Journal of Hydrology ELSEVIER Journal of Hydrology 158 (1994) 285-303 [1] The influence of storm temporal patterns on catchment response James E. Ball School of Civil Engineering, University of New South Wales, P.O. Box 1, Kensington, N.S.W. 2033, Australia (Received 10 November 1992; revision accepted 16 January 1994) Abstract Previous investigations have shown that an estimate of the catchment response to a storm event can be obtained from a consideration of kinematic waves flowing over planar surfaces. For a singular plane, analytical solutions have been presented previously for storm events with a constant intensity of rainfall excess. However, these solutions have limited applicability owing to the non-uniform distribution of precipitation and, hence, rainfall excess in most real storm events. Analytical and numerical solutions for a number of non-uniform patterns of rainfall excess are presented. Solutions obtained show that the pattern of rainfall excess has a consider- ~,ble influence on the catchment response. This influence is evident in the different time-to-peak of the resultant runoff hydrographs and in the hydrograph shape itself. Therefore, the time of concentration is not a constant characteristic of the catchment which can be determined with- out consideration of the temporal pattern of rainfall excess. Finally, the predicted hydrographs obtained for variable rates of rainfall excess have higher peak flowrates than that obtained for a constant intensity of rainfall excess. 1. Introduction Use of numerical modelling techniques to simulate response to storm events is becoming increasingly important for the management of urban drainage systems. These techniques require the arbitrary subdivision of the drainage system into con- ceptual components; one such subdivision, after McPherson and Zuidema (1977), is into: (1) collection component--those aspects of the model which are primarily concerned with the generation of the hydrographs entering the transport component of the model; (2) transport component--those aspects of the model which are pri- marily concerned with the transportation of the inflow hydrographs to the disposal locations. The modelling techniques incorporated in the collection component are aimed at 0022-1694/94/$07.00 © 1994 - Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved SSD1 0022-1694(94)02461-J