A Unit Hydrograph Concept for Predicting Flood Hydrographs from Suburban Subdivisions
ABSTRACT EVIDENCE abounds in hydrologic literature that urbanization increases direct runoff. This runoff problem has been routinely combated with so-called corrective measures which are oftentimes uncoor-dinated and collectively ineffective. This paper proposed the integration of judicious land use planning and im-proved urban storm drainage design as an effective measure against the urban flood problem. To that effect, a dimensionless unit area hydrograph is derived. It is then demonstrated how this hydrograph can be used by land use planners to predict the hydrologic effects of pro-posed land use designs and by design engineers to quan-tify runoff. The technique uses a minimum of data, re-quires no field measurements, and is easy to apply.