Day 1 Session 1 Introduction to Runoff Routing Overview • Context • Formation of actual floods • Flood simulation - basic concepts • Overview of modelling components • Runoff routing models: – background – model structure, parameters, inputs January 2011: Lochyer Valley, Qld 0 min January 2011: Lochyer Valley, Qld 0 +11 min min January 2011: Lochyer Valley, Qld 0 +11 min min
+18 min January 2011: Lochyer Valley, Qld 0 +11 min min
+18 +22 min min The context for flood estimation • Flood management (eg zoning, mitigation structures) is concerned with future events • A risk analysis of some form is used to decide how severe an event will be used for design – for some structures (eg stormwater drainage systems) a peak flow is sufficient. – where flood volumes (and/or flow durations) are an issue, design hydrographs are needed • The standard method in Australia for design hydrograph estimation is runoff routing Flood Formation What factors are important in the formation of actual floods? – Climate inputs (especially rainfall): • sequence of storm events • temporal variability of rainfall within storms • high degree of spatial variations of rainfall – Catchment characteristics: • great variety of catchment features • high degree of spatial variability • land use changes Flood Formation – Hydrologic processes: • continuum of many different processes • physically complex, non-linear • interactions (eg. surface/sub-surface hydrology) • spatially variable within a catchment • differences between catchments (depending on catchment & climate characteristics)
Catchment response Time (h) to rainfall Flood Simulation Hydrologic Processes: Dominant processes are represented by 3 separate conceptual models: • Runoff production model (or loss model): converts local rainfall to runoff (or rainfall excess) • Hydrograph formation (or runoff routing) model: transforms local runoff to h/g at catchment outlet • Baseflow model: reflects sub-surface contribution to streamflow Flood Simulation - Components Rainfall Input (design storms)
Runoff Production (loss model) Baseflow Production Rainfall Excess
Hydrograph Formation Baseflow (Routing Model)
Flood Output Nature of Flood Event Modelling • Configuration of a suitable model that simulates flood response of a catchment in response to rainfall • Can be used to estimate: – Floods from historical rainfalls – Floods of a specified annual exceedance probability (AEP) – Impacts of urbanisation or land-use change (difficult) • “Design Flood” is term given to a flood peak of specified AEP which is derived from “Design Rainfall” (eg BoM IFD2013) • Design floods traditionally estimated using “design event” (deterministic) procedures • Increasing focus given to using “joint probability” (stochastic) approaches The Rational Method Equation Q = 1/3600 * C.I.A. • Q (m3/s) • C (dimensionless) • I (mm/h) (assuming duration equals time of concentration) • A (hectares, ha) 1ha = 104m2 = 10-2km2 • No flow data is required • Useful (in theory) if only peak flow is required from a given design rainfall IFD for small catchments e.g. Urban and rural drainage design • Widely used in practice, but has low confidence when applied to ungauged catchments Unit Hydrograph Models • Unit hydrograph is the hydrograph resulting from unit depth of surface runoff produced by a storm of uniform intensity and specified duration • It assumes linearity in the transformation of rainfall excess to flood response • Discussed in just about all engineering hydrology texts • Its use in Australia has been replaced by runoff-routing models, but it remains popular overseas (in conjunction with network routing models) • It treats (sub-)catchment as a “lumped” system • Not easily modified for catchments of different size to those used in calibration, or for regional purposes • Not easily adapted to urban systems Network Model Muskingum-Cunge method used to Unit hydrograph model used to convert route hydrographs along stream channels Rainfall into sub-catchment hydrograph Lag and route models
• Do not have strong rigorous physical basis but do provide
reasonable results • Translation with (non-linear) concentrated storage at outlet – ILLUDAS – ILLSAX Runoff Routing Models Concepts: • The effect of a catchment on the input rainfall- excess is a storage effect, ie: – attenuation of the input; and – translation in time
• Can simulate this storage effect by routing
rainfall-excess through a series of concentrated storages Simulation of catchment storage Rainfall (mm/hr) Streamflow (mm/hr)
Time (hr) Simulation of catchment storage
Losses Rainfall (mm/hr)
Net Rainfall (Re)
Re S1 S2 S3 Storage routing model
Q1 Attenuation Q2 Streamflow (mm/hr)
Q3 Translation and attenuation of
hydrograph moving downstream (shown for three locations Q1, Q2, Q3)
Translation Time (hr) Runoff Routing Models Storage elements are selected to represent catchment (node-link structure) Representation of Reach Storage (S = kQm)
• Between each node on the stream network is
a storage of form S = kQm • The form of the storage equation S = kQm is justifiable by both theoretical and empirical means. • For example, application of a uniform flow equation in a prismatic channel will yield an equation of this form Value of exponent m • Triangular cross-section m = 0.75 • Trapezoidal cross-section m = 0.74 • Parabolic cross-section m = 0.69 • Wide rectangular channel m = 0.60
The results are for uniform flow in open channels. However,
similar m values, ranging from 0.68 to 0.8, have been reported in field studies using natural catchments
Normally, an m value of 0.8 is adopted in practice (unless there is
evidence to the contrary) Value of k
• k ( Equation A-3) dependent on channel roughness, cross-
section shape, bed-slope, and length (prismatic channels)
• in natural river channels the effects of slope and roughness
often tend to be compensatory; in such cases, the k value can be taken as proportional to L.
• in urban catchments with lined channels, this compensating
effect is missing so the effect of slope on reach storage must be specifically included. Splitting k into kc and kr • there are advantages in specifying k as the product of kc and kr (ie k = kc x kr) • kc - a catchment parameter (rural) related to catchment lag formulae (applicable to entire catchment and stream network)
• kr - a reach parameter (usually reach length)
expressed in dimensionless form – it can be adjusted for changes in reach condition – eg forming, lining, drowning) – applicable to individual reaches Runoff Routing - Basic Steps • Development/application of a runoff routing model involves 3 basic steps: 1. Defining model structure 2. Deriving model parameters 3. Specifying model inputs Model Structure • Select storage elements to represent catchment (node-link structure): Guidelines for Catchment Subdivision • At least 4 subcatchments upstream of any streamflow gauge or point of interest • Subcatchments all of similar size (generally largest subcatchment no more than 3 times the area of the smallest subcatchment) • Sufficient number of subcatchments to capture spatial and temporal variability in observed rainfalls Guidelines for Catchment Subdivision • Divide catchment into several sub-catchments (generally between 5 and 20) – Sub-catchment boundaries along watershed divides – Sub-catchments should be reasonably similar in size – Indicative sub-area ranges (though this varies widely!): • 4 sub-areas for 0.1 km2 • 7 sub-areas for 10 km2 • 15 sub-areas for 10 km2 • Place model nodes at: – Centroid of each sub-catchment – Confluence of streams – Significant inflow/outflow or artificial storages Model Structure • Select storage elements to represent catchment (node-link structure): Model Structure - Issues • Many possible model structures could be used to represent a catchment but: – Different types of elements imply different S-Q relationships => different results when extrapolated – Which representation performs best for: • modelling different land use conditions? • estimating larger floods? • application to ungauged catchments? parameters = f(catchment characteristics) Summary – Session 1 • Flood simulation - basic concepts • Modelling components • Runoff routing models: – background – model structure, parameters, inputs
