HEC-HMS Lab 2 – Using Thiessen Polygon and Inverse

Distance Weighting
Created by Venkatesh Merwade (vmerwade@purdue.edu)

Learning outcomes
The objective of this lab is to learn how to input data from multiple rainfall gages into HEC-HMS and
evaluate the role of gage locations and their corresponding weights on the streamflow hydrograph. By
the end of this exercise, you will:

1) Know how to feed data from multiple rainfall gages into HEC-HMS
2) Know how to enter the weight for each rainfall gage when using multiple gages
3) Know how to use Thiessen polygon and IDW in HEC-HMS
4) Understand the role of spatial rainfall dynamics on streamflow hydrograph

Student Time Required: 90 minutes

Instructions

Create a new folder called Thiessen. Save your project from lab1 as (use Save As in the File menu)
Thiessen.hms in this new folder. If you have more than three precipitation gages in your lab 1, keep
only the first three, and delete other gages. Make sure your gages has the following three events:

Gage 1 Gage 2 Gage 3

Date Time P (mm) Time P (mm) Time P (mm)
8/27/2018 9:00 0.00 10:00 0.00 10:00 0.00
8/27/2018 10:00 5.08 11:00 2.00 11:00 1.50
8/27/2018 11:00 10.16 12:00 3.08 12:00 2.50
8/27/2018 12:00 2.54 13:00 5.16 13:00 3.54
8/27/2018 13:00 2.00 14:00 5.00 14:00 4.00
8/27/2018 14:00 1.00 15:00 2.54 15:00 4.16
8/27/2018 15:00 0.00 16:00 2.00 16:00 3.08
8/27/2018 16:00 0.00 17:00 1.00 17:00 2.00

Using Gage Weights in HEC-HMS

Create a new Meteorology File/Model (Met E). For this file, change the precipitation type from Specified
Hyetograph to Gage Weights as shown below. Make sure you change the Replace Missing option to “set
to Default”

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In the Basins tab next to the Meteorology Model, make sure you select Yes to include sub-basins. Once
this is done, Sub-basin 1 will also appear under Meteorologic Models as shown below:

Expand sub-basin 1, and you will then see Gage Weights. Select Gage Weights. In the Gage Selection tab
in component editor, you will select the first three gages for sub-basin 1 as shown below. Make sure the
use gage option is set to “Yes” for all gages.

Next, you will assign weights by using the Gage Weights tab in the component editor. Use equal weights
for the first run, and enter 1 for all depth weights and time weights. When you use time series gages to
specify rainfall hyetographs, the numbers in the time weight column represent the weights that will be
used in interpolation. When daily rainfall values are used, the numbers in the depth weight column will
be used in interpolation.

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Now create a new simulation called Equal_weights, and run the simulation.

Using the data from the time-series table of the output, create a presentation quality hydrograph (plot
of total flow versus time) in Excel. Report the peak flow, the timing of the peak flow, total input (in mm),
loss (in mm) and total output (in mm).

Assigning Weights Using Thiessen Polygon

Assume the sub-basin to be 10km x 10 km square area. The coordinates for the three gages used earlier
are: G1 (1,5), G2 (8.5, 8.5) and G3 (5.5,1.5). Using (0,0) as the origin (lower left corner of the watershed),
compute the Thiessen weight for each gage using an engineering sheet (provided). Create a new
Meteorologic Model (Met T), again use the gage weights option and assign the Thiessen weight for each
gage that you found. Use the same numbers for both Depth and Time weight columns. Create a new
simulation (called Thiessen 1) using Basin 1, Met T and Control 1, and run the Thiessen_weight
simulation.

Next, create a new Meteorologic Model (Met T2), again use the gage weights option and assign the
Thiessen weight as 0.6, 0.1 and 0.3 for gage 1, 2, and 3 respectively. Create a new simulation (Thiessen
2) and get a new hydrograph in Excel. Report the peak flow, the timing of the peak flow, total input (in
mm) and total output (in mm).

Repeat this process one more time with 0.2, 0.3 and 0.5, for gage 1,2, and 3, respectively. You will create
a new Meteorologic model (Met T3), new simulation (Thiessen 3) and a new hydrograph in Excel. Report
the peak flow, the timing of the peak flow, total input (in mm) and total output (in mm).

Turn-in (Part A)

The hydrographs from the equal weights and the three Thiessen weight hydrographs. Also include peak
flow, the timing of the peak flow, total input (in mm) and total output (in mm) for all hydrographs. Write
a paragraph (at least 50 words) about the differences you see in these hydrographs and the reasons for
these differences.

Use of IDW in HEC-HMS

In using Thiessen polygon approach with HEC-HMS, you had to compute and assign these weights to
each gage. This has to do with how HEC-HMS uses basin information because it does not get the exact
shape of the watershed boundary from the user to compute the areas of Thiessen polygons so we had

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to provide these weights. In the case of IDW, the weights are based on distances so it is possible to
compute IDW weights in HEC-HMS if we provide the exact georeferenced position of the gages. In this
part of the exercise, we will learn how to geo-reference a sub-basin and all the gages for using the IDW
method of rainfall interpolation. Download Tippecanoe.zip from blackboard. It is under Lab02 folder.
The file is also available at this link: http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~vmerwade/education/tippecanoe.zip

Unzip Tippecanoe.zip. It is a GIS Shapefile of the Tippecanoe County.

We will work in the same HMS project where you use the Thiessen weights for the rainfall data.

Create a new basin model and name it as Tippecanoe. Give appropriate description for the basin.

Go to ViewBackground Maps, and browse to the tippecanone.shp (boundary of Tippecanoe County).

Once the boundary is added, you will see that the desktop in HEC-HMS is now showing the Tippecanoe
county boundary. If you go to ViewMaximum extents, you will see the geographic coordinates
associated with each corner of the view.

Create a sub-basin approximately at the Centroid of Tippecanoe County. Use the same loss and
transform method as used in Lab 1 including the area of 100 km2. The parameter values for both loss
and transform methods also identical to what you used in Lab 1. If you do not have lab 1, you can see
this information in Basin 1 in the same HEC-HMS project.

Once you have populated the basin model with appropriate methods and parameters, create a new
Meteorologic model (Met IDW). In the new meteorologic file, change the precipitation to Inverse
Distance as shown below.

Similarly go to the Basins tab and add Tippecanoe sub-basin to Met IDW as shown below.

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Go to options tab, and change the search distance to 30 KM. This will tell the program to only include
gages that are within this radius while computing the weights.

Next, you will see that Inverse Distance is added sub-basin 1 of Tippecanoe basin in the MET IDW file as
shown below:

Select Precipitation Gages and link all gages to this Meteorologic file as shown below (leave Daily Gage
as “No”):

Click on Inverse Distance, and give a name and weight to the node in the component editor as shown
below. This node is basically the point for which the data will be interpolated from all the gages. The
weight column dictates how the interpolated data will be applied to the sub-basin. Use as weight of “1”,
which means the interpolated hyetograph will be applied without modification. Note that we are using
centroid as a reference point to get the distance weighted average of all gauges within the Tippecanoe
boundary.

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Input the latitude and longitude for this point as: (40o 24’58”, -86o54’4”)
Similarly, enter the following lat/long for all three gages by going to time series folder:
Gage 1 : (40o24’18”, -87o2’10”); Gage 2: (40o29’50”, -86o48’7”); Gage 3:(40o17’42”, -86o52’55”)
When you enter latitude and longitude information for each gage, the distances will be computed by
HEC-HMS to get the weights for each gage for use in the IDW method.
Now, create a new simulation run (IDW), and run the model.
Turn-in (Part B)

1. IDW hydrograph.
2. Report the peak flow, the timing of the peak flow, total input (in mm) and total output (in mm).
3. Write few lines about the differences you see in IDW hydrograph compared to the hydrographs that
you obtained from Thiessen weights. Is the IDW hydrograph closer to any of the earlier
hydrographs? Why?

Both Part A and Part B of this lab are due on Monday, September 17 by 2:00 PM. Please do not print
anything when the lab is in session from 2:30 – 3:20 PM.