The unit hydrograph has been known to be a powerful tool in Hydrology but most watersheds within developing countries have none due to several factors which consequently affect design of hydraulic or flood control structures. Hence, this research developed a synthetic unit hydrograph (SUH) of the important Epie creek in Bayelsa state of Nigeria that drains over 70% of the runoff in the state capital. This was achieved by applying the globally used Snyder’s model as well as an innovative approach involving the use of Buckingham’s π-theorem (dimensional analysis). The result revealed that the peak discharge, time to attain peak discharge as well as the basin lag for the SUH developed from Buckingham’s π-theorem principles are respectively 5.6%, 4.7% and 6.7% higher than their corresponding values in the SUH developed via Snyder’s method while the base period is 2.1% lower than that of Snyder’s method. Notwithstanding, the peak discharge and base period for both approaches ranged from 102.20 – 107.88m3/s and 80.97 – 82.71hours respectively. Necessary recommendations were made.
Key words: Dimensional, Discharge, Peak, Runoff, Snyder
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