Understanding Storm Hydrographs

The discharge of a river (or stream) is the volume of water that flows past a point in the river’s
course per second. The volume is measured in cubic metres (m3) and it’s per second so the
units of discharge are cubic metres a second or m3s-1. Discharge is normally measured at
gauging stations that are situated at different points along the river.

The discharge of a river changes over time depending on a few factors. The most influential
factor is the weather. After heavy rainfall the discharge of the river will be higher because
there’s more water entering the river. The weather affects discharge so much that there’s a
special graph that we can draw called a hydrograph which shows precipitation and discharge
on the same graph and makes it easy to see how quickly precipitation affects the discharge of
a river.
Storm hydrographs measure the response of a river to a storm. A storm hydrograph is a specific
type of hydrograph that shows precipitation and discharge during and after a storm. In other
words: a hydrograph shows how a storm has affected a river. Below is a storm hydrograph for
the fictional River Shui:

DRAW:

 River discharge = the river discharge measures the amount (volume) of water passing
through the river channel at any one time. If the discharge of a river is particularly high,
it can mean that the water has passed over the banks resulting in a flood.
 Rainfall = the amount of rain received over a certain amount of time
 Peak rainfall = the point at which the amount of rain received is at its highest
 Rising limb = the rising limb is an indicator of the speed of the river reacting to a storm
event. For example, if the gradient of the rising limb is steep, then the river responds
quickly, and if the gradient has a gentle slope, it responds more slowly.
 Peak discharge = the point where the river discharge is highest for the storm event. If
there is a high peak discharge, there is an increased probability of the river flooding.
 Falling limb = the falling limb shows the river discharge decreasing as it recovers from
the storm. The steeper the falling limb, the more quickly the river discharge is
decreasing.
  Baseflow = the base flow refers to the amount of water in the river ordinarily (i.e. even
without the storm event). The base flow can charge depending on the time of year and
the surrounding climatic and drainage basin conditions.
 Lag time is the amount of time that passes between peak rainfall and peak discharge.
If the lag time is short, it means that the river has responded quickly to a storm. By
contrast, if the lag time is long then the river has responded more slowly. A short lag
time is associated with a higher risk of flooding. This means that if a river tends to have
short lag times on hydrographs, measures should be taken to manage the risk
of flooding.

Factors Affecting a Storm Hydrograph

Anything that can affect the speed that water travels from around the drainage basin to the
river also influences the storm hydrograph

Vegetation Cover: vegetation can significantly affect the lag time. This is due to the fact that
vegetation intercepts rainfall, meaning that it takes considerably longer to reach the river. This
results in a longer lag time, and gentler rising limb.

Soil & Rock Type: If a river is surrounded by non-porous and impermeable rocks (e.g.,
mudstone) it’s going to have a high peak discharge and a short lag time. Impermeable rocks
won’t let water percolate through them, forcing the water to travel via overland flow. This is
much faster than groundflow, interflow and throughflow so the lag time is reduced.
Furthermore, non-porous rocks can’t store water so the peak discharge of a river is increased
as more water enters the river rather than being stored in the drainage basin.

The soil’s ability to let water infiltrate has a similar effect to the dominant rock type in a
drainage basin. Porous soils allow water to infiltrate and so act as a store in a drainage basin.
In addition, water travels slowly through soil via throughflow. This reduces the peak discharge
while increasing the lag time of a river. On the other hand, extremely fine clay soils don’t allow
water to infiltrate. As a result, water travels quickly as overland flow, reducing the lag time of
a river.

The Drainage Basin Shape: For a circular drainage basin, the river’s hydrograph can often be
described as “flashy” because it will have a fairly steep rising limb and a high peak discharge.
This is because all points in the drainage basin are roughly equidistant from the river so all the
precipitation reaches the river at the same time.

The size of the drainage basin obviously has an impact on the hydrograph. Large basins will
have high peak discharges because they catch more precipitation but at the same time they’ll
have longer lag times than small basins because the water takes longer to reach the rivers.

Basins with steep slopes will have a high peak discharge and a short lag time because the water
can travel faster downhill. Finally the drainage density of a basin will affect the lag time and
the steepness of the falling limb. Basins with lots of streams and rivers (a high drainage density)
will have a short lag time and a fairly steep falling limb because water will drain out of them
quickly.
Weather & Climate: The intensity of a storm will impact the peak discharge of the river. More
rainwater = more water in the river so a higher discharge. Not immediately obvious is the type
of storm (or precipitation) that takes place. A winter storm (i.e. snow) will result in an increase
in the river’s discharge when the snow melts but this often won’t be for a long time, so the lag
time will be huge.

If it’s been raining heavily previously, the ground may be waterlogged so the lag time will be
reduced because water will be unable to infiltrate and will instead travel via overland flow.
Similarly, if the climate’s been hot & dry or freezing cold the ground will be hard and water
will once again be unable to infiltrate and will instead travel as overland flow, reducing the lag
time and increasing the peak discharge.

Human Activity: Humans will normally cover soil in impermeable materials like tarmac or
concrete which will increase surface run off and reduce the amount of water being stored,
increasing the peak discharge and reducing the lag time. As water doesn’t infiltrate easily in
urban areas humans often build storm drains that run directly into a river, reducing the lag time
and increasing the river’s peak discharge.

Analysing Storm Hydrographs

It’s very common for questions about hydrographs to come up in the exam but that’s OK, these
are normally 2 or 4 mark questions that ask you to read something off a graph or describe the
graph. Easy marks. The ever so slightly harder questions are the ones that ask you to explain a
hydrograph because these require you to think. Let’s look at the storm hydrograph for the
fictional River Shui again:

DRAW:

If asked to describe the hydrograph you could quote the lag time, peak discharge and comment
on the steepness of the rising and falling limbs (remember, state values off of the graph).
Instead, you could be asked to explain the hydrograph’s shape. These reasons are essentially
all the factors we discussed previously. You need to state a factor and then explain how and
why it affects the shape of the hydrograph. For the River Shui’s hydrograph, we could say that
the high peak discharge and the steep rising limb suggests that the drainage basin is circular
because if it was, the precipitation will land at points equidistant from one another and reach
the river at roughly the same time, producing the high peak discharge.