Soil Conservation Service Curve Number (SCS-CN) Methodology

The Soil Conservation Service (SCS) curve number (CN) method is one of the most popular methods for computing the runoff volume from a rainstorm. It is popular because it is simple, easy to understand and apply, and stable, and accounts for most of the runoff producing watershed characteristics, such as soil type, land use, hydrologic condition, and antecedent moisture condition. The SCS-CN method was originally developed for its use on small agricultural watersheds and has since been extended and applied to rural, forest and urban watersheds. Since the inception of the method, it has been applied to a wide range of environments. In recent years, the method has received much attention in the hydrologic literature. The SCS-CN method was first published in 1956 in Section-4 of the National Engineering Handbook of Soil Conservation Service (now called the Natural Resources Conservation Service), U. S. Department of Agriculture. The publication has since been revised several times. However, the contents of the methodology have been nonetheless more or less the same. Being an agency methodology, the method has not passed through the process of a peer review and is, in general, accepted in the form it exists. Despite several limitations of the method and even questionable credibility at times, it has been in continuous use for the simple reason that it works fairly well at the field level.