Chapter Four Part 1

Flood Routing via Storage

Recall that Flow rate Q = Velocity x Area

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
DEMO greatly reduced, because part of the
flood is retained in the reservoir, to be
released later.
 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 is past) outflow can be
slow. dS/dt < 0, so water in reservoir drops. Outflow rate mostly depends on reservoir water depth,
sqrt (2gh), but the spillway operator can lessen it.
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

DS/Dt = Inflow Outflow

Storage change is equal to the area between the inflow and outflow hydrographs.
 Example 4.1 in part
Time (days) I (cfs) Q(cfs) DS/Dt (cfs)
0.5 500 250 250
1.5 3500 1000 2500
2.5 9000 3000 6000
3.5 9750 4500 5250
4.5 8000 5750 2250
5.5 4500 6000 -1500
6.5 2250 5250 -3000
7.5 1250 4250 -3000
8.5 250 3250 -3000
9.5 0 2500 -2500
10.5 0 1500 -1500
11.5 0 1000 -1000
12.5 0 750 -750
13.5 0 0 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.
 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.
 When Inflow is greater upstream
than in the lower watershed,
then inflow > outflow, here I > Q,
and the water storage will be a
Flood arrives
wedge with higher water
at reach upstream.

The elevated (deeper) reach of

Entire reach water during the flood crest is
flooded
called prism (=rectangular)
storage, it occurs when I = Q,

Storm over, and finally as the inflow falls,

inflow slows,
higher water theres again wedge storage
in lower reach
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.
 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 Dt 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.

Then K can be calculated from

You will do this in your graduate courses.

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