HYDROGRAPHY

What is hydrography?

- is the branch of applied sciences which deals with the measurement and description of the
physical features of oceans, seaS, coastal areas, lakes and rivers, as well as with the prediction of their
change over time, for the primary purpose of safety of navigation and in support of all other marine
activities, including economic development, security and defense, scientific research, and environmental
protection

HYDROGRAPH ANALYSIS

WHAT IS HYDROGRAPH?

- is a graph showing the rate of flow (discharge) versus time past a specific point in a river, or
other channel or conduit carrying flow. The rate of flow is typically expressed in cubic meters or cubic
feet per second (cms or cfs).

- It can also refer to a graph showing the volume of water reaching a particular outfall, or
location in a sewerage network. Graphs are commonly used in the design of sewerage, more specifically,
the design of surface water sewerage systems and combined sewers.

TERMINOLOGY

- The discharge is measured at a specific point in a river and is typically time variant.

Rising limb - The rising limb of hydro graph, also known as concentration curve, reflects a
prolonged increase in discharge from a catchment area, typically in response to a rainfall event.

Recession (or falling) limb- The recession limb extends from the peak flow rate onward. The
end of storm flow (a.k.a. quick flow or direct runoff) and the return to groundwater-derived flow (base
flow) is often taken as the point of inflection of the recession limb. The recession limb represents the
withdrawal of water from the storage built up in the basin during the earlier phases of the hydrograph.

Peak discharge: the highest point on the hydro graph when the rate of discharge is greatest.

Lag time - the time interval from the center of mass of rainfall excess to the peak of the
resulting hydrograph.

Time to peak - time interval from the start of the resulting hydro graph.

Discharge - the rate of flow (volume per unit time) passing a specific location in a river or other
channel.

Types of hydrograph

Storm hydrographs
Flood hydrographs
Annual Hydrographs a.k.a. regimes
Direct Runoff Hydrograph
Effective Runoff Hydrograph
Raster Hydrograph

Storage opportunities in the drainage network (e.g., lakes, reservoirs, wetlands, channel and bank
storage capacity)

BASEFLOW SEPERATION

- A stream hydrograph is commonly conceptualized to include a base flow component and

a runoff component. The former represents the relatively steady contribution to stream discharge from
groundwater return flow, while the latter represents the additional stream flow contributed by
subsurface flow and surface flow/runoff.

- The separation of base flow from direct runoff in a hydrograph is often of interest to
hydrologists, planners, and engineers, as it aids in determining the influence of different hydrologic
processes on discharge from the subject catchment. Because the timing, magnitude, and duration of
groundwater return flow differs so greatly from that of direct runoff, separating and understanding the
influence of these distinct processes is key to analyzing and simulating the likely hydrologic effects of
various land use, water use, weather, and climate conditions and changes.

- However, the process of separating baseflow from direct runoff is an inexact science. In
part this is because these two concepts are not, themselves, entirely distinct and unrelated. Return flow
from groundwater increases along with overland flow from saturated or impermeable areas during and
after a storm event; moreover, a particular water molecule can easily move through both pathways en
route to the watershed outlet. Therefore, separation of a purely base flow component in a hydrograph
is a somewhat arbitrary exercise. Nevertheless, various graphical and empirical techniques have been
developed to perform these hydrograph separations. The separation of base flow from direct runoff can
be an important first step in developing rainfall-runoff models for a watershed of interestfor example,
in developing and applying unit hydrographs as described below.

UNIT HYDROGRAPH

- A unit hydrograph (UH) is the hypothetical unit response of a watershed (in terms of runoff
volume and timing) to a unit input of rainfall. It can be defined as the direct runoff hydrograph (DRH)
resulting from one unit (e.g., one cm or one inch) of effective rainfall occurring uniformly over that
watershed at a uniform rate over a unit period of time. As a UH is applicable only to the direct runoff
component of a hydrograph (i.e., surface runoff), a separate determination of the base flow component
is required.

- A UH is specific to a particular watershed, and specific to a particular length of time

corresponding to the duration of the effective rainfall. That is, the UH is specified as being the 1-hour, 6-
hour, or 24-hour UH, or any other length of time up to the time of concentration of direct runoff at the
watershed outlet. Thus, for a given watershed, there can be many unit hydrographs, each one
corresponding to a different duration of effective rainfall.

- The UH technique provides a practical and relatively easy-to-apply tool for quantifying the
effect of a unit of rainfall on the corresponding runoff from a particular drainage basin. UH theory
assumes that a watershed's runoff response is linear and time-invariant, and that the effective rainfall
occurs uniformly over the watershed. In the real world, none of these assumptions are strictly true.
Nevertheless, application of UH methods typically yields a reasonable approximation of the flood
response of natural watersheds. The linear assumptions underlying UH theory allows for the variation in
storm intensity over time (i.e., the storm hyetograph) to be simulated by applying the principles of
superposition and proportionality to separate storm components to determine the resulting cumulative
hydrograph. This allows for a relatively straightforward calculation of the hydrograph response to any
arbitrary rain event.

- An instantaneous unit hydrograph is a further refinement of the concept; for an IUH, the input
rainfall is assumed to all take place at a discrete point in time (obviously, this isn't the case for actual
rainstorms). Making this assumption can greatly simplify the analysis involved in constructing a unit
hydrograph, and it is necessary for the creation of a geomorphologic instantaneous unit hydrograph.

- The creation of a GIUH is possible given nothing more than topologic data for a particular
drainage basin. In fact, only the number of streams of a given order, the mean length of streams of a
given order, and the mean land area draining directly to streams of a given order are absolutely required
(and can be estimated rather than explicitly calculated if necessary). It is therefore possible to calculate
a GIUH for a basin without any data about stream height or flow, which may not always be available.

SUBSURFACE HYDROLOGY HYDROGRAPH

- In subsurface hydrology (hydrogeology), a hydrograph is a record of the water level (the

observed hydraulic head in wells screened across an aquifer).

- Typically, a hydrograph is recorded for monitoring of heads in aquifers during non-test

conditions (e.g., to observe the seasonal fluctuations in an aquifer). When an aquifer test is being
performed, the resulting observations are typically called drawdown, since they are subtracted from
pre-test levels and often only the change in water level is dealt with.

RASTER HYDROGRAPH

- Raster hydrographs are pixel-based plots for visualizing and identifying variations and changes
in large multidimensional data sets. Originally developed by Keim (2000) they were first applied in
hydrology by Koehler (2004) as a means of highlighting inter-annual and intra-annual changes in stream
flow. The raster hydrographs in Water Watch, like those developed by Koehler, depict years on the y-
axis and days along the x-axis. Users can choose to plot stream flow (actual values or log values), stream
flow percentile, or stream flow class (from 1, for low flow, to 7 for high flow), for Daily, 7-Day, 14-Day,
and 28-Day stream flow.
hydrological measurements are used to obtain data on hydrological processes. academic research and
practical engineering projects all depend on the hydrological data to calibrate and validate the
relevant models.

BASIC TERMS

TIME SERIES- A SEQUENCE OF DATA POINTS, MEASURED TYPICALLY AT SUCCESSIVE TIMES,

SPACED AT ( OFTEN UNIFORM ) TIME INTERVALS.

TIME DOMAIN - TIME DOMAIN REFERS THE ANALYSIS OF HYDROLOGICAL TIME SERIES WITH
RESPECT TO TIME .

-A TIME DOMAIN SHOWS HOW A HYDROLOGICAL PROCESS CHANGES OVER TIME.

-IT USES TOOLS SUCH AS AUTO-CORRELATION AND CROSS COROLATION ANALYSIS.

FREQUENCY DOMAIN - A FREQUENCY DOMAIN SHOWS HOW MUCH OF THE TIME SERIES LIE
WITHIN EACH GIVEN FREQUENCY BAND OVER A RANGE OF FREQUENCIES.

-FREQUENCY TOOLS INCLUDE SPECTRAL ANALYSIS AND WAVELET ANALYSIS.

SPATIAL DATA - SPATIAL DATA HAVE SOME FORM OF SPATIAL OR GEOGRAPHICAL REFERENCE
THAT ENABLES THEM TO BE LOCATED IN TWO OR THREE DIMENSIONAL SPACE (e.g. remote
sensed images)

-SPATIAL DATA ARE OFTEN ACCESSED, MANIPULATED OR ANALYZED THROUGH

Geographic Information System.

SPATIAL TIME SERIES - It is a collection of time series with spatial of geographical reference.

ALIASING - It is an effect that causes different signals to become indistinguishable (or aliases of
one another) when sampled.

NYQUIST FREQUENCY - A perfect reconstruction of a signal is possible when the sampling

frequency is greater than twice the maximum frequency of the signal being sampled.

LAND BASED MEASUREMENTS

RAIN GAUGE - Rainfall is recorded by two types of gauges:

non-recording gauge is simply a container to store rain water. They are read manually at long
intervals (daily, weekly.)

recording gauges automatically record the depth of rainfall with a high temporal resolution
(available 15 min. or hourly).

SNOW PILLOW - Measures the water equivalent of the snow pack based on snow pressure on a
plastic pillow.

-The snow pillow determines the water-content of the snow covering

EVAPORATION PAN - Evaporation Pan is a stainless steel pan for measuring daily evaporation

- Used to hold water during observations for the determination of evaporation at a given
location.

LYSIMETER - Used to measure evapotranspiration and made a tank of soil in which vegetation is
planted to emulate the surrounding ground cover.
 - Lysimeters are powerful tools that can help you better understand the water balance.

INFILTROMETER- A device used to measure the rate of water infiltration into soil or other
porous media. It is easy to use, but the soil structure is usually disturbed.

HYGROMETER- Used for measuring relative humidity.

- A hygrometer is an instrument that can range from something that is really basic in design,
such as a psychrometer or the hair hygrometer, on up to more detailed instruments, like a
cooled mirror dew point hygrometer, which actually measures humidity using the
condensation temperature.

BAROMETER - An instrument used to measure atmospheric pressure. There are various types
based on air, water or mercury.

ANEMOMETER - A weather instrument that measures wind speed. The most widely used
anemometer consists of three or four cups that spin according to the speed of the wind.
Modern ultrasonic anemometers are able to measure wind speed in three dimensions.

Hydrological Instruments/ Equipment

STAFF GAGE - used for a quick visual indication of the surface level in rivers, streams, lagoons,
reservoirs, etc. Style M is a metric gage. It is divided into centimetres with each decimeter numbered.
Seperate number plates are used to show elevation.

FLOW METER - The Valeport 'Braystoke' Model 001 and Model 002 flow meters provide a reliable
method of monitoring flow in a variety of environments, including salt, fresh and effluent water, from
shallow streams to tidal waterways.

CURRENT METER -instruments designed to measure the velocity of moving water in a river in order to
determine its discharge, also referred to as streamflow.

WATER QUALITY SONDE - Water quality instrumentation for simultaneously measuring up to 13

different parameters: pH, temperature, dissolve oxygen, conductivity, salinity, turbidity, total dissolve
solids (TDS), water depth, oxidation reduction potential (ORP), seawater specific gravity and up to three
specific ions.

TIPPING BUCKET RAINGAGE - measures the character and amount of liquid precipitation. Determines
rain rate. The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Filipino:
Pangasiwaan ng Pilipinas sa Serbisyong Atmosperiko, Heopisiko, at Astronomiko, abbreviated as
PAGASA [pagasa], which means "hope" in the Tagalog word pag-asa) is the National Meteorological
and Hydrological Services (NMHS) ...