Hydrologic characteristics of catchments / Lag time for natural catchments

Volume 3 of the Lincoln Papers in Water Resources contains two papers. The first of the papers - Hydrologic Characteristics of Catchments - was presented in November 1967 to a Symposium arranged by the New Zealand Hydrological Society and held at Wellington, New Zealand. The second paper - Lag Time for Natural Catchments – was read in January 1968 to a meeting of Section H (E) of the 40th ANZAAS Congress held at Christchurch, New Zealand.Hydrological characteristics of catchments : The systematic description and classification of catchment characteristics has never been adequately treated in any hydrological text. This paper summarises available measures for the quantitative description of catchments and points to aspects of catchment mensuration where deficiencies occur. Measures and definitions of catchment characteristics which have appeared in hydrological literature are described in 5 groups, these being topographical characteristics, vegetation, soils, climatic characteristics, and human effects. The characteristics of a catchment such as the unit hydrograph which are contained in the streamflow record are noted, and areal and temporal variations in characteristics are briefly discussed. Abstract for second paper, Lag time in natural catchments : The development of a relationship for the variable lag of ungauged catchments. Pluviograph and runoff records for an experimental catchment were studied in detail. A procedure was developed for the computation of the lag to direct runoff and the weighted mean discharge for any number of floods. This procedure was written into the form of a computer programme and the records of five catchments were analysed with the use of a digital computers. The relationships effect of other factors was studied. Finally the form of the relationships and the parameters defining them were related to the characteristics of the catchment areas