Event and Continuous Hydrologic Modeling with HEC-HMS
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 135, Issue 1
Abstract
Event hydrologic modeling reveals how a basin responds to an individual rainfall event (e.g., quantity of surface runoff, peak, timing of the peak, detention). In contrast, continuous hydrologic modeling synthesizes hydrologic processes and phenomena (i.e., synthetic responses of the basin to a number of rain events and their cumulative effects) over a longer time period that includes both wet and dry conditions. Thus, fine-scale event hydrologic modeling is particularly useful for understanding detailed hydrologic processes and identifying the relevant parameters that can be further used for coarse-scale continuous modeling, especially when long-term intensive monitoring data are not available or the data are incomplete. Joint event and continuous hydrologic modeling with the Hydrologic Engineering Center’s Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS) is discussed in this technical note and an application to the Mona Lake watershed in west Michigan is presented. Specifically, four rainfall events were selected for calibrating/verifying the event model and identifying model parameters. The calibrated parameters were then used in the continuous hydrologic model. The Soil Conservation Service curve number and soil moisture accounting methods in HEC-HMS were used for simulating surface runoff in the event and continuous models, respectively, and the relationship between the two rainfall-runoff models was analyzed. The simulations provided hydrologic details about quantity, variability, and sources of runoff in the watershed. The model output suggests that the fine-scale ( time step) event hydrologic modeling, supported by intensive field data, is useful for improving the coarse-scale (hourly time step) continuous modeling by providing more accurate and well-calibrated parameters.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This project was supported by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and Grand Valley State University. The writers would like to thank Annoesjka Steinman, David Fongers, David Kendrick, Vivek Singh, Rick Rediske, Kurt Thompson, Rod Denning, Patrick Womble, Eric Nemeth, and Brain Hanson for their contributions to various aspects of this research.
References
Chow, V. T., Maidment, D. R., and Mays, L. W. (1988). Applied hydrology, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Chu, X., and Mariño, M. A. (2006). “Simulation of infiltration and surface runoff—A Windows-based hydrologic modeling system HYDROL-INF.” Examining the Confluence of Environmental and Water Concerns, Proc., 2006 World Environmental and Water Resources Congress, R. Graham, ed., ASCE, New York.
Clark, C. O. (1945). “Storage and the unit hydrograph.” Trans. Am. Soc. Civ. Eng., 110(2261), 1419–1446.
Garen, D. C., and Moore, D. S. (2005). “Curve number hydrology in water quality modeling: Uses, abuses, and future directions.” J. Am. Water Resour. Assoc., 41(2), 377–388.
Ibbitt, R. P., and O’Donnell, T. (1971). “Fitting methods for conceptual catchment models.” J. Hydr. Div., 97(9), 1331–1342.
Nash, J. E., and Sutcliffe, J. V. (1970). “River flow forecasting through conceptual models. Part I—A discussion of principles.” J. Hydrol., 10(3), 282–290.
Ponce, V. M., and Hawkins, R. H. (1996). “Runoff curve number: Has it reached maturity?” J. Hydrol. Eng., 1(1), 11–19.
Steinman, A. D., et al. (2003). Preliminary watershed assessment: Mona Lake watershed, Annis Water Resources Institute, Muskegon, Mich., Publication No. MR-2003–114.
Steinman, A. D., et al. (2006). “An environmental assessment of an impacted, urbanized watershed: The Mona Lake Watershed, Michigan.” Archiv Hydrobiol., 166(1), 117–144.
United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). (1960). “Routing of floods through river channels.” Engineering manual No 1110-2-1408, Washington, D.C.
United States Army Corps of Engineers, Hydrologic Engineering Center (USACE-HEC). (2000). Hydrologic modeling system HEC-HMS technical reference manual, Davis, Calif.
United States Army Corps of Engineers, Hydrologic Engineering Center (USACE-HEC). (2006). Hydrologic modeling system HEC-HMS user’s manual, Davis, Calif.
USDA. (1986). “Urban Hydrology for Small Watersheds.” Technical Release 55 (TR-55), Natural Resources Conservation Services, Washington, D.C.
Watershed Modeling System (WMS). (1999). “WMS V6.1 tutorials.” Brigham Young Univ., Environmental Modeling Research Laboratory, Provo, Utah.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Jan 31, 2007
Accepted: Apr 17, 2008
Published online: Feb 1, 2009
Published in print: Feb 2009
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.