Major Terminologies of RF data

• Hourly Rainfall : the rainfall depth in each hour

• Daily Rainfall : depth of Rainfall in 24 hour

• Decadal Rainfall : sum of 10 days rainfall

• Monthly Rainfall : sum of daily rainfall of days in a month

• Annual Rainfall : sum of monthly rainfall in a year

• Mean Daily Rainfall: The average daily rainfall over long year

• Mean monthly Rainfall : the average monthly rainfall over the long year

• Mean annual Rainfall: the average of annual rainfall over the long year

• Maximum Daily Rainfall: the maximum of the daily rainfall over the specified

period /decadal, monthly, Annual ?

 Rain fall data Presentation
- Rainfall Mass Curve: A plot showing the cumulative rainfall depth
over the storm duration

Time

-Rainfall Hyetograph: A plot of rainfall depth or intensity with respect

to time

Time
- Instantaneous Rainfall Intensity, (slope of the mass curve)
dP(t)
i(t) =
dt
-Average Intensity in (t, t + ∆t) is
∆P P (t + ∆t ) − P (t )
it = =
∆t ∆t
Mass curve of rainfall
142
Accumulated precipitation (cm)

4th Storm
1st Storm 2nd 3rd Storm
Storm

10

1 2 3 4 5
Days
Hyetograph of a storm
0.6
Rainfall Intensity, cm/h

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
0
8 16 24 32 40 48 56
Time, hours
 Mean Precipitation over an Area
• Rain gauge measure a point data / a station
data of rainfall.
• In practice, however, hydrological analysis
requires a knowledge of rainfall over an area,
such as over a catchment.
• To convert the point rainfall values at
various stations into an average value over a
catchment, the following three methods are:
– Arithmetic mean method
– Thiessen polygon method
– Isohyetal method
• Arithmetical – Mean Method
P1 + P2 + .............Pi + ...... + Pn 1 N
P=
N
=
N
∑P
i =1
i

Example

Ans. 2.208″
Arithmetic mean method
• The central assumption in the arithmetic mean method
is that each rain gauge has equal weight.
• It is a simple method, and well applicable if the gages
are uniformly distributed over the watershed and
individual gage measurements do not vary greatly
about their mean.
• If there are many topographic differences, and the
rainfall rates vary considerably, then this method may
leads to large errors.
• This method is rarely used in practice.
• Thiessen – Polygon Method

P1 A1 + P2 A2 + ... + Pi Ai + ... + Pn An
P=
( A1 + A2 + ... + Ai + ... + An )
M

∑PA i i M
Ai
= i =1
= ∑ Pi
A i =1 A
Thiessen polygon method
• In this method the rainfall recorded at each station is
given a weightage on the basis of an area closest to the
station.
• This method attempts to allow for non-uniform
distribution of gauges by providing a weighting factor
for each gauge.
• The adjacent stations are joined by straight lines, thus
dividing the entire area into a series of triangles.
Perpendicular bisectors are erected on each of these
lines, thus forming a series of polygons, each containing
one and only one stations. It is assumed that the entire
area within any polygon is assigned for the nearer
rainfall stations.
 Continue…

• The disadvantages of the Thiessen polygon method are

its inflexibility that is addition of new station implies
construction of new polygon, and it does not directly
account for orographic influences of rainfall.
AA

AB

AC
AD

AE
 AA = 0.25ha

AB = 0.90ha

AC = 0.85ha AD = 0.75ha

AE = 0.70ha

Ans: 2.398”
 Example 2
• Draw Thiessen polygons on the
catchment below. If the rainfall
depths recorded by gauge A, B and C
are 10mm, 8mm and 9mm
respectively, and the corresponding
polygon areas are 5.1 km2, 3.2 km2,
and 5.3 km2, estimate the catchment
average rainfall depth.
 Isohyetal Method
 P1 + P2   P2 + P3   Pn −1 + p n 
A1   + A2   + ...... + An −1  
 2   2   2 
P=
A
• Isohyets are the contours of equal rainfall. They are
draw in the map by using common sense, after the rainfall
at each station is plotted. The area between the adjacent
isohyets is either estimated on the graph paper or
measured by planimeter.
• The method is good where there is a dense network of
rain gauges. It is also flexible and considers orographic
effect.
 0.50”

1.00”

2.00”

5.00”
4.00”
3.00”
2.00”
 Example
8 10
6
C
9.2
B
7.0 D
12 12
4 A
7.2

F E
4.0 9.1 10

8
6
4
Ans: 8.844cm
Estimating missing rainfall data
• Sometimes, the rainfall amount at a certain rain gauge
station for a certain day(s), may be missing due to the
absence of some observer or instrumental failure.
– estimate the missing data by using the nearest
stations rainfall data.
• three surrounding stations with mean annual rainfall
of N1, N2, and N3 (Index stations) have record of RF at
day 1. But Station X with missing data at day1 has
AARF of Nx (Missing stations).
– RF on Day1 at station x Arithmetic
mean
• Px=(P1+P2+P3)/3
– Note: provided that N1, N2, and N3 differ within 10%
of Nx plus Nx.
Estimating missing rainfall data…
method of
• OR normal ratio

– Given N1 , N2 , or N3 differ by more than 10% of Nx

method of reciprocal weighting

factor

This method takes into account the distance between

station X and the other gauges surrounding the missed
gauge.
Estimating missing rainfall data…

Example 1

• Rainfall station X was missed for a month where storm

occurred. The respective storm totals at three
surrounding stations A, B, and C for the month were
107, 89, and 122 mm.
– The normal annual rainfall amounts of station X, A,
B, and C are respectively, 978, 1120, 935, and 1200
mm respectively. Estimate the storm rainfall for
station X for its missing month.
Example 2
Solution
Consistency of Rainfall Record
o Rain fall data reported from a station may not be
consistence always. Over the period of observation of rain
fall record, there could be (i) unreported shifting of the
rain gauge, (ii) significant construction work in the area,
(iii) change in the observational procedure incorporated
from a certain period, (v) earth quake or land slide might
have take place in the area. Such changes at any station are
likely to affect the consistency of data from a station.
o Use of double mass-curve to check the consistency of the
record and helps to correct the rain gauge data of the
station.
Consistency of Rainfall Record

Double mass
curve method
Intensity – Duration –Frequency Relationship
• Rainfall Intensity (mm/hr), the intensity of rainfall is the rate
of precipitation, i.e., depth of precipitation per unit time
• This can be either instantaneous intensity or average
intensity over the duration of rainfall
• The average intensity is commonly used.
where P is the rainfall depth t is the duration of rainfall
• Rainfall Duration (how many hours it rained at that
intensity)
• The frequency is expressed in terms of return period (T)
which is the average length of time between rainfall events
that equal or exceed the given (design) magnitude.
Intensity – Duration –Frequency Relationship
• IDF curves are graphical representations of the
probability that a certain average rainfall intensity will
occur, given a duration.
• IDF curves are used in many hydrological design
projects involving urban drainage, bridge sizing,
spillway sizing, etc where there is a need to determine
design storm magnitude (or intensity of rainfall for
specified duration) for required return period.
• The inter-dependency among intensity (i cm/hr),
duration (D hr.) and return period (T years) is
commonly expressed in a general formula
KT x
i=
(D + a )n
where k, x, a, and n are constant for a given catchment
Intensity – Duration -Frequency