Lecture Topic: Runoff and Runoff relations

Istiakur Rahman
Assistant Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
Islamic University of Technology (IUT)
 The water reaching the surface of the earth in the form of precipitation,
ultimately reaches the stream
 From the point where precipitation reached earth surface, it may take different
paths on its way to the stream
 Some parts of the water flows over the land surface and reaches the stream
immediately after the precipitation. The other part of the precipitation
infiltrates through the soil surface and flows through the soil surface to reach
the stream
 Runoff means the draining or flowing off of precipitation from a catchment area
through a surface channel enters into a stream channel. It represents the
output from catchment in a given unit of time. Fig.1 shows components of
runoff.
 Consider a catchment area receiving precipitation. For a given precipitation,
when the evapotranspiration, initial loss, infiltration and detention storage
requirements are satisfied, the excess precipitation moves over the land
surfaces to reach smaller channels. This portion of runoff is called overland flow
and involves building up of storage over the surface and draining off the same.
Flows from several small channels join bigger channels and flows from these in
turn combine to form a larger stream, and so on, till the flow reaches the
catchment outlet. The flow in this mode, where it travels all the time over the
surface as overland flow and through the channels as open-channel flow and
reaches the catchment outlet is called surface runoff.
 A part of the precipitation that infilterates moves laterally through upper crusts
of the soil and returns to the surface at some locations away from the point of
entry into the soil. This component of runoff is known variously as interflow,
through flow, storm seepage, subsurface flow or quick return flow.
 Another route for the infilterated water is to undergo deep percolation and
reach the groundwater storage. The time lag, i.e. the difference in time
between the entry into the soil and outflows from it is very large, being of the
order of months and years. This part of runoff is called groundwater runoff or
groundwater flow.
 Based on the time delay between the precipitation and the runoff, the runoff is
classified into two categories; as (a) Direct runoff (b) Base flow.
a) Direct runoff: It is the part of runoff which enters the stream immediately
after the rainfall. It includes surface runoff, prompt interflow and rainfall on
the surface of the stream. In the case of snow-melt, the resulting flow entering
the stream is also a direct runoff. Direct storm runoff and storm runoff are also
used to designate direct runoff.
b) Base flow: The delayed flow that reaches a stream essentially as groundwater
flow is called base flow.
There are 3 components of Total Flow-
1. Overland Flow or Surface Runoff
2. Inter flow or Sub surface Runoff
3. Ground Water Flow
So,
Total flow= Runoff= Surface runoff + subsurface runoff+ groundwater flow=
Direct runoff + base flow
Precipitation: Precipitation is water released from clouds in the form of rain,
freezing rain, sleet, snow, or hail
Infiltration: Infiltration is the process by which water on the ground surface
enters the soil. It is called infiltration when water moves from surface to
unsaturated zone. It is the downward movement of water through the zone of
aeration under the influence of gravity.
Percolation: Percolation is the flow of water through the soil and rocks by the
influence of capillary and gravity forces. It is the downward movement of
water from unsaturated to saturated zone due to stress
Saturated, Unsaturated zone and water table: The unsaturated zone,
immediately below the land surface, contains water and air in the open
spaces, or pores. The saturated zone, a zone in which all the pores and rock
fractures are filled with water, underlies the unsaturated zone. The top of the
saturated zone is called the water table
Characteristics of Precipitation Characteristics of the Drainage Basin

Type of Precipitation Size of the basin

Rainfall Intensity Shape of the basin
Duration of Rainfall
Rainfall Distribution
Soil Moisture Deficiency
Direction of the Prevailing Storm
Various Climatological Factors
 1. Type of Precipitation: Precipitation generally occurs in the
form of rain or snow depending on which the runoff pattern
varies.
 Rain→ immediate runoff
 Snow→ runoff at a slower rate
 More Precipitation→ more runoff
 Less Precipitation→ less runoff

[Provided, the infiltration capacity of soil is not changed with

time]
 2. Rainfall intensity: More the intensity, more will be the
runoff. Runoff occurs when the rainfall intensity is greater
than the infiltration intensity.
 Rainfall Intensity>Infiltration rate of soil→ immediate runoff
after rainfall
 Rainfall Intensity<Infiltration rate of soil→ infiltration and
then runoff
 3.Duration of Rainfall: It is directly related to the volume of
runoff because infiltration rate of soil decreases with
duration of rainfall. Therefore, even medium intensity
rainfall can result in considerable amount of runoff if
duration is longer
 4.Distribution of Rainfall: All above discussions assume that
the rainfall is evenly distributed over the whole catchment
area, which is not the case in reality. In reality rainfalls on a
small part of the whole basin. For small drainage basins the
peak flow are the results of intense rain falling over the
small areas whereas for the large basins the peak flows are
results of storms of less intensity but covering a largearea
5. Soil moisture deficiency: The runoff depends on the soil
moisture present at the time of rainfall. If the rain occurs
after a long dry spell of time, the soil is dry and it can absorb
huge amount of water and thus intense rain may fail to
produce appreciable runoff. On the other hand, if the rain
falls after a rainy season, the soil will already be wet and
there will be less infiltration and even small rainfall may
cause appreciable runoff.
6. Direction of the prevailing storm: A storm moving in the
direction of stream produces a higher peak in shorter period
of time than a storm moving in opposite direction. If the
storm moves in the direction of the flow, the base period of
hydrograph will be less and more peak flow may be
expected. On the other hand, if the storm over against the
flow direction, then the base period will be comparatively
more and less peak flow may be expected
7. Other climatological factors:
 More Wind/Temperature→ more evaporation→ surface runoff
decreases
 More Moisture/Humidity→ less evaporation→ surface runoff
increases
Size of the basin: If the area of the basin is large, then the
total flow will take more time to pass the outlet and the
peak will be reduced
 Shape of the basin: The shape of the basin also governs the
rate at which water enters the stream.
 “Form Factor” and “Compactness Coefficient” generally
express the shape of the basin.
 Storm hydrographs chart the relationship between a rainfall
event and its discharge in a river channel. The measurement
used is cumecs - cubic metres per second.
 Baseflow - river flow away from flood periods. Reaches the channel via slow
through flow and from the water table.
 Flood - temporary excess of water that spills over the riverbanks onto land.
 Lag-time - The time interval between the peak of the rainfall event and the
maximum discharge. It can be affected by channel shape and drainage basin
shape.
 Peak-flow - the peak volume of water flowing through a channel. steep
catchments cause the highest peaks on a hydrograph.
 Rising limb - reflects a prolonged increase in discharge in the channel
 Recession - the falling limb, denotes the end of the stormflow and the return to
normal discharge through the channel.
The Shape of the basins influences the time taken for water from the remote parts of
the catchment to arrive at outlet. Thus the occurrence of peak and hence the shape of
hydrograph are affected by basin shape. Fan shaped, that is semi-circular shaped
catchments give sharp and narrow hydrographs while the elongated catchments give
broad and low peaked hydrographs
Drainage density is defined as the sum of the lengths of all of the channels (km) divided
by the total catchment area (km2). Drainage density affects the response of the
catchment to rainfall. High densities usually allow fast runoff removal. Therefore,
hydrographs having greater peaks and with shorter durations are expected for
catchments with higher drainage densities. In catchment with smaller drainage
densities, the overland flow is predominant and the resulting hydrograph is squat with a
slowly rising limb.
Vegetation and forests increase the infiltration and storage capacities of the soils.
Further they cause considerable retardance to the overland flow. Thus vegetal cover
reduces the peak flow. In general, for two catchments of equal area, other factors
being identical, the peak discharge is higher for a catchment that has a lower density of
forests cover.
 Human activities have enormous impact on water flow in a basin. The effects of
urbanization are quite dramatic, both increasing and hastening peak flow as shown in
the same figure. In fact, urban areas produce runoff patterns quite similar to those of
deserts. The sealed surfaces of the city drastically reduce infiltration and soil moisture
recharge, behaving much like the hard, nearly barren surfaces of the desert.
 Source of a river: The beginning or start of a river.
 Confluence: The point at which two rivers or streams join.
 Distributary: The small river that branches out from the main river and then
never meets again. It thus decreases the river’s water volume. Distributaries are
commonly found on deltas but are also important in the formation of alluvial
fans and cones.
 Tributary: A stream or smaller river which joins a larger stream or river and
thus increases its water volume.
 Mouth: The point where the river comes to the end, usually when entering a
sea.
 Determination of left/right bank of a river: Stand facing the mouth of the river
in the direction of its course. Your left hand side will be the left bank and your
right hand side, the right bank.
 Generally, the area drained by a river and its tributaries is
called its river basin or catchment area or a watershed. But,
there are subtle differences between them.
 River Basin: All the area drained by a river and its
tributaries.
 Catchment area: It refers to all the area of land over which
rain falls and is caught to serve a river basin.
 The catchment area of large rivers or river system is called a
river basin while those of small rivers, a lake, a tank is often
referred to as a watershed. Watersheds are small in area,
generally less than 1000 ha.
 One of the most commonly used procedures for calculating
peak flows from small drainages less than 200 acres is the
Rational Method. This method is most accurate for runoff
estimates from small drainages with large amounts of
impervious area
 Many hydrologic design problem requires simply and
estimation of the peak flow rate. In such problem, the
general shape of the flood hydrograph and the time of
occurrence of peak flow rate are no special significance and
need not be taken into account. In such cases, rational
method is useful. Also when adequate data are not available,
this method can be applied.
Assumptions:
 The rainfall is uniform both spatially and temporally
 The drainage area is small
 The duration of rainfall is equal to the catchment’s time of
concentration
 Peak flow occurs when the entire catchment area is
contributing
 The recurrent interval of the peak discharge is equal to that
of rainfall intensity
 Rational Formula:
Q= kICA
 Where, Q= Peak discharge in m3/s or ft3/s
 A= Area of the catchment (acres or hectares)
 I = Rainfall intensity with the selected recurrence interval, T years and duration equation the
catchment time of concentration
 C= Coefficient of runoff which depends on the type of area, soil condition etc.
 K = a factor of proportionality
 = 0.278 when A in km2and I in mm/hr
 = 0.00278when A in hectares and I in mm/hr
 = 1 when A in m2 and I in m/s