The kinematic routing method is based on both the continuity and uniform flow equations. It solves the continuity equation in the form of
and a rating function
In theory, kinematic waves will not accelerate and will flow downstream without appreciable change in shape or loss in peak. This contrasts to other storage routing techhiques where hydrographs are attenuated based on the available storage. The Kinematic wave computation as applied to channel routing is also falling out of favor because of these characteristics.