Unpaved roads are of great importance for the economic and social development of a country. Water erosion provoked by the concentration of runoff along the road is a principle cause of its degradation. The construction of infiltration basins for runoff retention on unpaved roads is a usually alternative for the problem solution. The use of more coherent methodologies for designing infiltration basins is fundamental for the appropriate road degradation processes control. Therefore, the objective of this work was to perform a comparative analysis of a methodology for the design of infiltration basins that consider an intense rainfall associated to a determined return period, with a methodology that use all events of a determined precipitation series, and overlapping effects of their respective runoff volumes. According to the obtained results, it was found that the volume calculated for the infiltration basin by the model which considers all events of the precipitation series is greater when the rate of water infiltration into the soil at the basin bottom is lowest.