Real Time Rainfall-Runoff Modeling on Alluvial Fans, Floodplains, and Watersheds

Real time rainfall runoff modeling is rapidly advancing and soon will be the framework of a predictive early flood warning system. The Flood Control District of Maricopa County has supported the development of spatially and temporally variable rainfall simulation in the FLO-2D model. FLO-2D is a two-dimensional flood routing model that can simulate rainfall-runoff. Initially, FLO-2D was designed to simulate uniform rainfall on a finite difference grid system of a watershed or floodplain. The model system has been expanded to interpolate ASCII grid file rain data (such as NEXRAD rain data or the Maricopa County rain gage data) to incorporate spatially and temporally variable rainfall data. FLO-2D can also simulate a moving storm system. The variable rainfall-runoff can be simulated with multiple inflow flood hydrographs routed over urbanized alluvial fans and floodplains. Spatially variable rainfall losses are computed with the Green-Ampt model. The assignment of the Green-Ampt parameters are automatically generated by a processor program. Simulating spatially and temporally variable rainfall enables monitored rain storms to be replicated, design storms to be predicted, or real time network rain gages data to be simulated as a projected flood event. The new rainfall components in the FLO-2D flood routing model set the stage for integration for a predictive early flood warning system.