The retarding basin is one of the crucial items in the detention facilities. It may effectively alleviate the occurrence of peak discharge control the center of flood flow, and reduce the amount of soil loss. The present study, aims to obtain the change in volume of a retarding basin under the known flow hydrograph in the detention facility. The volume change of detention, which is under the interaction of a given triangular inflow hydrograph and the extent of peak attenuation, is investigated by using the non-dimensional detention theory and the related exact analyses. The minimum detention volume of the retarding basin can therefore be calculated based on the results of change in volume of detention. The detention volume is proposed to be used for designing the detention facilities in the field of slopeland development.