For the simulation of one-dimensional unsteady flow, the Taylor-Galerkin finite element method was adopted to the discretization of the Saint Venant equation. The model was applied to the backwater problem in a single channel and the flood routing in dendritic channel networks. The numerical solutions were compared with previously published results of finite difference and finite element methods and good agreement was observed. The model solves the continuity and the momentum equations in a sequential manner and this leads to easy implementation. Since the final system of matrix is tri-diagonal with a few additional entry due to channel junctions, the tri-diagonal matrix solution algorithm can be used with minor modification. So it is fast and economical in terms of memory for storing matrices.