Hydrologic Principles (1993) reports canopy interception on the order of 1.2 mm for coniferous forests and 0.8 mm for broadleaf canopies in full leaf. Interception capacity is recovered during interevent dry periods as a function of evaporation rates. 65 ‘The process of infiltration has been widely studied and represents an important mechanism for movement of water into the soil under gravity and capillarity forces. Infiltration volume is subtracted from a precipitation event in order to determine net volume of rainfall, or rainfall excess, which is equivalent to the direct runoff from a watershed area. Horton (1933) showed that when the rain- fall rate i exceeds the infiltration rate f, water infiltrates the surface soils at a rate that generally decreases with time. These rates are usually reported in inches per hour. For any given soil, limiting curve defines the maximum possible rates of infiltration ys. time. The rate of infiltration depends in a complex way on rain- fall intensity, soil type, surface condition, and vegetal cover. For excess rates of rainfall, the actual infiltration rate will follow the lim- iting curve shown in Fig. 1-21, called the Horton infiltration capacity curve of the soil. The capacity decreases with time and ultimately reaches a constant rate, caused by filling of soil pores with water, which reduces capillary suction. For example, it has been shown through controlled tests that the decline is more rapid and the final constant rate is much lower for clay soils than for sandy soils. Thus, sand will generally infiltrate more volume at a higher rate than clay soils. Simple Equations for Infiltration Rate The hydrologic concept of infiltration capacity is empirically hased on ob- servations at the ground surface. Horton (1940) suggested the following form of the infiltration equation, where rainfall intensity i > f at all times: f= f+ (fo- fe™ (120) where f = infiltration capacity (inJ/hr), ‘fo = initial infiltration capacity (inJhr), wity (inher). K = empirical constant (hr~!). Initial loss to storage ens prssptaton Volume of | runoff Infiltration rate (f) of intitration Te 18 HYDROLOGIC Loss— INFILTRATION Figure 1-21 Horton's infiltra- tion concept.66 Chapter 1 EXAMPLE 1-8 SOLUTION Rubin and coworkers (1963, 1964) showed that Horton’s observed curves can be theoretically predicted, given the rainfall intensity, the initial soil moisture conditions, and a set of unsaturated characteristic curves for the soil. They showed that the final infiltration rate is numerically equivalent to the saturated hydraulic conductivity of the soil. Furthermore, Rubin showed that ponding at the surface will occur if rainfall duration is greater than the time required for soil to become saturated at the surface. Hor- ton’s equation is depicted graphically in Fig. 1-21, and Example 1-8 illus- trates its use. HORTON’S INFILTRATION EQUATION The initial infiltration capacity fo of a watershed is estimated as 1.5 inJ/hr, and the time constant is taken to be 0.35 hr~!. The equilibrium capacity f- is 0.2 in./hr. Use Horton’s equation to find (a) the values of fat t = 10 min, 30 min, 1 hr,2 hr,and 6 hr, and (b) the total volume of infiltration over the 6-hr period. Horton’s equation [Eq. (1-20)] is f= fet (fo- foe™. Substituting the values for fo, f., and k gives J = 02 inJhr + 1.3(e-°**)in hr. Solving for each value of ¢ gives the following table: t f he) {in./he) 1/6 1.43 V2 1.29 1 119 zi 0.85 6 0.36 The volume (in inches over the watershed) can be found by plotting the curve given by the table of values and then finding the area under the curve bounded by t = 0 and f = 6 hr. The plot is shown in Fig. E1-8. The curve is given by the equation below, and to find F’, the volume of infiltration and the area under the F curve, we must integrate Horton's equation. (fo = foe =k . f= 0.2inJhr + 1.3 (ein Jar. fet +Hydrologic Principles 20 21s 5 1.0K Volume of 6hr period 3 2 @ ose obma o 12 3 4 5 6 7 R 9 MN WD ‘Time (hr) Integrating over the interval t = 0 tot = 6 hr gives Vol — J fade = J02 + 13(e%) dr = [0.21 + (1.3/-0.35)e°?*}f, = 4,46 in. over the watershed Horton’s equation in the form of Eq. (1-20) suffers from the fact that in- filtration capacity decreases as a function of time regardless of the actual amount of water available for infiltration. That is, the equation assumes ponding on the surface and a reduction of infiltration capacity, regardless of whether or not the rainfall intensity i exceeds the computed value of infiltration capacity f. For example. it is common that the infiltration capacity of sandy soils greatly exceeds most rainfall intensities, with values of f up to 23 in/hr (Table 1-6). Even in- tense rainfall pulses are seldom this high, with the consequence that all rainfall may infiltrate; that is, f = i. The infiltration capacity should be reduced in pro- portion to the cumulative infiltration volume, not in proportion to time. ‘The cumulative infiltration volume is given by the integral of Eq. (1-20), FQ) = fet [f= Se]y _ pty, (21) fet ). (2) To find the infiltration capacity at any time, Eq. (1-20) may be solved itera- tively for a time f, as a function of F. The time f, is used in Eq. (1-20) to Table 1-6. Typical Values of the Parameters of ff, and k of the Horton Model e % k Soil Type (in. hr) {in./he) the) Alphalpha loamy sand 1.40 19.00 38.20 Carnegie sandy loam 17 1477 19.64 Dothan looniieand 2.63 3.47 1.40 Fuquay pebbly loamy sand 2.42 6.24 470 Leefield loamy sand 179 11.94 7.70 Tooup sand 1.80 23.01 32.71 Atter Rawis et ol., 1976 67 Figure E1-868 Chapter 1 Figure 1-22 Phi index method establish the appropriate infiltration capacity for the next time interval. This procedure is used, for example, in the SWMM (Huber and Dickinson, 1988), and details can be found there and in Viessman and Lewis (1996). Horton parameters for natural soils (e.g., Table 1-6) are generally not applicable to disturbed soils found everywhere in and near constructed (de- veloped) areas. Pitt et al. (1999, 2001) provide some data and guidance on in- filtration parameters as a function of commonly measured soil compaction parameters. This also illustrates the importance of local infiltrometer mea- surements wherever possible. Other equations have been developed utilizing analytical solutions to the unsaturated flow equation from soil physics (see Section 1.9). Philip (1957),in a classic set of papers, developed two equations of the form f = (0.5)S- + K, (1-22) F = St? + Kt, (1-23) infiltration capacity (in./hr), cumulative infiltration volume (in.), sorptivity, a constant related to soil suction potential (inJ/hr soil hydraulic conductivity (in./hr). 1), Without detailed measurements of actual loss rates and because urban wa- tersheds have high imperviousuess, empirical approaches usually give quite satisfactory results, Many urban drainage and flood control studies rely on either the Horton equation or simpler methods to predict average losses dur- ing storm passage. ‘The é index is the simplest infiltration method and is calculated by finding the loss difference between gross precipitation and observed surtace runoff measured as a hydrograph. The index method assumes that the loss is uniformly distributed across the rainfall pattern (Fig. 1-22). Sometimes the method is modified to include a greater initial loss or abstraction fol- lowed by a constant loss for the event. The use of & index methods for infil- pare : 5 [Ke Gross precipitation rate (i) Volume of index ‘Volume of infiltrationHydrologic Principles 69 PHI INDEX METHOD FOR INFILTRATION EXAMPLE 1-9 Use the rainfall data below to determine the ¢ index for a watershed that is 0.875 square miles, where the runoff volume is 228.7 ac-ft. Time Rainfall (he) {in./hr) 0-2 1.4 2-5 23 57 Mw 7-10 07 10-12 0.3 ‘The first step involves graphing the given data, as in Figure E1-9.To SOLUTION approach the problem, we must first change the area of the watershed into acres: area (ac) = 0.875 sq mi (640 acres area = 560 acres, 2(1.4 — $) + 3(2.3 — $) + 2(1.1 - 6) + 3(0.7 — 6) + 2(03 - 6) = 49 Note that if is greater than the net rainfall for a specific time period, no negative rainfall is added into the runoff calculation. ‘The rate of infiltration can be found only by trial and error: sq mi), Assume = 1.5 in/hr. The runoff is the volume of water above the line at which y — 1.5 on the graph in Fig. E1-9. This & index would then account for 3(2.3 — 1.5) = 2.4 in. of runoff (neglecting negative components), which is less than 4.9 in. ry again. Assume ¢ = 0.5 inJhr. This & would account for 2(1.4 — 0.5) + 3(2.3 = 0.5) + 211.1 = 0.5) + 3(0.7 = 0.5) = 9.0 in. of runoff, which is greater than 4.9 in. Try again. as. abfall (a./howr) lo7 “Time thou) Figure E1-970 Chapter | Assume = 1.0 in/hr, and the solution is found where the runoff is equal to 2(1.4 — 1.0) + 3(2.3 — 1.0) + 2(1.1 — 1.0) = 4.9 in., the re- quired amount. From the calculations, one can see that below the dotted line at which ¢ = 1.0in/hr, the rainfall infiltrates into the ground and the rainfall above this line (a total of 4.9 in. in 12 hours) runs off, as required. More advanced infiltration methods based on actual soil types and solv- ing the governing equations of flow in porous media (ie., Richard’s equation) are presented with examples in the next section. Green and Ampt (1911) as- sumed a sharp wetting front, separating initial moisture content from saturated moisture content, which has penetrated to a depth /. in time f since infiltration began. Water is ponded to a small depth on the surface, and the Green and Ampt model can be used to predict cumulative infiltration as a function of time and soil type. The method requires estimates of hydraulic conductivity, poros- ity, and wetting front soil suction head. This method has received much atten- tion, since it is based on readily measured parameters for various soil classes. go GREEN AND AMPT INFILTRATION METHOD: The abstraction term in the water-balance equation usually includes the loss of water through the interception of precipitation on aboveground vegetation, de- pression storage on the ground surface, and infiltration into underlying soils. As previously discussed, infiltration can be determined using simple empirical methods or theoretically. The infiltration methods that rely on physical rather than empirical parameters provide solutions to the governing equations of flow in porous media (ie., Darcy’s equation presented in Chapter 8) for specific soil types and grain size distributions ‘This section is a more advanced treatment of infiltration, and it can be skipped without loss of continuity in the text. Infiltration is modeled as unsaturated flow and differs from saturated (aquifer) flow because both a liquid (water) and a gas (air) phase are present in the unsaturated system. Gravity and friction are the only forces at work for saturated flow: however, a suction force as discussed in the next para- graph must be included for unsaturated flow. Richard’s equation for unsat- urated flow in porous media applies the equation of continuity to Darcy's law in order to account for the presence of a gas phase in the subsurface. Richard's equation takes the form: aa ayp(8)] aK(8) KO, a (1-24) where 0 = volumetric moisture content (cm*/cm*), z = distance below the surface (cm), (8) = capillary suction (pressure) (em of water), K(6) = unsaturated hydraulic conductivity (cm/s).