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DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF A DIMENSIONLESS UNIT HYDROGRAPH 1
Author(s) -
Wilson Bruce N.,
Brown J. William
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
jawra journal of the american water resources association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.957
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1752-1688
pISSN - 1093-474X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-1688.1992.tb04005.x
Subject(s) - hydrograph , dimensionless quantity , runoff model , surface runoff , hydrology (agriculture) , environmental science , watershed , runoff curve number , mathematics , statistics , geology , geotechnical engineering , computer science , physics , mechanics , ecology , machine learning , biology
A generalized unit hydrograph method is developed and evaluated for ungaged watersheds. A key component in this method is the value of a dimensionless storage coefficient. Procedures to estimate this coefficient are given using calibrated values from 142 rainfall‐runoff events gaged in watershed located mainly in the Eastern US. Only limited success was obtained in predicting this storage coefficient. Thirty‐seven, independent rainfall‐runoff events were used to test the proposed technique. The generalized unit hydrograph predicted the observed runoff hydrographs fairly well with considerable improvement in accuracy over the SCS dimensionless unit hydrograph. Approximately one‐half of test storms had percent errors in predicted peak flow rates that were less than 34 percent compared to percent error of 88 percent with the SCS method.