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APPLICATION OF UNIT HYDROGRAPH TECHNIQUES TO SOLUTE TRANSPORT IN CATCHMENTS
Author(s) -
BARNES C. J.,
BONELL M.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
hydrological processes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.222
H-Index - 161
eISSN - 1099-1085
pISSN - 0885-6087
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-1085(199606)10:6<793::aid-hyp372>3.0.co;2-k
Subject(s) - hydrograph , tracer , surface runoff , hydrology (agriculture) , residence time (fluid dynamics) , environmental science , runoff model , drainage basin , flux (metallurgy) , soil science , geology , geography , geotechnical engineering , ecology , cartography , physics , materials science , nuclear physics , metallurgy , biology
Current models of solute movement in catchments are based on rainfall–runoff models and are consequently biased towards processes which determine the magnitude and timing of water flux. It is shown here that the instantaneous unit hydrograph (IUH), or runoff response function, obtained from a hydrograph is fundamentally different from the residence time distribution which governs the response to solutes/tracers. Using hydrometric and tracer data obtained from a small (25 ha) catchment in the humid tropics a modification of the IUH technique is demonstrated which also allows approximate modelling of the tracer data. New features of the modified conceptual model are identified with known hillslope processes.