Runoff

• Runoff means the draining of flowing off of precipitation from a catchment area through a
surface channel.
• Runoff is the portion of rainfall which flows through the rives, streams, etc.

Total Precipitation

Precipitation
Infiltration Abstractions
Excess

Surface Subsurface Deep

Runoff Runoff Percolation

Groundwater
Prompt SSR Delayed SSR
Ruoff

Direct
Runoff Base Flow
Base Flow

Total Runoff

Types of Runoff

• Surface runoff
o Portion of rainfall (after all losses such as interception, infiltration, depression
storage etc. are met) that enters streams immediately after occurring rainfall
o After laps of few time, overland flow joins streams
o Sometime termed prompt runoff (as very quickly enters streams)
• Subsurface runoff
o Amount of rainfall first enter into soil and then flows laterally towards stream
without joining water table
o Also take little time to reach stream
• Base flow
o Delayed flow
 o Water that meets the groundwater table and join the stream or ocean
o Very slow movement and take months or years to reach streams

Factors affecting runoff

• Climatic factors
o Type of precipitation
▪ Rain and snow fall
o Rainfall intensity
▪ High intensity rainfall causes more rainfall
o Duration of rainfall
▪ When duration increases, infiltration capacity decreases resulting more
runoff
o Rainfall distribution
▪ Distribution of rainfall in a catchment may vary and runoff also vary
▪ More rainfalls closer to the outlet, peak flow occurs quickly
• Direction of prevailing wind
o If the wind direction is towards the flow direction, peak flow will occur quickly
• Other climatic factors
o Temperature, wind velocity, relative humidity, annual rainfall etc. affect initial loss
of precipitation and thereby affecting runoff
• Physiographic factors
o Physiographic characteristics of watershed and channel both
o Size of watershed
▪ Larger the watershed, longer time needed to deliver runoff to the outlet
▪ Small watersheds dominated by overland flow and larger watersheds by
runoff
o Shape of watershed
▪ Fan shaped, fan shaped (elongated) and broad shaped
▪ Fan shaped –runoff from the nearest tributaries drained out before the floods
of farthest tributaries. Peak runoff is less
 ▪ Broad shaped –all tributaries contribute runoff almost at the same time so
that peak flow is more

o Orientation of watershed
▪ Windward side of mountains get more rainfall than leeward side
o Landuse
▪ Forest –thick layer of organic matter and undercover –huge amounts
absorbed to soil –less runoff and high resistance to flow
▪ barren lands –high runoff
o Soil moisture
▪ Runoff generated depend on soil moisture –more moisture means less
infiltration and more runoff
▪ Dry soil –more water absorbed to soil and less runoff
o Soil type
▪ Light soil (sandy) –large pores and more infiltration
▪ Heavy textured soils –less infiltration and more runoff
o Topographic characteristics
 ▪ Higher the slope, faster the runoff
▪ Channel characters such as length, shape, slope, roughness, storage, density
of channel influence runoff

Natural Flow

• Runoff representing the response of a catchment to precipitation reflects the integrated

effects of a wide range of catchment, climate and rainfall characteristics.
• True runoff is therefore streamflow in its natural condition ( without human intervent ion)
such stream flow unaffected by works of man, such as reservoir and diversion structures
on a stream, is called natural flow or virgin flow.

𝑅𝑁 = (𝑅𝑜 − 𝑉𝑟 ) + 𝑉𝑑+ 𝐸 + 𝐸𝑥 + ∆𝑆

Where: 𝑅𝑁 = 𝑁𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 ∆𝑡

𝑅𝑜 = 𝑜𝑏𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 ∆𝑡 𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑒

𝑉𝑟 = 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑖𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝑑𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐

𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑢𝑠𝑒

𝑉𝑑 = 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑖𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛,

𝑑𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑢𝑠𝑒

𝐸 = 𝑛𝑒𝑡 𝑒𝑣𝑎𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑠 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑜𝑖𝑟𝑠 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚

𝐸𝑥 = 𝑛𝑒𝑡 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑛

∆𝑆 = 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒

𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚

Rational Method

𝑸 = 𝑪𝑰𝑨

Where: Q = the maximum rate of runoff

 C = a runoff coefficient that is the ratio between the runoff
volume from an area and the average rate of rainfall depth over a
given duration for that year

I = average intensity of rainfall

A = area

Runoff Coefficient

Time of Concentration (Tc)

• Time required to reach the surface runoff from remotest point of watershed to its outlet
• At Tc all the parts of watershed contribute to the runoff at outlet
• Have to compute the rainfall intensity for the duration equal to time of concentration
• Several methods to calculate Tc

𝑇𝑐 = 0.02𝐿0.77 𝑆−0.385

Where : Tc = time concentration

L = Length of channel reach

 S = Average channel slope

• Computation of rainfall intensity for the duration of Tc

𝑅𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝐷𝑒𝑝𝑡ℎ 𝑐𝑚 𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑚
𝐼= =
𝑇𝑐 ℎ

Runoff Volume

Yield

• The total quantity of surface water that can be expected in a given period from a stream at
the outlet of its catchment is known as yield of the catchment in that period.

𝑌 = 𝑅𝑁 + 𝑉𝑟 = 𝑅𝑜 + 𝐴𝑏 + ∆𝑆

Where : RN = natural flow in time ∆𝑡

VR = volume of return flow from irrigation, domestic water supply

and industrial use

Ro = observed runoff volume at the terminal gauging station of

the basin in time ∆𝑡

AV = abstraction from time

∆S = change in the storage volumes