Computational Discretization Effect on Rainfall‐Runoff Simulation
Publication: Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 120, Issue 5
Abstract
Modeling catchment runoff requires spatial discretization of the catchment for computation. This study investigates the effect that the size of the computational discretization has on the results of a simulation. Three different types of models (namely, a rational formula model, an Australian nonlinear conceptual model (RORB), and a physical‐process‐based distributed model (HEC‐1)) were tested by applying them to a hypothetical catchment. For each model the spatial discretization size for computations was systematically decreased, while all other catchment and model parameters were held constant. It was observed that even for a simple, homogeneous, hypothetical catchment the simulated runoff results are significantly affected by the computational spatial size of the catchment used regardless of the type of model applied to the catchment.
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Copyright © 1994 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 26, 1990
Published online: Sep 1, 1994
Published in print: Sep 1994
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