Peak Flow - Rational Method (Riverside County, S. California)

This command is design to compute peak flow in the Riverside County, southern California.  In Riverside county as well as Southern California, peak flow is calculated based on the Rational method, Q = CIA, but it also has its own computing criteria because of its extremely varied topography, soil types and land uses, and its storm events that are different than other regions.

First, Riverside County usually requires a peak flow calculation on 10-year and 100 year storm events. So rainfall data of riverside county should be defined in the rainfall library. We provide two methods, Rainfall Accumulation and Rainfall Intensity, which allows any combination of return periods of 2-year, 5-year, 10-year, 25-year, 50-year and 100-year rainfall definition. IDF curves would be calculated. Second, Riverside County defines a list of land development types, which affect the subarea runoff index and percentage of the impervious cover, and therefore lead to the calculation of the time of concentration, rainfall intensity, runoff coefficient and then peak flow. The types of land development are: Commercial, Apartment, Mobil home park, Condominium, Single family(1/4 Acre lot, 1/2 Acre lot, 1 Acre lot), Undeveloped with poor, fair or good cover. Please refer to the Riverside County Hydrology Manual for details.

Select Rational Method (Riverside County) from Watershed > Peak Flow menu. In the peak flow dialog, choose a rainfall from the rainfall library, and specify the return period and the antecedent moisture condition. The spreadsheet displays the list of drainage area data in design. Add Drainage Area button allows you to add a new drainage entry, Edit Drainage Area button allows you to edit the highlighted entry and Remove Drainage Area button removes the highlighted entry. When you add or edit a drainage area, the Add/Edit Drainage Area dialog opens. Enter the drainage area name, specify the soil type and cover type from a look up table, and choose the land development type. The area can be entered either manually or automatically by selecting a closed polyline from screen. The flow line data can also be obtained from picking a 3D polyline and the program calculates the length and slope of the flow automatically. Click on OK button to commit the drainage area entry.

The design data can be saved to a .riv file, and loaded back to the dialog. Report button reports the design data and hydrology calculation results. The Use Report Formatter option allows you to report data to a spreadsheet instead.

Peak Flow Dialog

Add/Edit Drainage Area

Prompts

Peak flow dialog: Fill in values

Pulldown Menu Location: Watershed -> Peak Flow > Rational Method (Riverside County, S. California)
Keyboard Command: peakflw5
Prerequisite: