Author(s): Clark C. K. Liu
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Keywords: Watershed hydrology; Rainfall; Runoff; Linear system; Instantaneous unit hydrograph
Abstract: The instantaneous unit hydrograph (IUH) model is one of the most popular analytical tools in applied hydrology. The IUH model treats a watershed as a linear system – the effective rainfall is the system input function, the storm hydrograph is the system output function, and the IUH is the system unit impulse response function. The evolution of the modern IUH model from the original Shearman unit hydrograph method took several decades to accomplish with efforts of many brilliant water scientists, including the late Professor W. -L. Huang of Tsinghua University. Huang completed his Ph. D. dissertation research entitled “an analysis of the rainfall-runoff correlation”, at the University of Illinois in 1937, shortly after the unit hydrograph method was proposed by Shearman in 1932. In the dissertation, Huang introduced the concept of instantaneous hydrograph which significantly improves Shearman unit hydrograph method and includes most of the essential elements of the modern IUH model. Unfortunately, Huang’s contribution was not duly recognized by applied hydrology literatures. This paper elaborates upon Huang’s contribution to watershed hydrology on the basis of the general theory of system modeling.
Year: 2013