RAINFALL-RUNOFF MECHANICS FOR DEVELOPED URBAN BASINS, SOUTH FLORIDA.

Rainfall-runoff data, collected by the US Geological Survey as part of an urban hydrology study in south Florida, were analyzed to find relations between depths of rainfall and basin runoff. Data were collected for about 300 runoff events on four different urban land-use basins - commercial, highway, single-family residential, and apartment. These data were collected from sewers that carried only stormwater runoff. In analyzing the rainfall-runoff data, three types of relations were found. A one-curve, linear relation occurred for the commercial basin that has 98 percent of the basin as hydraulically effective impervious area. A two-curve, intercepted relation occurred for the highway basin - a linear curve for the low and medium events observed and a second-degree curve for high events observed. A two-curve, disjointed relation occurred for the remaining two basins - the residential basin and the apartment basin. This relation also contained a linear curve for low and medium events and a second-degree curve for the high events. However, the two curves do not intersect, but are disjointed.