• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.91-103
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• 2015

This paper presents the systematic approach to positively skewed shape of instantaneous unit hydrograph (IUH), that is one of the universal features of hydrologic response function. To this end an analytical expression of statistical moments for IUH is derived within the framework of geomorphologic instantaneous unit hydrograph (GIUH) theory and quantified according to the concept of hydrodynamic, geomorphologic and kinematic heterogeneity. There is a big scale difference between hillslope and channel flow path system. Although the former has the much smaller level of scale its variation coefficient tends to be higher and coefficient of skewness has the different trend than the latter. The shape of IUH is likely to be much more affected by kinematic heterogeneity rather than hydrodynamic heterogeneity and its combined effect with geomorphologic heterogeneity is the major cause of skewing hydrologic response function. Statistical features of hillslope and channel flow path can be transferred into hydrologic response function in the form of dimensionless statistics and their relative importance forms the general shape of hydrologic response function.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2015.05a
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• pp.212-212
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• 2015

So far, geomorphologic dispersion due to the heterogeneity characteristics of flow paths in a basin has been demonstrated as a major factor affecting to the hydrologic response function of a catchment. This effect has considered by many previous studies taking into account flow path length factors, especially in the application of width function. Based upon the analysis of topographic index, another important geomorphologic factor extracted from DEM data, this work presents a new factor named saturation to evaluate its effects to the formation of the well-known instantaneous unit hydrograph (IUH) in Nash model and drainage structure in a river basin. First, the geomorphologic parameters corresponding to different saturation conditions are computed from DEM data with the support of GIS software. Then, in the combination of hydrologic and geomorphologic data, effective rainfall in each saturation degree and the Nash parameters are calculated using excel. Finally, the verification process with direct runoff data is conducted using Fortran programming. This process is applied to five sub-watersheds in Bocheong catchment ($485.21km^2$) in Korea where the necessary data are available and believable. The results from this approach will improve researchers and students'understandings about the relationship between rainfall and runoff and its relation with drainage structure within a catchment.