In: Biology
Define a hydrograph and what is its relation to land in a watershed. Please explain in two paragraphs
They are graphs,plots or charts that shows the rate of water flow in relation to time.They display the change of hydrologic variable over time.It is important for feeding in data on the potential magnitude and frequency of floods.In hydrograph we can show the relation that the discharge increases with the extended rainfall.It is used as a tool for predicting direct runoff.Mainly hydrograph consists of three components,they are Rising limb,Crest segment and Falling limb.Rising limb is the ascending portion of the hydrograph and it is also known as concentration curve.Crest segment is the important portion of the hydrograph which includes the peak flow and falling limb is the descending portion of the hydrograph.
Hydrograph for a rainfall is generally composed of a mixture of subsurface flow ad surface flow.Due to the watershed controls on runoff,hydrologists can better seperate subsurface and surface flows in hydrographs and predict runoff travel times,pollutant loads,and flood risk.Development of a hydrograph capable of generating accurate flood forecasts is motivated by the success of a subsurface flow diffusion method in predicting another runoff phenomenon.For subsurface flow,hydrologists have theorized rainfall triggers a pressure wave displacement of preexisting old saturated and unsaturated pore water.One parameter subsurface flow diffusion model had a single time parameter,that reflects the basin scale and soil characteristics and fits the predicted hydrograph to the natural hydrograph properties of time to peak,total flow volume,inflection points and recession rate.The effect of the size on the hydrograph parameters of maximum peak,time of rise,time of recession and time of runoff is determined on watershed models under a rainfall simulator which completely and uniformly covers the model.Results are evaluated in relation to each other and to real watersheds.