FLOOD ROUTING

Flood routing is the technique of determining the flood hydrograph at a section of a river by utilizing the
data of flood flow at one or more upstream sections. Flood routing is the process of determining the
timing and shape of a flood wave. The rise and fall of the water level in a river is called the flood wave.

Flood routing is used in

1. Flood forecasting,
2. Flood protection,
3. Flood control,
4. Reservoir design, and
5. Design of spillway and outlet structures.

Flood routing types:

1. Reservoir routing, and

2. Channel routing.

In a reservoir, this is done by accounting for the storage available in the reservoir, whereas in a channel,
the flood wave is observed at successive points along a river.

A reservoir sacrifices floodplain and adjacent land to provide a basin that spreads stream floodwaters
over a large area, slowing velocity and allowing slow discharge before, during, and after the storm. The
height of the flood wave is greatly reduced, because part of the flood is retained in the reservoir, to be
released later.

Reservoir Routing Flood Flow

Storage results in flood attenuation, reduction in the flood peak, lengthening the time base, and time lag
in the occurrence of flood peak.

The peak of the outflow hydrograph will be smaller than of the inflow hydrograph. This reduction in the
peak value is called attenuation. Time lag, the peak of the outflow occurs after the peak of the inflow;
the time difference between the two peaks is known as lag. The attenuation and lag of a flood
hydrograph at a reservoir are two very important aspects of a reservoir operating under a flood control
criteria.

In a stream channel (river) a flood wave may be reduced in magnitude and lengthened in travel time i.e.,
attenuated, by storage in the reach between two sections.

The storage in the reach may be divided into two parts:

1. Prism storage, is the volume that would exist if uniform flow occurred at the downstream depth,
2. Wedge storage, is the wedge like volume formed between the actual water surface profile and
the top surface of the prism storage.

During rising stages the wedge storage volume is considerable before the outflow actually increases,
while during falling stages inflow drops more rapidly than outflow, the wedge storage becoming
negative.

Storage in a stream channel during a flood wave

A variety of routing methods are available and they can be grouped into:

1. Hydrologic routing or lumped method employ essentially the equation of continuity and flow is
calculated as a function of time alone at a particular location, and
2. Hydraulic routing. Hydraulic methods use continuity equation along with the equation of motion
of unsteady flow and Flow is calculated as a function of space and time throughout the system,
hence better than hydrologic methods.

Types of (Hydrologic) Routing Methods:

1. Level pool method (Modified Puls)

- The modified puls routing method is probably most often applied to reservoir routing.
- The modified puls method is also referred to as the storage-indication method.

2 S1 2 S2
I1+ I2 + - O1 = + O2
t t

2. Muskingum method
- common method of stream (channel; river) flow routing