Chapter Four Part 1

Flood Routing via Storage

Recall that Flow rate Q = Velocity x Area

DEMO

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,

Lag due to
travel time
and filling
of reservoir

Units of Storage acre x feet

Inflow and outflow hydrographs plotted on same graph.

Area A volume of water that fills reservoir, dS/dt > 0. Due to inflow,
which is due to precip.
At t1 reservoir is full and inflow = outflow.
Area C is the volume of water that flows out. If inflow has slowed (storm

Most reservoirs have

spillways to slowly
lower levels in prep for
next storm; slow
enough not to flood the
downstream valley.

Example 4.1 in part

S/t = Inflow Outflow

Storage change is equal to the area between the inflow and
outflow hydrographs.

Example 4.1 in part

Time (days)
0.5
1.5
2.5
3.5
4.5
5.5
6.5
7.5
8.5
9.5
10.5
11.5
12.5
13.5

I (cfs)
500
3500
9000
9750
8000
4500
2250
1250
250
0
0
0
0
0

Q(cfs)
250
1000
3000
4500
5750
6000
5250
4250
3250
2500
1500
1000
750
0

Inflow peaks at 3.5 days, Outflow peaks

at 5.5 days, much later and at a much
smaller flow rate.
At about 5 days, Storage change is zero
and storage volume is maximum.

S/t (cfs)
250
2500
6000
5250
2250
-1500
-3000
-3000
-3000
-2500
-1500
-1000
-750
0

River Routing
Rivers store water on their floodplains.
Because the area is so large compared
to the channel, floodplain velocities are
much slower than channel flows, Q = VA.
Building on floodplains defeats their
natural purpose as flood control devices,
and ultimately requires expensive flood
control projects to prevent flood losses.

House
Corps of Engineers Project
with your tax dollars

River Routing
For natural rivers the attenuation
process is more complex than for
reservoirs with dams. Take, for
example, the 1993 Upper Mississippi
floods. We know that great portions
of the Upper Mississippi valley were
flooded, yet by the time the flood
arrived at New Orleans, it wasnt as
bad as in Iowa. Why is that?

River Routing
Its because of storage within the river
system itself. When flow is rising, theres a
parcel of storage within the *reach between
inflow and outflow, slowed because of
friction and large cross sectional area when
the floodplain gets some of the water.
Suppose, for example, we have gauges
both upstream (station 1) , and
downstream(station 2). Both have
floodplains that store water. We could write
a water balance equation with averages:

Average inflow minus average outflow = average change in storage

*Reach: any portion of a stream.

Flood arrives
at reach

Entire reach
flooded

Storm over,
inflow slows,
higher water
in lower reach

When Inflow is greater

upstream than in the
lower watershed, then
inflow > outflow, here I >
Q, and the water storage
will be a wedge with
higher water upstream.
The elevated (deeper)
reach of water during the
flood crest is called prism
(=rectangular) storage, it
occurs when I = Q,
and finally as the inflow
falls, theres again
wedge storage while
the outflow is greater
than the inflow Q>I ,
with the higher water
level close to the outlet.

So, if you had a

routing method that
allows for wedge
storage, you could
predict the flow at
points downstream,
and see how the
flood wave
attenuates. Several
such methods exist.
Were going to talk
today about the

Muskingum Method
The Muskingum method uses the basic
hydrologic continuity equation with averages
we just saw:
and a storage term that depends both on the
inflow and outflow:
where x is a weighting factor between 0 and
0.5 that says something about how inflow
and outflow vary within a given reach, and K
is the travel time of the flood wave.

Muskingum Method K and x

In a perfectly smooth channel, x = 0.5 and

S = 0.5 K (I + Q), which results in simple
translation of the wave. However, typical
streams have values of x=0.2 to 0.3.

Muskingum Method
Our storage discharge equation is
written in a finite difference form:
The Muskingum routing procedure
itself uses this form combined with
in the form
To produce the Muskingum outflow
equation

Those new constants in

must be calculated
Note that K and t must have the same
units, and that
2Kx < t K
is needed for numerical accuracy.
Also C0+C1+C2 = 1, because they are
proportions.
The routing procedure is accomplished
successively, with Q2 from Q1 of the
previous calculation.

In General

IMPORTANT: Regardless of the t interval given in the Inflow

hydrograph, you must index each entry 1,2,3,4 etc.

Estimating K and x

The Muskingum K is usually estimated from the travel time for a

flood wave through the reach. This requires two flow gages with
frequent data collection, one at the top and one at the bottom of
single channel reaches, and a big flood.
If they are not available, remember X averages 0.2 to 0.3 for a
natural stream.
If the two hydrographs are available , K and x can be better
estimated.
Storage S is plotted against the weighted discharge xI + (1-x)Q
for several values of x. Since Muskingum method assumes this is
a straight line, the straightest is x.

An Example
As usual we will have an example, and you
do a similar problem for homework.