Estimating time of concentration in large watersheds

For hydrologists, time of concentration (TC) is one of the most important parameters to be able to predict the response of a watershed to a given rain event and plays a key role in rainfall-runoff simulation. There are several methods to calculate the TC. The time of concentration is defined as the time from the hydraulically furthermost point to watershed outlet. In this study, we integrated 22 formulas from various references for calculating time of concentration and selected seven formulas by considering the specific conditions and limitations that are suitable for Shafaroud watershed with an area of 345.4 km2, located in the western Guilan province of northern Iran. They included Ventura, Passini, Bransby-Williams, Carter, Johnstone-Cross, Izzard and Papadakis-Kazan. The TC values obtained from the mentioned methods were applied in HEC-HMS software for the four rainfall events of June 5, 2003; October 20, 2005; December 2, 2007; and June 19, 2008. The results indicated that peak flow values obtained by the Bransby-Williams method are most consistent with the observed peak data values and better presents the hydrologic condition of the watershed.

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