Process / pipelineHydrology

Muskingum Routing

The Muskingum method is a hydrologic flood routing technique that predicts how a flood wave attenuates (reduces in peak) and spreads as it travels down a river reach. Developed by McCarthy in 1938 for the US Army Corps of Engineers, the method is simple enough for hand calculations while capturing the essential physics of flood propagation.

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Sources

  1. McCarthy, G. T. (1938). The Unit Hydrograph and Flood Routing. US Army Corps of Engineers Document 608. link
  2. Cunge, J. A. (1969). On the subject of a flood propagation computation method (Muskingum method). Journal of Hydraulic Research, 7(2), 205-230. DOI: 10.1080/00221686909500264
  3. Chow, V. T., Maidment, D. R., & Mays, L. W. (1988). Applied Hydrology. McGraw-Hill. ISBN: 0-07-010810-2

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Referenced by

ScholarGateMuskingum Routing (Muskingum Method for Flood Routing). Retrieved 2026-06-04 from https://scholargate.app/en/civil-engineering/muskingum-routing