A hydrograph separation method based on information from rainfall and runoff records

Abstract

Summary Hydrograph separation is considered as the first step to catchment-scale water balance analysis. A wide variety of hydrograph separation methods exists ranging from empirical to analytical and physical. This study discusses a physically-based approach that combines baseflow separation and event identification with minimal data requirement. The input datasets are basin-average rainfall and discharge time series. Outputs are baseflow time series, the timing of the runoff events, differentiated as single- or multi-peak, and the associated rainfall event time series. To assess the method’s feasibility, hydrograph properties are evaluated for both long-term (annual and monthly) and event-scale time series. Results show that the long-term derived baseflow indices are positive (negative) correlated with basin area (runoff coefficient). The event scale analysis shows that the timing-related parameters (i.e. durations of rainfall and flow events and time lag between rainfall to flow events) increase with basin area in terms of magnitude and variability. Similar dependence on basin scale is shown for the water balance-related parameters determined from this analysis, namely event rainfall and baseflow volumes and baseflow index. Water balance parameters are shown to be characterized with less degree of variability for single-peak events relative to multi-peak events.