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Drainage Design Manual, Hydrology - Flood Control District of ...

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<strong>Drainage</strong> <strong>Design</strong> <strong>Manual</strong> for Maricopa County<br />

<strong>Hydrology</strong>: Unit Hydrograph Procedures<br />

Application <strong>of</strong> these principles requires a linear relation between watershed outflow and storage<br />

within the watershed, S = KO. However, Mitchell (1962) has shown that nonlinear storage,<br />

S = KO x , is a condition that occasionally occurs in natural watersheds. A method has been<br />

developed by Shen (1962) to evaluate the linearity <strong>of</strong> the storage-outflow relation for gaged<br />

watersheds. Mitchell (1972) developed the model hydrograph for use in watersheds that have<br />

nonlinear storage-outflow characteristics. Presently no method has been devised to evaluate the<br />

linearity <strong>of</strong> an ungaged watershed, and the assumption <strong>of</strong> linearity is a practical necessity in virtually<br />

all cases.<br />

5.2 CLARK UNIT HYDROGRAPH<br />

Hydrologic routing by the Clark Unit Hydrograph method is analogous to the routing <strong>of</strong> an inflow<br />

hydrograph though a reservoir. This analogy is illustrated in Figure 5.1. The inflow hydrograph,<br />

called the translation hydrograph in the Clark method, is determined from the temporal and spatial<br />

distribution <strong>of</strong> rainfall excess over the watershed. The translation hydrograph is then routed<br />

by a form <strong>of</strong> the equation <strong>of</strong> continuity:<br />

O i = CI i + ( 1 – C)O i – 1<br />

(5.2)<br />

C<br />

=<br />

2Δt<br />

------------------<br />

2R + Δt<br />

(5.3)<br />

O i is the instantaneous flow at the end <strong>of</strong> the time period; O i - 1 is the instantaneous flow at the<br />

beginning <strong>of</strong> the time period; I i is the ordinate <strong>of</strong> the translation hydrograph; Δt is the computation<br />

time interval; and R is the watershed storage coefficient. The Clark Unit Hydrograph <strong>of</strong> duration,<br />

Δt, is obtained by averaging two instantaneous unit hydrographs spaced Δt units apart:<br />

U i = 0.5( O i + O i – 1 )<br />

(5.4)<br />

where:<br />

U i = the ordinates <strong>of</strong> the Clark Unit Hydrograph.<br />

The Clark method uses two numeric parameters, T c and R, and a graphical parameter, the timearea<br />

relation. Clark (1945) defined T c as the time from the end <strong>of</strong> effective rainfall over the watershed<br />

to the inflection point on the recession limb <strong>of</strong> the surface run<strong>of</strong>f hydrograph as shown in<br />

Figure 5.2. In practice, for ungaged watersheds this time is usually estimated by empirical equations<br />

since run<strong>of</strong>f hydrographs from the watershed are not <strong>of</strong>ten available.<br />

August 15, 2013 5-3

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