First proposed by Sherman in 1932 unit hydrograph (UH) is the hypothetical unit response of a watershed (in terms of runoff volume and timing) to a unit input of rainfall.The Unit Hydrograph of a drainage basin is defined as a hydrograph of direct runoff resulting from one unit of effective rainfall which is uniformly distributed over the basin at a uniform rate during the specified period of time known as unit time or unit duration. The unit quantity of effective rainfall is generally taken as 1mm or 1cm and the outflow hydrograph is expressed by the discharge ordinates. The unit duration may be 1 hour, 2 hour, 3 hours or so depending upon the size of the catchment and storm characteristics. However, the unit duration cannot be more than the time of concentration, which is the time that is taken by the water from the furthest point of the catchment to reach the outlet.
Assumptions
The following assumptions are made while using the unit hydrograph principle:
1. Effective rainfall should be uniformly distributed over the basin, that is, if there are ‘N’ rain gauges spread uniformly over the basin, then all the gauges should record almost same amount of rainfall during the specified time.
2. Effective rainfall is constant over the catchment during the unit time.
3. The direct runoff hydrograph for a given effective rainfall for a catchment is always the same irrespective of when it occurs. Hence, any previous rainfall event is not considered. This antecedent precipitation is otherwise important because of its effect on soil-infiltration rate, depressional and detention storage, and hence, on the resultant hydrograph.
4. The ordinates of the unit hydrograph are directly proportional to the effective rainfall hyetograph ordinate. Hence, if a 6-h unit hydrograph due to 1 cm rainfall is given, then a 6-h hydrograph due to 2 cm rainfall would just mean doubling the unit hydrograph ordinates. Hence, the base of the resulting hydrograph (from the start or rise up to the time when discharge becomes zero) also remains the same.
limitations Under the natural conditions of rainfall over drainage basins, the assumptions of the unit hydrograph cannot be satisfied perfectly. However, when the hydrologic data used in the unit hydrograph analysis are carefully selected so that they meet the assumptions closely, the results obtained by the unit hydrograph theory have been found acceptable for all practical purposes.
In theory, the principle of unit hydrograph is applicable to a basin of any size. However, in practice, to meet the basic assumption in the derivation of the unit hydrograph as closely as possible, it is essential to use storms which are uniformly distributed over the basin and producing rainfall excess at uniform rate. Such storms rarely occur over large areas. The size of the catchment is, therefore, limited although detention, valley storage, and infiltration all tend to minimize the effect of rainfall variability. The limit is generally considered to be about 5000 sq. km. beyond which the reliability of the unit hydrograph method diminishes. When the basin area exceeds this limit, it has to be divided into sub-basins and the unit hydrograph is developed for each sub-basin. The flood discharge at the basin outlet is then estimated by combining the sub-basin floods, using flood routing procedures.
Application
Calculations of direct runoff hydrograph in catchment due to a given rainfall event (with recorded rainfall values), is easy if a unit hydrograph is readily available. Remember that a unit hydrograph is constructed for a unit rainfall falling for a certain T-hours, where T may be any conveniently chosen time duration. The effective rainfall hyetograph, for which the runoff is to be calculated using the unit hydrograph, is obtained by deducting initial and infiltration losses from the recorded rainfall. This effective rainfall hyetograph is divided into blocks of T-hour duration. The runoff generated by the effective rainfall for each T-hour duration is then obtained and summed up to produce the runoff due to the total duration.
