3.

Rainfall-runoff
relationships
Methods of
assessment
 Factors that influence surface
runoff
Physical-geographic factors (natural, non-
manageable)
Climatic (meteorological):
 Precipitation
 Type of precipitation (rain, snow [initially less runoff, but ! melting
season], sleet, etc.)
 The rate (amount) and intensity
 Duration of rainfall
 Direction of storm movement
 Distribution of rainfall over the drainage basin
 Previous weather (e.g. precipitation that occurred earlier
and resulting soil moisture)
 Time of year/season
– Summer - evapotranspiration rates higher, photosynthesis in
plants - at a maximum
 Other conditions that affect evapotranspiration -
temperature, wind, relative humidity…
 Dangerous rainfalls
 Summer storms (short time, high intensity)
 are significant for smaller watersheds (outflow volume, peak)
 flash floods
 enhance erosion and transport processes in the watershed
(bad quality of water in streams, smaller potential flow in
channels and smaller volumes of reservoirs)
 Regional rainfalls (long duration of rainfall)
 high amount of water (area + time period)
 regional floods
 Spring rainfalls (snow cover present)
 + sharp rise in temperature  quick thaw  sharp increase in
overland flow
 + frozen ground underneath the snow  rapid flow on ice 
increasing discharge
 Physical-geographic factors
(natural, non-manageable)
Characteristics of watershed
 Watershed area – volume and
culmination of total runoff
 Shape of watershed – time of
concentration to the outlet
 Elevation
 Slope of the area
– The steeper the slopes, the lower the rate
of infiltration and faster the rate of run-off
when the soil is saturated (saturated
overland flow)
– Strong influence on erosion and transport
processes
 Length of slope and length of valley – lag
time to the valley and to the outlet
 Physical-geographic factors
(natural, non-manageable)
Geological and soil characteristics
 Bedrock permeability - Run-off will occur quickly where
impermeable rocks are exposed at the surface or quickly when
they underlay soils (limited amount of infiltration).
 Soil permeability - Soils with large amounts of clay do absorb
moisture but only very slowly - therefore their permeability is
low.
 Thickness - The deeper the soil the more water can be
absorbed.
 Infiltration capacity - Soils which have larger particle sizes
(e.g those derived from the weathering of sandstones) have
larger infiltration capacities.
 The infiltration capacity is among others dependent on the
porosity of a soil which determines the water storage capacity
and affects the resistance of water to flow into deeper layers.
 Initial conditions (e.g. the degree of saturation of the soil and
aquifers)
 Anthropogenic factors (manageable)
Land use (e.g. agriculture, urban development, forestry
operations)
 Direct influence on retention capacity, hydrologic balance of watershed
a the volume of direct runoff)
 Measures:
– Increasing afforestation
– Increasing meadow area at the expense of arable land
– Limit of impervious surface
– Prefer pervious road construction (forest and field)
Vegetation type and cover
 Interception reducing initial surface flow
 Evapotranspiration
 Infiltration (the root systems)
 Velocity of overland flow
 Preferable vegetation cover to increasing retention capacity: forests 
meadows  close-seeded  grains  row crops
Agriculture
 Irrigation and drainage ditches increasing the speed of water transfer
 contour tillage
 Tillage on wet land compresses the subsoil - creating a "plough pan" 
Human activities - development and
urbanization:
 imperviousness - natural landscape is
replaced by impervious surfaces (roads,
buildings, parking lots) - reduce infiltration
and accelerate runoff to ditches and streams
 removal of vegetation and soil
 constructing drainage networks and
underground sewer increase runoff volumes
and shorten runoff time into streams -> the
peak discharge, volume, and frequency of
floods increase in nearby streams
River network
 Routing and detention
 Drainage density
– This ratio is the length of river course per area of land. The larger the
amount of streams and rivers per area the shorter distance water has to
flow and the faster the rate of response.
 River conditions

Surface depressions, marchlands, wetlands

 Storage , hydrologic balance

Reservoirs, ponds etc.

 Important storage volumes  retention capacity
 Ecological balance - ecosystems
 Prevent or delay runoff from continuing downstream
 Decrease the peak discharge
 Protection of the low-lying land downstream.
 Water extracted for industry, irrigation, and domestic use, also
reduce discharge.
 ! reservoir aggradation (storage volume) - erosion control
measures
 Dry reservoirs – polders  temporary storage during higher
discharge (floods)  usually used as meadows
 Precipitation –
spatial variability
 is measured in gauges or by
radar

Representation of precipitation 1
depth spatial variability in a P  Pj . Aj
A j
catchment:
 Arithmetic mean
 Polygons (Thiessen)
 Isohyets

Isohyet or isohyetal line

 line joining points of equal
precipitation on a map.
Isohyetal map
 Precipitation – temporal

variability
A hyetograph
– a graphical representation of the amount of precipitation
that falls through time
– is used in hydrology to illustrate the temporal variability of
precipitation
 Characteristics
– Intensity (depth / time interval)
20.0
20.0 120.0

 maximum 18.0
17.4
17.4
Intensity
Intensity
Cumulative intensity
18.0 Average
Average
 average 16.0
16.0
100.0

– Cumulative intensity
81.8

Cumulative rainfall intensity [mm]

14.0
14.0
[mm/10min]

80.0
intensity[mm/10min]

– Maximum depth
12.0
12.0
Rainfallintensity

10.0
10.0 60.0

– Time period 8.0

8.0
Rainfall

40.0
6.0
6.0

4.0
4.0 3.2
3.2
20.0

2.0
2.0

0.0
0.0 0.0
16 00

16 00

16 00

16 00

16 00

16 00

17 00

17 00

17 00

17 00

17 00

17 00

18 00

18 00

18 00

18 00

18 00

18 00

19 00

19 00

19 00

19 00

19 00

19 00

20 00
00
0:

0:

0:

0:

0:

0:

0:

0:

0:

0:

0:

0:

0:

0:

0:

0:

0:

0:

0:

0:

0:

0:

0:

0:

0:

0:
:5

:0

:1

:2

:3

:4

:5

:0

:1

:2

:3

:4

:5

:0

:1

:2

:3

:4

:5

:0

:1

:2

:3

:4

:5

:0
15

Time
Time tt [min]
[min]
Extreme of rain
I
events
Statistic analysis of maximum rainfall
[mm/min]
Return
period
[years]
events
IDF curves:
• relations between intensities, duration and
frequency of rain events
 Intensity – I (mm/min)
 Duration – D (min)
 Frequency – F (1/years) D [min]
• probability of different rain event intensities
for different durations (5, 10, 15, 30 …
100
minutes, … 24 hours) 90
• an each curve represents a certain 80

frequency of occurrence or a certain return 70

60

H 1d,N [mm]
period expressed in terms of years. 50
40

N value: 30
20
• the average over a number of years of 10

observation 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
• Value that is exceeded ones per N years N [years]
(return period)
N [years] 2 10 20 50 100
• Rainfall depth (mm) of certain duration (e.g.
H1d,N 36.
24 hours) whose probability of appearance is 1d,N
[mm] 3 60.6 70.4 82.6 92.1
 Hydrograph
 hydro- water, -graph chart
 plots the discharge of a river over time
 a representation of how a watershed responds to
rainfall.

Characteristics:
 Peak discharge Qmax (m3.s-1)
– The highest point when there is the greatest amount of
water in the river.
 Time of peak (min)
 Volume V (m3)
 Rising limb
– The part up to the point of peak
discharge.
 Falling limb
– The part after the peak discharge.
 Extreme discharge
25

Extreme values - the average over a 20

Flood frequency curve
number of years of observation
15

QN (m/s)
Maximum (N value) QN(m /s): 3

3
10

• Value that is exceeded ones per N years 5

probability distributions
(return period) - statistically 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
• Discharge (m3/s) whose probability of N (years)

appearance is 1/N = Frequency (1/years) N

(years) 1 2 5 10 20 50 100
• Are required for the design of dam,
10. 13. 18. 21.
spillways, nuclear power stations, major QN (m3/s) 6 8 9 2 15.6 8 5
bridges… 600

• important for assessing risk for highly 500

unusual events, such as 100-year floods.

m [l/s]
400

Minimal Qm(l/s): Discharge Q

300

200

• Value (discharge) that is exceeded m-days 100

per a year – statistically 0

0 100 200 300

• Important for dry seasons, ground water Time m [day]

storage m [day] 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 300 330 335 364

Qm [l/s] 507 350 270 218 180 150 125 104 85 68 50 47 35

 The surface runoff process
Rainfall excess = rainfall - losses =
= rainfall - interception - surface retention - infiltration
Interception
Direct runoff = surface runoff + interflow + retention

Direct
runoff
 Rainfall event – flood Český Krumlov
Hydrograph 11.-13.8. 2002 (Polečnice catchment)
220 0
Rainfall Hs=133,2mm

200 outlet of Polečnice 0.5

The confluence
180

Intensity of rainfall (mm/10min)

Outlet Chvalšinský stream 1
160
Outlet Polečnice stream above
the confluence 1.5
Discharge (m /s)

140
3

120 2

100 2.5

80
3
60
3.5
40

4
20

0 4.5
12:45 20:45 4:45 12:45 20:45 4:45 12:45 20:45
Time (h:min)
 Curve Number Method (SCS-
CN)
 A method for simulating rainfall-runoff processes
 Developed by SCS (Soil Conservation Service –
1972)
 Widely used and efficient method
 Determines the approximate amount of direct
runoff from a rainfall event in a particular area.
 Used for small catchments

CN
 An empirical parameter for predicting direct runoff.
 Developed from empirical analysis of runoff from
small catchments and hillslope plots monitored by
the SCS.
 Curve number (CN) depends
 Soil
on…
– 4 classes (A – D) according to infiltration rate
 Cover and hydrologic condition of the land
surface
– Various types of vegetation and crops, land
treatments and crop practices, paving and
urbanization

 Antecedent wetness
– 3 classes of antecedent moisture condition (AMC) –
dry, average, wet

The bigger CN the higher runoff volume

 CN catalog AMC I AMC II AMC III
SCS Soil type SCS Soil type SCS Soil type
Land Land name
ID A B C D A B C D A B C D
"Paved parking lots, roofs, driveways,
3 etc. (excl. ROW)" 94 94 94 94 98 98 98 98 99 99 99 99
7 "Dirt streets" 53 66 73 76 72 82 87 89 86 92 95 96
"Developing urban area, newly graded
18 (no vegetation)" 59 72 80 85 77 86 91 94 89 94 97 98
"Meadow - continuous grass, no
22 grazing" 15 38 52 60 30 58 71 78 50 76 86 90
"Woods-grass combination - orchard -
27 Fair" 25 45 58 66 43 65 76 82 63 82 89 92
31 "Woods - Good" 15 35 51 59 30 55 70 77 50 74 85 89
"Cultivated agr. - row - straight
37 row(SR) - Good" 47 60 70 76 67 78 85 89 83 90 94 96
"Cultivated agr. - small grain - C -
53 Good" 41 54 64 68 61 73 81 84 78 87 92 93
"Cultivated agr. - close-seeded - SR -
61 Good" 38 53 64 70 58 72 81 85 76 86 92 94

The bigger CN the higher runoff 18

 Volume of runoff
Oph – volume of direct
runoff in m3,
O ph  1000 * H o * F Ho – depth of runoff
in mm,
F – watershed area

Ho 
H s  0 .2 * A 
2
for H s 0.2 * A
in km2,

H s  0.8 * A Hs – depth of rainfall

in mm,
A – potential retention in
 1000  mm
A 25.4 *   10 
 CN  0.2*A – initial abstraction
in mm
Hs - 0.2*A – effective
storm rainfall in mm
CN – curve number
 CN method
Rainfall depth
• Hydrologic soil
groups
• Land use
• AMC
Volume of
direct runoff

 Temporal
distribution of runoff
(hydrograph)
 Unit Hydrograph - UH

UH is a hypothetical response of a
catchment to unit rainfall excess -
empirical
Original concept - Leroy Sherman (1932)
It’s been developed since and applied in
many versions.
The use: hydrologic models – known rainfall
depth → runoff volume → temporal
distribution
 Unit hydrograph method
 Response function
– input - rainfall excess (unit volume,
constant intensity, uniform distribution
over a catchment)
– output – direct runoff
– assumptions – principle superposition or
linearity and temporal invariance


Superposition
– Output rate is dependent linearly on input rate
– Temporal distribution is not influenced by input rate
– Result output equals sum of outputs resulting from unit
inputs

Temporal invariance
– Starting time of input has no influence on rate or temporal
distribution of output
 Unit hydrograph – 1 pulse
Q(t)=Pef.u(t)= u(t) ..pro Pef =1
Q(t)
Q(t)=Pef.u(t)= I. .u(t) ..pro Pef ≠ 1

t [h]
 Composite
UH
Q(t)

t [h]
Composition of
runoff hydrograph
from unit
hydrographs
Thank you for your attention