Peak Discharge Estimation Using Analytical Probabilistic and Design Storm Approaches
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 11, Issue 1
Abstract
The recently developed analytical probabilistic approach was used for estimation of peak discharge rates in a practical design case. The results were compared with those from the commonly used design storm approach. Differences in meteorological data analysis and representation of rainfall input, subcatchment aggregation, and the treatment of the catchment time of concentration between the two approaches were identified as the three main causes contributing to the discrepancy in peak discharge estimates. In spite of the differences, peak discharge estimates from the two approaches are generally comparable for the actual design case. Furthermore, this study revealed that discrepancies caused by subcatchment aggregation and the difference in meteorological data analysis are approximately the same. Treating the time of concentration as a constant across storms of various magnitudes was found not to contribute to a large discrepancy. However, it was shown that the closer the time of concentration values used in the two approaches, the closer the resultant peak discharge estimates.
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Acknowledgments
The writers thank Dr. Tai Bui of Weslake Inc. and Dr. Alan A. Smith of Alan A. Smith Inc. for providing the data and the use of MIDUSS software, and for their useful suggestions during the course of this study. They are also grateful to the editor and the reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions. Financial support provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of CanadaNRC and the Government of Ontario through the CRESTech program is gratefully acknowledged.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 11 • Issue 1 • January 2006
Pages: 46 - 54
Copyright
© 2006 ASCE.
History
Received: Feb 26, 2004
Accepted: Mar 1, 2005
Published online: Jan 1, 2006
Published in print: Jan 2006
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