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River Regimes and Hydrographs Handout

A drainage basin's characteristics, such as its size, rock types, relief, and land use, affect how quickly water moves through it. A river's regime, shown through hydrographs, displays its discharge over time and in response to precipitation, temperature, and drainage basin features. Storm hydrographs specifically record a river's discharge during rainstorms and can be used to compare drainage basins and predict flooding. The lag time between peak rainfall and peak discharge impacts flooding potential.

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142 views

River Regimes and Hydrographs Handout

A drainage basin's characteristics, such as its size, rock types, relief, and land use, affect how quickly water moves through it. A river's regime, shown through hydrographs, displays its discharge over time and in response to precipitation, temperature, and drainage basin features. Storm hydrographs specifically record a river's discharge during rainstorms and can be used to compare drainage basins and predict flooding. The lag time between peak rainfall and peak discharge impacts flooding potential.

Uploaded by

Chuu Chuu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Drainage Basin and Their Features

 Each drainage basin has a unique combination of different features such as size,
rock types, relief and land use.
 The different features of a drainage basin affect how quickly or slowly water moves
through the drainage basin.
Hydrographs and River Regime
River Regime: the variation in a river’s discharge throughout the year in response to
precipitation, temperature, evapotranspiration and drainage basin characteristics.
River regime is closely connected to local climatic conditions, especially the rainfall
regime.

Hydrograph: a graph showing a river’s rate of discharge over time past a specific point.
Hydrograph display data on a river regime. They show what happens a river’s discharge
over the course of the year.
A storm hydrograph covers a much shorter time period. It records river
discharge as the drainage basin reacts to a rainstorm. A storm hydrograph is a very
useful tool for comparing the characteristics of different drainage basins.
 The bars in the left-hand corner show the input of rain.
 The hour or time of maximum rainfall is called Peak rainfall.
 The time of maximum discharge is called Peak discharge.
 The period of time when the river discharge is falling is called recession or falling limb.
 The normal discharge of river is called base flow.
 The additional discharge of the river as a result of the rainstorm is called storm flow.

Lag Time
 The period of time or delay between peak rainfall and peak discharge is called lag time.
 The shorter the lag time, the greater the chances of flooding.
 The shorter the lag time, the quicker the water reaches the river channel.
 A short lag time causes the river discharge to rise steeply.
 The steeper the rise in discharge, the greater the chances of flooding.

Why do we construct and analyse storm hydrograph?


 To find out discharge patterns of a particular drainage basin
 To compare the characteristics of different basins
 Help to predict flooding and plan flood prevention
The Use of Storm Hydrograph
 The data allows people to work out the risk of flooding and over
what area.
 People need to know how rivers will behave during heavy rainfall
because:
 The majority of the world’s drainage basins are home to many
people.
 These areas are with fertile soils and the ability to grow food.
 Much money is invested in drainage basins. (farmland, homes,

business transport)

Factors Affecting Lag Time


 The amount and intensity of the rain
 Temperature
 Land use and vegetaton
 Channel density
 Relief
 Rock type or soil type
 Human intervention such as dams and reservoirs – these hold back discharge
and so reduce the risk of flooding downstream
 Abstraction - taking water out of a river, for example for irrigation

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