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a river, or other channel or conduit carrying flow. The rate of flow is typically expressed in cubic
meters or cubic feet per second (cms or cfs).
It can also refer to a graph showing the volume of water reaching a particular outfall, or location
in a sewerage network. Graphs are commonly used in the design of sewerage, more specifically,
the design of surface water sewerage systems and combined sewers.
Stream hydrograph. Increases in stream flow follow rainfall or snowmelt. The gradual decay in flow after
the peaks reflects diminishing supply from groundwater.
Raster hydrograph. The entire flow record and patterns representing different timescales can be visualized.
Contents
[hide]
1Terminology
2Baseflow separation
3Unit hydrograph
5Raster hydrograph
o
5.1References
6See also
7External links
Terminology[edit]
The discharge is measured at a specific point in a river and is typically time variant.
Rising limb: The rising limb of hydro graph, also known as concentration curve, reflects
a prolonged increase in discharge from a catchment area, typically in response to a rainfall
event
Recession (or falling) limb: The recession limb extends from the peak flow rate
onward. The end of stormflow (aka quickflow or direct runoff) and the return to groundwaterderived flow (base flow) is often taken as the point of inflection of the recession limb. The
recession limb represents the withdrawal of water from the storage built up in the basin
during the earlier phases of the hydrograph.
Peak discharge: the highest point on the hydro graph when the rate of discharge is
greatest
Lag time: the time interval from the center of mass of rainfall excess to the peak of the
resulting hydrograph
Time to peak: time interval from the start of the resulting hydro graph
Discharge: the rate of flow (volume per unit time) passing a specific location in a river or
other channel
Storm hydrographs
Flood hydrographs
Raster Hydrograph
Storage opportunities in the drainage network (e.g., lakes, reservoirs, wetlands, channel
and bank storage capacity)
Baseflow separation[edit]
A stream hydrograph is commonly conceptualized to include a baseflow component' and
a runoff component. The former represents the relatively steady contribution to stream
discharge from groundwater return flow, while the latter represents the additional streamflow
contributed by subsurface flow and surface flow/runoff]].
The separation of baseflow from direct runoff in a hydrograph is often of interest to hydrologists,
planners, and engineers, as it aids in determining the influence of different hydrologic processes
on discharge from the subject catchment. Because the timing, magnitude, and duration of
groundwater return flow differs so greatly from that of direct runoff, separating and understanding
the influence of these distinct processes is key to analyzing and simulating the likely hydrologic
effects of various land use, water use, weather, and climate conditions and changes.
However, the process of separating baseflow from direct runoff is an inexact science. In part
this is because these two concepts are not, themselves, entirely distinct and unrelated. Return
flow from groundwater increases along with overland flow from saturated or impermeable areas
during and after a storm event; moreover, a particular water molecule can easily move through
both pathways en route to the watershed outlet. Therefore, separation of a purely baseflow
component in a hydrograph is a somewhat arbitrary exercise. Nevertheless, various graphical
and empirical techniques have been developed to perform these hydrograph separations. The
separation of base flow from direct runoff can be an important first step in developing rainfallrunoff models for a watershed of interestfor example, in developing and applying unit
hydrographs as described below.
Unit hydrograph[edit]
A unit hydrograph (UH) is the hypothetical unit response of a watershed (in terms of runoff
volume and timing) to a unit input of rainfall. It can be defined as the direct runoff
hydrograph (DRH) resulting from one unit (e.g., one cm or one inch) of effective rainfall occurring
uniformly over that watershed at a uniform rate over a unit period of time. As a UH is applicable
only to the direct runoff component of a hydrograph (i.e., surface runoff), a separate
determination of the baseflow component is required.
Raster hydrograph[edit]
Raster hydrographs are pixel-based plots for visualizing and identifying variations and changes
in large multidimensional data sets. Originally developed by Keim (2000) they were first applied