

10000
Flow (cfs/inch)

8000

6000

4000

2000

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time (hrs)
Convolution

Putting It All Together

The Basic Process…. Necessary for a
single basin

Excess Precip. Excess Precip.

Model

Basin “Routing” Runoff

Excess Precip. UHG Methods Hydrograph

Stream and/or Downstream

Runoff Reservoir Hydrograph
Hydrograph “Routing”
Convolution
CN = 68 S= 4.706 IA = 0.9412
Time Ppt Cum Ppt.
cum. RO
Inc. ROUHG(@360)
RO1(UHG)
RO2(UHG)
RO3(UHG)
RO4(UHG)
0 0 0 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
1 0.7 0.7 0.01 0.01 750.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
2 1.2 1.9 0.16 0.15 1500.00 0.00 9.77 0.00 0.00
3 0.6 2.5 0.39 0.23 2250.00 0.00 19.54 111.95 0.00
4 1.5 4 1.20 0.82 2850.00 0.00 29.31 223.90 169.19
5 6.3 10.3 6.23 5.02 3625.00 0.00 37.13 335.85 338.37
6 4 14.3 9.88 3.65 3400.00 0.00 47.23 425.41 507.56
7 0 14.3 9.88 0.00 3150.00 0.00 44.30 541.09 642.91
8 1.6 15.9 11.38 1.50 2725.00 0.00 41.04 507.50 817.74
9 0.4 16.3 11.76 0.38 2500.00 0.00 35.50 470.19 766.98
10 0.2 16.5 11.95 0.19 2250.00 0.00 32.57 406.75 710.59
11 0.6 17.1 12.51 0.57 1925.00 0.00 29.31 373.16 614.71
12 0.1 17.2 12.61 0.09 1675.00 0.00 25.08 335.85 563.96
13 0 17.2 12.61 0.00 1450.00 0.00 21.82 287.34 507.56
14 0 17.2 12.61 0.00 1225.00 0.00 18.89 250.02 434.25
15 0 17.2 12.61 0.00 1000.00 0.00 15.96 216.43 377.85
16 0 17.2 12.61 0.00 775.00 0.00 13.03 182.85 327.10
17 0 17.2 12.61 0.00 550.00 0.00 10.10 149.27 276.34
18 0 17.2 12.61 0.00 325.00 0.00 7.17 115.68 225.58
19 0 17.2 12.61 0.00 100.00 0.00 4.23 82.10 174.83
20 0 17.2 12.61 0.00 0.00 0.00 1.30 48.51 124.07
21 0 17.2 12.61 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 14.93 73.31
22 0 17.2 12.61 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 22.56
23 0 17.2 12.61 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
24 0 17.2 12.61 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
25 0 17.2 12.61 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
26 0 17.2 12.61 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
27 0 17.2 12.61 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
28 0 17.2 12.61 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
29 0 17.2 12.61 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
30 0 17.2 12.61 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
31 0 17.2 12.61 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
32 0 17.2 12.61 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
33 0 17.2 12.61 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Individual Responses
Individual Responses

20000.00

15000.00

10000.00
Flow (cfs)

5000.00

0.00
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

-5000.00
Time (hrs)
 Overall Response

Overall Response

40000.00

35000.00

30000.00

25000.00
Flow (cfs)

20000.00

15000.00

10000.00

5000.00

0.00
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
-5000.00
Time (hrs)
 UHG Application

UHG’s in the NWSRFS – a few issues

The SAC-SMA UHG

The SAC-SMA model computes the following

components:
Surface runoff which occurs when the storage
capacity of the upper zone free water is exceeded.
Impervious runoff from impermeable surfaces (if
the percent impervious is set to a value greater
than zero.
Direct runoff from additional impervious surfaces
(if applicable).
Interflow and baseflow contributions.
More on SAC-SMA UHG

 When developing a
unit hydrograph for
the SAC-SMA model,
the user should
attempt to separate
out both baseflow
and interflow.
SAC-SMA – more…
 The very nature of the
unit hydrograph is that is
time distributes the runoff
or excess precipitation.
Therefore, it accounts for
lagging or delays. The
SAC-SMA model also
accounts for delays in the
interflow and baseflow
components; therefore,
they should not be
accounted for in the unit
hydrograph that is to be
used with the SAC-SMA.
Issues w/ UHG in Forecasting

 Storm Size
 Moving Storms