4.

Flood Routing

Prepared by: Birhanu W.

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 Flood Routing
What is flood routing and describe its
application in different engineering fields?
Point out the basic difference between different
methods of flood routing? or
How is reservoir routing different from Channel
routing?
Explain the basic methods of reservoir routing.
Explain the basic methods of channel routing

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 4. Flood Routing
• Estimation of the hydrograph of a river at any given point
on the river during the course of a flood event.
• Flood Routing is the process of following the behavior of a flood
hydrograph upstream or downstream from one point to another point
on the river.
• A flood hydrograph is modified in two ways as the storm water
flows down-stream.
1. The time of the peak rate of flow occurs later at downstream
points. This is known as translation,
2. The magnitude of the peak rate of flow is diminished at
downstream points, the shape of the hydrograph flattens out, and
the volume of flood water takes longer to pass a lower section. This
modification to the hydrograph is called attenuation.
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Applicable in river development works such as flood
protection, reservoir and spillway designs, determining
bridge span,…
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 4.1 Methods of flood Routing :
approaches)

Flood routing methods may be divided into two main

categories differing in their
fundamental approaches to the problem.

1.Hydrologic Routing methods using the principle of continuity and a

relationship between discharge and the temporary storage of excess
volumes of water during the flood period between two reaches.
(The calculations are relatively simple and reasonably accurate)

2. Hydraulic Routing ,method that adopt more rigorous equations of

motion for unsteady flow in open channels,
( assumptions and approximations are often necessary to obtain
solutions)
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 Types of Flood Routing

1. Reservoir Routing
2. Channel Routing

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 4.2 Simple Routing Methods
In the case less or no data are available:
• Points taken from experience • The principal advantages is ,it can be
of a number of past flood developed from simple stage discharge
events relation and with no rating Curve .
• it is easy to apply and quick and give
warning of impending of flood
• No tributaries are assumed inundation
here.

Flood Levels
Advantage: Travel Time
1. quick and easy
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2. developed for stations with only stage measurements
 4.3 Storage Routing
When a storm event occurs,
• at the beginning of the reach the flood hydrograph is (above
normal flow) is given as I, the inflow, during the period of the
flood, T1, the channel reach has received the flood volume
given by the area under the inflow hydrograph.
• Similarly, at the lower end of the reach, with an outflow
hydrograph O, the flood is given by the area under the curve.
• In a flood situation relative quantities may be such that lateral
and tributary inflows can be neglected, By the principle of
continuity, the volume of inflow equals the volume of
outflow

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 Storage/reservoir Routing

From Conservation of Mass

I t  Q t  S
dS or
 I t  Qt Si 1  Si 1
dt
t
   1
 I i 1  Ii  Qi 1  Qi
2 2 10

 Input data for reservoir routing:

• Field data, which is to establish relationship between elevation,

outflow and storage of the reservoir.
 Inflow hydrograph, I (t)
 Initial values of storage, outflow and inflow which
is recorded at the time of start of flow (t=0)
• The following two methods are commonly used for
reservoir routing:
a. Level Pool Routing
b. Goodrich Method
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 Level Pool Routing
.

The following data are required:

1. Storage volume versus elevation for the reservoir

2.Water surface elevation versus out flow and hence
storage versus outflow discharge
3. Inflow hydrograph, I= I(t); and
4. Initial values of S, I and O at time t

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 For a level pool: • The discharge from the
. The temporary storage, S, is a
‘pool’ Q is also a function H,
function of H,

Si 1 
1
2
 
Ai 1  Ai H trapezoida l formula then S is indirectly
but uniquely
1  1
Si 1 
3
 
Ai 1  Ai  Ai 1 Ai 2 H cone formula

a function of Q.
  14
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Example 8,2.1. A reservoir for detaining flood flows is one acre in
horizontal area, has vertical sides, and has a 5-ft diameter reinforced
concrete pipe as the outlet structure. The headwater-discharge relation
for the outlet pipe is given io columns I and 2 of Table Use the level
pool routing method to calculate the reservoir outflow from the inflow
hydrograph given in columns 2 and 3 of Table below. Assume that the
reservoir is initially empty

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Goodrich Method

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 Channel /river Routing
• In reservoir routing the storage is a function of the out
flow.
• In Channel/River routing the storage is a function of both
outflow and inflow discharges and hence a different
routing method is needed.
• For a river reach where the water surface cannot be considered
parallel to the river bottom during the passage of a flood wave,
the storage in the reach may be split up in two parts:
(i) prism storage and
(ii) wedge storage.

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 Wedge and Prism storage
• Prism storage: it is the volume that would
exist if uniform flow occurred at the
downstream depth, i.e. the volume formed
by an imaginary plane parallel to the
channel bottom drawn at the outlet section
water surface. Storage is a function of Q.
• Wedge storage: it is the wedge-like
volume formed between the actual water
surface profile and the top surface of the
prism storage. It exists because the inflow
I differs from the outflow Q and hence is
assumed to a function of the difference I-
Q; during the rising stages of the flood
I>Q and the wedge storage is positive,
whereas during the falling stages when
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I<Q it is negative. S=f1(Q)+f2(I-Q)
 Muskingum method of Routing
S=f1(Q)+f2(I-Q)
• In the application of the method by McCarthy in 1938 on
the Muskingum River he assumed that both f1 and f2 are
linear functions of the type:
f1(Q)=KQ and f2(I-Q)=b(I-Q)
So that:   
S  KQ  b I  Q  bI  K  b Q 
b  b  b
S  K  I  1   Q Let x 
K  K 
 
K

then S  K xI  1  x Q
• Assuming linear relation

exponent constant is 1
• where x is a weighting factor between 0 and 0.5 that says
something about how inflow and outflow vary within a
given reach, and K is the travel time of the flood wave. 27
• The storage discharge equation is written in a finite
difference form:
Equation 1

• The Muskingum routing procedure itself uses this form

combined with

In the form:
Equation 2

• Combining eqn 1 and eqn 2 the Muskingum outflow

equation becomes:
Getting rid of S

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 Muskingum equation coefficients
• It is easily verified that c1+c2+c3=1 and
further that t and K should have the
same time units. The use of the
method requires choices on t, K and
t  2 Kx
c  x.
1 2 K1  x  t Routing interval:
• the routing interval should be less
t  2 Kx
c  than K and is advised to be taken as
2 2 K1  x  t 1/2 to 1/4 of K.
• It has been found that for best results
2 K1  x  t the routing interval t should be
c 
3 2 K1  x  t chosen that K>t>2Kx. If t<2Kx, the
coefficient C2 will be negative.

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 Parameters K and x
• Using recorded hydrographs of a flood at the beginning and end of
the river reach, trial values of x are taken, and for each trial the
weighted flows in the reach, [xI+(1−x)Q], are plotted against actual
storages determined from the inflow and outflow hydrographs as
indicated in the following figure.
• The correct value for x will be the one giving the best approximation
to a straight-line plot. When the looping plots of the weighted
discharges against storages have been narrowed down

• The Muskingum coefficients c1, c2 and c3 are next evaluated. Then

beginning with the initial inflow and outflow, sequential values of30Q
are computed
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Example
• In the catchment of a natural stream, an isolated storm occurred. The following
hydrograph of the runoff was measured at a point at intervals of 6 h.

T (hr) 0 6 12 18 24 30 36 42

Runoff 10 12 20 40 28 18 13 11
(m3/s)

Determine the ordinate of the hydrograph at another point, after flood wave has traveled
for 12 hr. Assume the weighting factor, x= 0.23 and the flow on the steam the inflow of
the storm runoff is 10 m3/s.
Example

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 Example.1
The data in the following Table represent observed inflow and
outflow flood hydrographs for a channel reach. Derived
Muskingum constants for the reach K and x was 34h and 0.4
respectively. Using the derived constants in the Muskingum
equations, route the observed inflow hydrograph through the
reach and plot the calculated outflow hydrograph obtained,
comparing it with the observed hydrograph.
Time
(hr) 0 12 24 36 48 60 72 84 96 108 120 132
I (m3/s) 22 35 103 109 86 59 39 28 22 20 19 18
Q
(m3/s) 22 21 34 55 75 85 80 64 44 30 22 20
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 Solution
Step -1 Determination of K and X
Assume x and plot S Vs computed S,
Given the slope of the “line” is k.

∆S S S ∆S=(I-Q)∆t
T I Q I-Q (m3) Si x=0.3 x =0.4
Si=∆Si+ ∆ Si+1+…+ ∆Sn
0 22 22 0 0 0 22 22
12 35 21 14 168 168 25.2 26.6
24 103 34 69 828 996 54.7 61.6
36 109 55 54 648 1644 71.2 76.6
48 86 75 11 132 1776 78.3 79.4
60 59 85 -26 -312 1464 77.2 74.6
72 39 80 -41 -492 972 67.7 63.6
84 28 64 -36 -432 540 53.2 49.6
96 22 44 -22 -264 276 37.4 35.2
108 20 30 -10 -120 156 27 26
120 19 22 -3 -36 120 21.1 20.8
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132 18 20 -2 -24 96 19.4 19.2
 …continued

Hence using
Q2=0.74I1–0.29I2+0.55Q1
With a sequential computation:

T 0 12 24 36 48 60 72 84 96 108 120 132

I 22 35 103 109 86 59 39 28 22 20 19 18
Q 22 18.23 6.057 47.94 82.09 91.68 82.77 66.27 50.79 38.41 30.42 25.57

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…continued

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 Hydraulic Routing
• The hydrologic method is based on continuity and S vs Q/I
(empirical approximation)
• The hydraulic methods of flood routing are based on the solution of
the two basic differential equations governing gradually varying
non-steady flow in open channels (the Saint Venant equations).

1. Continuity equation
2. Momentum equation

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Continuity equation

S=A.dx

Q=A.V

A=By, Assuming B constant

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 Dynamic equation

hf=Sfdx, the head loss due to friction

If it is assumed that the channel bed slope is small and the vertical component of the
acceleration force is negligible, then the combined loss of head is (hf+ha). Using the Bernoulli
expression for total head, H:
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 …Continued

The friction slope can be computed

from Chezy:

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Thank You !!!

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