The basin factor is a hydrologic parameter that represents the overall impedance to flow of a watershed in the PC-Hydro peak discharge model for small ( < 10 mi2) semi-arid watersheds in Pima County, Arizona. To improve peak discharge estimates and provide validation of the basin factor as a physically-based parameter, basin factor values were "back-calculated" for return period and observed events on six undeveloped rangeland watersheds and correlated with Manning's n roughness coefficients, rainfall intensities, and hydraulic radii. Observed basin factor values displayed a positive trend with observed peak discharge. The results suggest that the correlated variables can predict the basin factor on small undeveloped sub-basins in Pima County and the basin factor is measurable as a physical parameter. Empirical models for basin factor prediction are proposed. The study may also be useful for estimating hydraulic roughness in hydrologic methods such as the kinematic wave time of concentration equation.

Flash flooding, as a result of excessive rainfall in a short period, is considered as one of the worst environmental hazards in arid regions. Areas located in the western provinces of Saudi Arabia have experienced catastrophic floods. Geomorphologic evaluation of hydrographic basins provides necessary information to define basins with flood hazard potential in arid regions, especially where long-term field observations are scarce and limited. Six large basins (from North to South: Yanbu, Rabigh, Khulais, El-Qunfza, Baish and Jizan) were selected for this study because they have large surface areas and they encompass high capacity dams at their downstream areas. Geographic Information System (GIS) and remote sensing techniques were applied to conduct detailed morphometric analysis of these basins. The six basins were further divided into 203 sub-basins based on their drainage density. The morphometric parameters of the six basins and their associated 203 sub-basins were calculated to estimate the degree of flood hazard by combining normalized values of these parameters. Thus, potential flood hazard maps were produced from the estimated hazard degree. Furthermore, peak runoff discharge of the six basins and sub-basins were estimated using the Snyder Unit Hydrograph and three empirical models (Nouh’s model, Farquharson’s model and Al-Subai’s model) developed for Saudi Arabia. Additionally, recommendations for flood mitigation plans and water management schemes along these basins were further discussed.

<p> Through the use of unit hydrographs this paper demonstrates the effect of land uses on the stream discharge of three watersheds located in Southern Ontario. The watersheds represent urban, agricultural and wetland environments. The three different environments each demonstrate different responses to a unit magnitude of uniformly distributed precipitation. </p> <p> The rainfall events occurred during September and October 1981 and 1986. Three durations of events, six, twelve and twenty-four hours, are studied. </p> <p> The paper demonstrates that an urban watershed experiences a greater magnitude of peak discharge and faster response time than either of the other two studied watersheds. The unit hydrograph resulting from a wetland showed that the wetland watershed was an important regulator of streamflow. </p> <p> Special emphasis were placed on the urbanization of agricultural lands as this is the most applicable land use change currently occurring in Southern Ontario.The results from this study will be useful when assessing the magnitude of the potential runoff problem when these agricultural watersheds are urbanized. </p> / Thesis / Bachelor of Arts (BA)

<p>Traditional methods for flood estimation can be categorized as (1) simplified methods, e.g., regression analysis, (2) frequency analysis of streamflow data, (3) design storm-based precipitation-runoff modeling, and ( 4) continuous precipitation-runoff simulation modeling. The new approach - the Analytical Probabilistic Stormwater Model - was developed as an alternative to provide an efficient way of getting realistic estimation of peak discharges of desired frequencies for use in stormwater management of urban areas. To extend APSWM's application to rural areas, a series of comparisons were made between the calibrated design storm-based OTTHYMO model results, frequency analysis results and APSWM results for the Ganaraska River watershed. Special considerations were given to the transformation of the input parameter values of OTTHYMO model to those of APSWM. Comparable results were obtained for large floods, while APSWM may underestimate peak discharges of low return periods. Upon further testing and development, APSWM may be used for large rural areas.</p> / Thesis / Master of Engineering (MEngr)

Key theoretical and empirical results from the past two decades have established that peak discharges exhibit power-law, or scaling, relation with drainage area across multiple scales of time and space. This relationship takes the form Q(A)= $#945;AΘ where Q is peak discharge, A is the drainage area, Θ is the flood scaling exponent, and α is the intercept. Motivated by seminal empirical studies that show that the flood scaling parameters α and Θ change from one rainfall-runoff event to another, this dissertation explores how certain rainfall and catchment physical properties control the flood scaling exponent and intercept at the rainfall-runoff event scale using a combination of extensive numerical simulation experiments and analysis of observational data from the Iowa River basin, Iowa. Results show that Θ generally decreases with increasing values of rainfall intensity, runoff coefficient, and hillslope overland flow velocity, whereas its value generally increases with increasing rainfall duration. Moreover, while the flood scaling intercept is primarily controlled by the excess rainfall intensity, it increases with increasing runoff coefficient and hillslope overland flow velocity. Results also show that the temporal intermittency structure of rainfall has a significant effect on the scaling structure of peak discharges. These results highlight the fact that the flood scaling parameters are able to be estimated from the aforementioned catchment rainfall and physical variables, which can be measured either directly or indirectly using in situ or remote sensing techniques. The dissertation also proposes and demonstrates a new flood forecasting framework that is based on the scaling theory of floods. The results of the study mark a step forward to provide a physically meaningful framework for regionalization of flood frequencies and hence to solve the long standing hydrologic problem of flood prediction in ungauged basins.

Thesis is about assessment of erosion and flood control measures effectiveness, especially of broad base terraces. The main contribution is a new method of flood effect evaluation of these measures. This is solved by modern programs and geospatial technologies such as ArcMap and HEC - HMS. Economic assessment in alternative solutions of flood and erosion control effect is a main result which leads to optimal technical proposal. The proposed, relatively fast, method can be successfully applied in practice.

From the Proceedings of the 1972 Meetings of the Arizona Section - American Water Resources Assn. and the Hydrology Section - Arizona Academy of Science - May 5-6, 1972, Prescott, Arizona / In order to design culverts and bridges, it is necessary to compute an estimate of the design flood. Regionalization of flows by regression analysis is currently the method advocated by the U.S. Geological Survey to provide an estimate of the culvert and bridge design floods. In the regression analysis a set of simultaneous equations is solved for the regression coefficients which will be used to compute a design flood prediction for a construction site. The dependent variables in the set of simultaneous equations are the historical estimates of the design flood computed from the historical records of gaged sites in a region. If a log normal distribution of the annual peak flows is assumed, then the historical estimate of the design flood for site i may be computed by the normal as log Q(d,i) = x(i) + k(d)s(i). However because of the relatively small samples of peak flows commonly used in this problem, this paper shows that the historical estimate should be computed by to log Q(d,i) = X(i) + t(d,n-1) √((n+1)/n) s(i) where t(d,n-1) is obtained from tables of the Student's t. This t-estimate when used as input to the regression analysis provides a more realistic prediction in light of the small sample size, than the estimate yielded by the normal.

From the Proceedings of the 1972 Meetings of the Arizona Section - American Water Resources Assn. and the Hydrology Section - Arizona Academy of Science - May 5-6, 1972, Prescott, Arizona / Numerous reports from the southwest claim that soil moisture prior to rainfall-runoff event has no influence on the resulting flow volumes and peak rates. Runoff occurs from many storms that would not be expected to produce runoff, and an explanation lies in the occurrence of antecedent rains. This hypothesis is tested by dividing runoff events into 2 subsets--one with no rain within the preceding 120 hours, and the other with some rain within the preceding 24 hours--and to test the null hypothesis. The hypothesis was tested with rainfall and runoff data from a 40-acre agricultural research service watershed west of Albuquerque, New Mexico, using the Wilcoxon's rank sum test. Various levels of statistical significance are discussed, and shown graphically, to conclude conclusively that antecedent rainfall influences runoff from a semiarid watershed.

From the Proceedings of the 1973 Meetings of the Arizona Section - American Water Resources Assn. and the Hydrology Section - Arizona Academy of Science - May 4-5, 1973, Tucson, Arizona / Hydrologic data collected from three small urban watersheds and one rural watershed were analyzed for the purpose of investigating the effect of urbanization on runoff. A procedure developed by the Soil Conservation Service was used to explain the relationship between the amount of rainfall and runoff. It was noted that the runoff curve number, a parameter of the method, increased as the percentage of impervious area increased. Also, there was evidence that a linear relationship existed between the runoff volume and its corresponding peak rate.

From the Proceedings of the 1977 Meetings of the Arizona Section - American Water Resources Assn. and the Hydrology Section - Arizona Academy of Science - April 15-16, 1977, Las Vegas, Nevada / Hydrologic information is needed to understand and control water pollution from semiarid rangelands. However, the hydrologic systems under any given conditions must be understood and the effects of various land uses predicted. Based on the concept of partial area response, a runoff tracer study was conducted on two small watersheds. The watersheds were partitioned into four geomorphic subzones or hydrologic response units. Each of the four zones on both watersheds was treated with about 1 kg/ha of an individual water soluble herbicide. Runoff volumes and sources estimated using the tracers were consistent with results from simulation studies. Also, the principle of corresponding runoff and pollutant discharge rates was used to develop two methods of runoff hydrograph estimation from each of the geomorphic subzones. Method 1 matched the mean total concentration and total runoff volume. Method 2 matched the instantaneous total concentration and the instantaneous runoff rate from the entire watershed. Results from the two methods suggested that, although they may be equivalent with respect to runoff volume, Method 2 may be more consistent with respect to peak discharge.