DCC50212 – Hydrology

CHAPTER 2
RAINFALL RUNOFF ESTIMATION

1. RAINFALL – RAIN GAUGE

 A rain gauge is a type of instrument used by meteorologists and hydrologists to gather and
measure the amount of liquid precipitation over a set period of time.
 Most rain gauges generally measure the precipitation in millimeters. The level of rainfall is
sometimes reported as inches or centimeters.
 Rain gauge amounts are read either manually or by automatic weather station. The frequency of
readings will depend on the requirements of the collection agency. In Malaysia, Department of
Irrigation and Drainage responsible will supplement the paid weather observer with a network to
obtain precipitation data (and other types of weather) for sparsely populated areas.
 Rain gauges only indicate rainfall in a localized area. For virtually any gauge, drops will stick to the
sides or funnel of the collecting device,
 Rain gauges should be placed in an open area where there are no obstacles, such as building or
trees, to block the rain. This is also to prevent the water collected on the roofs of buildings or the
leaves of trees from dripping into the rain gauge after a rain, resulting in inaccurate readings

Tipping Bucket

Rain gauge system

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2. Intensity-Duration- Frequency Relationships

 Duration is defined a continuous block of time or time period during a rainfall.

 Rainfall Intensity – can be defined as the ratio of the total amount of rain (rainfall depth) falling
during a given period to the duration of the period It is expressed in depth units per unit time, usually
as mm per hour (mm/hr).

P
i
td
where,
P = rainfall depth
td = duration

 Rainfall frequency – can be defined as the number of times, during a specified period of years, that
precipitation of a certain magnitude or greater occurs or will occur at a station
 Return period - The inverse of probability (generally expressed in %), it gives the estimated time
interval between events of a similar size or intensity. For example, the return period of a flood might
be 100 years; otherwise expressed as its probability of ocurring being 1/100, or 1% in any one year

The most common approach of determining the design storm event involves a relationship between rainfall
intensity (or depth), duration, and the frequency (or return period) appropriate for the facility and site
location.

3. Intensity Duration Frequency (IDF) for any location

 In many hydrologic design projects, the first step is the determination of the rainfall event to be
used.
 An Intensity-Duration-Frequency curve (IDF Curve) is a graphical representation of the probability
that given average rainfall intensity will occur within a given period of time (Dupont and Allen 2000)
 Rainfall Intensity (mm/hr), Rainfall Duration (how many hours it rained at that intensity) and Rainfall
Frequency (how often that rainstorm repeats itself) are the parameters that make up the axes of
the graph of IDF curve.
 Providing mathematical relationship between the rainfall intensity i, the duration d, and the return
period T (or equivalent to the annual frequency of exceedance,f ), the IDF curves allow for the
estimation of the return period of an observed rainfall event or conversely of the rainfall intensity
corresponding to a given return period (Elsebaie 2012)
 An IDF curve is created with long term rainfall records collected at a rainfall monitoring station. And
the more data you have, the more accurate your curve will be.
 IDF Curves are calculated from local pluviometer data.
 Recognizing that the precipitation data used to derived and subject to some interpolation and
smoothing.
 It is desirable to develop IDF curves directly from local rain-gauge records if these records are
sufficiently long and reliable

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Typical IDF curves

Rainfall Station at JPS Ampang - 3117070

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Rainfall Station at Kg. Seladang, Hulu Setiu - 5426001

4. THE AVERAGE RAINFALL DATA

The analysis of rainfall data is carried out to determine the mean areal rainfall. There are several methods
used to determine the mean areal rainfall of a catchment.

a. Arithmetic-mean method

 The simplest method of determining areal average rainfall

 It involves averaging the rainfall depths recorded at a number of gages
 This method is satisfactory if the gages are not uniformly distributed over the area and the individual
gage measurement do not vary greatly about the mean

𝑃1 + 𝑃2 + 𝑃3 + . . . 𝑃𝑚
𝑃𝑝 =
𝑛

∑ 𝑃𝑖
𝑃𝑝 =
𝑛

Where,
Pp = Mean areal rainfall
Pi = Rainfall data
n = Number of station

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b. Polygon thiessen method

 It provides a weighing factor for each rain gauge in the catchment area.
 The gauge stations are plotted on a map and straight lines are drawn to join all the stations.
 Perpendicular bisectors of these lines form polygons around each station.
 The area of the polygon is determined and expressed as a percentage of the total area.

𝛴 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑝𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑥 𝑝𝑜𝑙𝑦𝑔𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎

𝑃𝑝 =
𝛴 𝑝𝑜𝑙𝑦𝑔𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎

∑ 𝑃𝑖 𝐴𝑖
𝑃𝑝 =
∑ 𝐴𝑖

Where
Pp = mean areal rainfall
Pi = Rainfall data
Ai = areal of polygon

c. Isohyetal method

 Can be considered the most accurate method used to calculate the mean areal precipitation of a
catchment
 The amount of rainfall measured at each station is recorded for each of the station on a map.
 Contours of equal precipitation called isohyets are drawn.
 The areas between 2 adjacent isohyets are determined before computing the mean rainfall for the
catchment.
 The mean rainfall value is computed by weighing the average precipitation between successive
isohyets with the area factor between the isohyets.
 The products are then totaled.

∑{(𝑃𝑖 + 𝑃𝑖+1 )/2}𝑥 𝐴𝑖

𝑃=
∑ 𝐴𝑖

Where,
Pp = mean areal rainfall
Pi = Rainfall data for isohyetal
Pi+1 = the next rainfall data for isohyetal
Ai = Areal of isohyetal

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5. MISSING FAINFALL DATA

Missing data can be encountered due inoperative gauges. It is common to find in actual practice that
precipitation data may be missing from the set of records. There are several reasons why precipitation data
may be missing from the database. Some of them are listed below.
i. Malfunctioning of precipitation gage and/or related equipment
ii. Effect of natural hazards (floods, landslides, hurricanes, etc.)
iii. Sabotage (terrorism)
iv. Human related problems (temporary absence of people in charge of reading gages,
v. mistakes in handling data, etc.)
vi. Others

In this situation, missing data can be estimated using the data from the neighboring station widely used
methods to determine missing data are:

a. Arithmetic mean method

b. Normal ratio method
c. Quadrant method

a. Arithmetic mean method

The averages of rainfall values of the surrounding gauges are calculated and applied to the missing gauge
provided the normal annual precipitation of the surrounding gauges is within 10% of missing gauge

Given the annual precipitation values, P1,P2, P3, … Pm at neighboring M stations 1,2,3,…M respectively, it
is required to find the missing annual precipitation P at a stations X not included in the above M stations
can be calculated by using :

1
𝑃𝑥 = [𝑃 + 𝑃2 + 𝑃3 + ⋯ + 𝑃𝑚 ]
𝑀 1

b. Normal ratio method

If the normal precipitations vary considerably, (have annual precipitation of more than 10% of the normal
precipitation at station X), then P x is estimated by weighing the precipitation at the various stations by the
ratios of normal annual precipitation.

𝑁𝑥 𝑃1 𝑃2 𝑃3 𝑃𝑚
𝑃𝑥 = [ + + + ⋯+ ]
𝑀 𝑁1 𝑁2 𝑁3 𝑁𝑚

Where
N = normal annual precipitation
M = no. of Station
Nx = Annual normal precipitation at station X

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c. Quadrant method

Referring to the sketch below, let define the following information:

dz =distance between gage Y and Z, where Z = A,B, etc
Pt(Z) = precipitation at gage Z during time, t where Z = A, B, etc
Pt(Y) = missing precipitation at gage Y

B
A
dA dB

dD dC
C
D

The estimated missing precipitation at site Y by the inverse distance is

1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2
() 𝑃𝑡 (𝐴) + ( ) 𝑃𝑡 (𝐵) + ( ) 𝑃𝑡 (𝐶) + ( ) 𝑃𝑡 (𝐷)
𝑑 𝑑𝐵 𝑑𝐶 𝑑𝐷
𝑃𝑡 (𝑌) = 𝐴 2 2 2 2
1 1 1 1
( ) +( ) +( ) +( )
𝑑𝐴 𝑑𝐵 𝑑𝐶 𝑑𝐷

This equation uses the squares of the inverse distance, however other power exponents have been
suggested.

6. THE CONSISTENCY TEST OF RAINFALL RECORD USING DOUBLE MASS CURVE METHOD

 Changes in the location or exposure of rain gauge, significant changes in the station environment
and changes in ecosystems due to natural disasters may have a significant effect on the amount
of precipitation it measures, leading to inconsistent data (data of different nature within the same
record). The consistency of a rainfall record is tested with double mass analysis
 Some of the common causes for inconsistency of record are
1. Shifting a rain gauge station to a new location
2. The neighborhood of the station undergoing a marked change
3. Change in the ecosystem due to calamities such as forest fires, land slide
4. Occurrence of observational error from a certain date
 The checking for consistency of a record is done by the double-mass curve technique is based on
the principle that when each recorded data comes from the same parent population, they are
consistent.
 A group of n (usually 5 to 10) base stations in the neighborhood of the problem station is selected.

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 The data of the annual (or monthly or seasonal mean) rainfall of the station and also the average
rainfall is arranged in the reverse chronological order (latest record as the first entry and oldest
record as the last entry in the list)
 The accumulated precipitation of the station and the accumulated values of the average of the base
station are calculated starting from the latest record.
 A decided break in the slope of the resulting plot indicates a change in the precipitation regime of
the station.
 The precipitation values at station beyond the period of change of regime is corrected by using :

𝑀𝑐
𝑃𝑐𝑥 = 𝑃𝑥
𝑀𝑎

Where,
Pcx = corrected precipitation at any time period t1 at Station X
Px = original recorded precipitation at time period t1 at Station X
Mc = corrected slope of the double-mass curve
Ma = original slope of the double-mass curve

 The older records are brought to the new regime of the station. It is apparent that the more
homogeneous the base station records are, the more accurate will be the corrected values for that
station.
 A change in slope is normally taken as significant only where it persists for more five years.

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