Investigating Utilization of Activated Distributed Storage Networks for Peak Flow Reduction Using Stochastic Storm Transposition
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 29, Issue 3
Abstract
The state of Iowa in the Central United States has experienced increasing flooding, with major events occurring most recently in 1993, 2008, 2011, and 2019. These floods caused over $23B in damage despite Iowa’s three flood control reservoirs and expansive levee systems, suggesting the need for additional solutions. Iowa is home to over 4,000 small dams whose cumulative capacity more than double the state’s current flood storage. These locations are operated passively, i.e., without the use of gated outlets to control basin storage utilization, thus limiting their flood mitigating potential. Here, the authors simulate gated outlets at 130 small dams within a watershed to (1) evaluate how effectively these storages can be activated across a watershed using gated outlets; and (2) quantify the utilization capacity of an activated distributed storage system for flow reduction. The authors used stochastic storm transposition to generate thousands of spatially variable rainfall events using Stage IV rainfall data within the Iowa domain at durations of 6, 12, 24, and 48 h and annual exceedance probabilities (AEPs) of 0.2, 0.1, 0.02, and 0.01. This expands the effective period of record, providing storms of various durations, intensities, and spatiotemporal distributions. An active management scheme was defined within the reservoir module of the hillslope link model designed to store water within the ponding locations. The study calculated the flow reductions that were achieved through this active scheme and found that flows were reduced for every rainfall duration and probability regardless of basin spatial scale. Reductions reached as high as 70% for a 6 h, 0.2 AEP event at a drainage area, while flows were reduced by roughly 12% for a 48 h, 0.01 AEP event at the basin outlet. This work establishes activated distributed storage as a meaningful flood reduction measure under realistic rainfall conditions at a variety of spatial scales.
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Data Availability Statement
Data and/or the codes used to generate the figures incorporated into this manuscript will be made available upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
Riley Post is supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF-GRFP, Grant No. 1945994). Witold Krajewski is supported by the Rose and Joseph Summers Endowment. Daniel Wright is supported by an Interagency Personnel Act agreement between the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the National Weather Service. The authors are grateful for the support of the Iowa Flood Center and IIHR–Hydroscience and Engineering at the University of Iowa.
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Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 29 • Issue 3 • June 2024
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© 2024 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Jun 9, 2023
Accepted: Dec 20, 2023
Published online: Feb 29, 2024
Published in print: Jun 1, 2024
Discussion open until: Jul 29, 2024
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