Impact of Flood Types on Superposition of Flood Waves and Flood Statistics Downstream
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 26, Issue 7
Abstract
Flood events may be caused by different runoff generating processes and can be differentiated in their genesis by the application of flood types. Additionally, the spatial interaction of catchments can play a crucial role in the flood generation. Flood wave superposition can increase the flood peak and volume downstream. The magnitude of increase and the probability of superposition depends on the shape of the upstream hydrographs. This study simulated different superposition scenarios, distinguished by flood types. These scenarios then were incorporated in a type-differentiated statistical model. Uncertainty ranges for design floods were obtained that can be used for an improved consideration of flood protection differentiated by the flood type. It was demonstrated that, although for central German catchments the superposition of floods caused by heavy rainfall is the least probable of all scenarios, this flood type leads to highest increase of the peak. Hence, heavy-rainfall floods could lead to underestimated design floods downstream. With the newly proposed range of design-flood return periods, the uncertainty caused by flood superposition can be incorporated in flood protection measures.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
All data used during the study are available in a repository or online in accordance with funder data retention policies. The discharge data for the Mulde basin were provided without charge by the state water authority LfULG Saxony (www.umwelt.sachsen.de/umwelt/infosysteme/ida/). All code that supports the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The financial support of the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) for the research group FOR 4216 “Space-Time Dynamics of Extreme Floods” is gratefully acknowledged.
References
Apel, H., B. Merz, and A. H. Thieken. 2009. “Influence of dike breaches on flood frequency estimation.” Comput. Geosci. 35 (5): 907–923. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cageo.2007.11.003.
Ball, J. E., A. Kerr, G. C. Rocha, and A. Islam. 2016. “A review of stream gauge records for design flood estimation.” In Proc., 37th Hydrology and Water Resources Symp. Barton, Australia: Engineers Australia.
Blöschl, G., T. Nester, J. Komma, J. Parajka, and R. A. P. Perdigão. 2013. “The June 2013 flood in the Upper Danube Basin, and comparisons with the 2002, 1954 and 1899 floods.” Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 17 (12): 5197–5212. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-5197-2013.
Blöschl, G., and M. Sivapalan. 1995. “Scale issues in hydrological modelling. A review.” Hydrol. Process. 9 (3–4): 251–290. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.3360090305.
Brunner, M. I., D. Viviroli, A. E. Sikorska, O. Vannier, A.-C. Favre, and J. Seibert. 2017. “Flood type specific construction of synthetic design hydrographs.” Water Resour. Res. 53 (2): 1390–1406. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016WR019535.
Choudhury, P. 2007. “Multiple inflows Muskingum routing model.” J. Hydrol. Eng. 12 (5): 473–481. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)1084-0699(2007)12:5(473).
Cunge, J. A. 1969. “On the subject of a flood propagation computation method (Muskingum method).” J. Hydraul. Res. 7 (2): 205–230. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221686909500264.
Fickert, R. 1934. “Die größten Sommerhochwasser des sächsischen Muldegebietes in den letzten Jahrzehnten [The largest summer floods of the Saxon Mulde basin in the last decades].” In Beilage zum Jahrbuch des Sächsischen Amtes für Gewässerkunde Abflussjahr 1934. Freiberg, Germany: Sächsisches Amt für Gewässerkunde.
Fischer, S. 2018. “A seasonal mixed-POT model to estimate high flood quantiles from different event types and seasons.” J. Appl. Stat. 45 (15): 2831–2847. https://doi.org/10.1080/02664763.2018.1441385.
Fischer, S., A. Schumann, and P. Bühler. 2019. “Timescale-based flood typing to estimate temporal changes in flood frequencies.” Hydrol. Sci. J. 64 (15): 1867–1892. https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2019.1679376.
Fischer, S., A. Schumann, and P. Bühler. 2021. “A statistics-based automated flood event separation.” J. Hydrol. X 10 (Jan): 100070. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hydroa.2020.100070.
Gaál, L., J. Szolgay, S. Kohnová, J. Parajka, R. Merz, A. Viglione, and G. Blöschl. 2012. “Flood timescales: Understanding the interplay of climate and catchment processes through comparative hydrology.” Water Resour. Res. 48 (4): 383. https://doi.org/10.1029/2011WR011509.
Gill, M. A. 1978. “Flood routing by the Muskingum method.” J. Hydrol. 36 (3–4): 353–363. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1694(78)90153-1.
Guse, B., B. Merz, L. Wietzke, S. Ullrich, A. Viglione, and S. Vorogushyn. 2020. “The role of flood wave superposition in the severity of large floods.” Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 24 (4): 1633–1648. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-1633-2020.
Khan, M. H. 1993. “Muskingum flood routing model for multiple tributaries.” Water Resour. Res. 29 (4): 1057–1062. https://doi.org/10.1029/92WR02850.
Kirkby, M. 1988. “Hillslope runoff processes and models.” J. Hydrol. 100 (1–3): 315–339. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1694(88)90190-4.
LfULG (Landesamt für Umwelt, Landwirtschaft und Geologie Sachsen). 2021. “Interdisziplinäre Daten und Auswertungen.” Accessed April 1, 2021. https://www.umwelt.sachsen.de/umwelt/infosysteme/ida/.
Nied, M., T. Pardowitz, K. Nissen, U. Ulbrich, Y. Hundecha, and B. Merz. 2014. “On the relationship between hydro-meteorological patterns and flood types.” J. Hydrol. 519 (Nov): 3249–3262. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.09.089.
Rango, A., and J. Martinec. 1995. “Revisiting the degree-day method for snowmelt computations.” J. Am. Water Resour. Assoc. 31 (4): 657–669. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-1688.1995.tb03392.x.
Schröter, K., M. Kunz, F. Elmer, B. Mühr, and B. Merz. 2015. “What made the June 2013 flood in Germany an exceptional event? A hydro-meteorological evaluation.” Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 19 (1): 309–327. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-309-2015.
Tarasova, L., S. Basso, C. Poncelet, and R. Merz. 2018. “Exploring controls on rainfall-runoff events: 2. Regional patterns and spatial controls of event characteristics in Germany.” Water Resour. Res. 54 (10): 7688–7710. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR022588.
Tarasova, L., S. Basso, D. Wendi, A. Viglione, R. Kumar, and R. Merz. 2020. “A process-based framework to characterize and classify runoff events: The event typology of Germany.” Water Resour. Res. 56 (5): e2019WR026951. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019wr026951.
Ternynck, C., M. A. Ben Alaya, F. Chebana, S. Dabo-Niang, and T. B. M. J. Ouarda. 2016. “Streamflow hydrograph classification using functional data analysis.” J. Hydrometeorol. 17 (1): 327–344. https://doi.org/10.1175/JHM-D-14-0200.1.
Viglione, A., G. B. Chirico, J. Komma, R. Woods, M. Borga, and G. Blöschl. 2010. “Quantifying space-time dynamics of flood event types.” J. Hydrol. 394 (1–2): 213–229. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2010.05.041.
Vorogushyn, S., and B. Merz. 2013. “Flood trends along the Rhine: The role of river training.” Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 17 (10): 3871–3884. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-3871-2013.
Yue, S., T. B. M. J. Ouarda, B. Bobée, P. Legendre, and P. Bruneau. 2002. “Approach for describing statistical properties of flood hydrograph.” J. Hydrol. Eng. 7 (2): 147–153. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)1084-0699(2002)7:2(147).
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 26 • Issue 7 • July 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 16, 2020
Accepted: Mar 5, 2021
Published online: May 11, 2021
Published in print: Jul 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Oct 11, 2021
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.