Direct Numerical Simulation of Hortonian Runoff Resulting from Heterogeneous Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 13, Issue 10
Abstract
A two-dimensional rainfall-runoff model is used to systematically explore the aggregate effect of spatially heterogeneous saturated hydraulic conductivity, , on Hortonian runoff generation. The fully dynamic model integrates overland flow and infiltration to allow for the “interactive infiltration” process (run-on). Rainfall events varying in time and intensity were simulated on synthetic hillslopes with random and spatially correlated fields. Model grid size discretization recommendations are developed to fully capture the variation in and avoid limiting the spatial interactive infiltration opportunities as found in analysis of the effects of model grid size on spatially uncorrelated hillslopes. Our results show that on highly correlated fields, relative to the hillslope length, the infiltration due to interaction is less than half that of uncorrelated fields for low intensity events. Previous findings, are also substantiated and further explored, with explicit consideration of model discretization, that the variation in increases interaction by increasing the infiltration opportunity time, simultaneously, increasing runoff. Finally we investigate the rainfall durations, which produce maximum interaction, and find interaction peaks for rainfall events approximately 1.5 times longer than the hillslope average time to ponding.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Binley, A., Elgy, J., and Beven, K. (1989). “Physically based model of heterogeneous hillslopes: 1. Runoff production.” Water Resour. Res., 25(6), 1219–1226.
Bresler, E., and Dagan, G. (1983). “Unsaturated flow in spatially variable fields. 2. Application of water flow models to various fields.” Water Resour. Res., 19(2), 421–428.
Chow, V. T., Maidment, D. R., and Mays, L. W. (1988). Applied hydrology, McGraw–Hill, New York.
Corradini, C., Govindaraju, R. S., and Morbidelli, R. (2002). “Simplified modelling of areal average infiltration at the hillslope scale.” Hydrolog. Process., 16(9), 1757–1770.
Corradini, C., Melone, F., and Smith, R. E. (1997). “A unified model for infiltration and redistribution during complex rainfall patterns.” J. Hydrol., 192(1–4), 104–124.
Corradini, C., Morbidelli, R., and Melone, F. (1998). “On the interaction between infiltration and Hortonian runoff.” J. Hydrol., 204(1–4), 52–67.
Dunne, T., Zhang, W., and Aubry, B. F. (1991). “Effects of rainfall, vegetation, and microtopography on infiltration and runoff.” Water Resour. Res., 27(9), 2271–2285.
Fiedler, F. R., Frasier, G. W., Ramirez, J. A., and Ahuja, L. R. (2002). “Hydrologic response of grasslands: Effects of grazing, interactive infiltration, and scale.” J. Hydrol. Eng., 7(4), 293–301.
Fiedler, F. R., and Ramirez, J. A. (2000). “A numerical method for simulating discontinuous shallow flow over an infiltrating surface.” Int. J. Numer. Methods Fluids, 32(2), 219–239.
Govindaraju, R. S., Corradini, C., and Morbidelli, R. (2006). “A semianalytical model of expected areal-average infiltration under spatial heterogeneity of rainfall and soil saturated hydraulic conductivity.” J. Hydrol., 316(1-4), 184–194.
Govindaraju, R. S., Morbidelli, R., and Corradini, C. (2001). “Areal infiltration modeling over soils with spatially correlated hydraulic conductivities.” J. Hydrol. Eng., 6(2), 150–158.
Mantoglou, A., and Wilson, J. L. (1982). “The turning bands method for simulation of random fields using line generation by a spectral method.” Water Resour. Res., 18(5), 1379–1394.
Molnar, D. K., and Julien, P. Y. (2000). “Grid-size effects on surface runoff modeling.” J. Hydrol. Eng., 5(1), 8–16.
Morbidelli, R., Corradini, C., and Govindaraju, R. S. (2006). “A field-scale infiltration model accounting for spatial heterogeneity of rainfall and soil saturated hydraulic conductivity.” Hydrolog. Process., 20(7), 1465–1481.
Morel-Seytoux, H. J. (1986). “Influence of spatial variability of hydraulic conductivity on hillslope infiltration.” Proc., AGU Hydrology Days, Hydrology Days Publication, Fort Collins, Colo., 153–170.
Nachabe, M. H., Illangasekare, T. H., Morel-Seytoux, H. J., Ahuja, L. R., and Ruan, H. (1997). “Infiltration over heterogenous watershed: Influence of rain excess.” J. Hydrol. Eng., 2(3), 140–143.
Nahar, N., Govindaraju, R. S., Corradini, C., and Morbidelli, R. (2004). “Role of run-on for describing field-scale infiltration and overland flow over spatially variable soils.” J. Hydrol., 286(1–4), 36–51.
Rovey, E., Woolhiser, D., and Smith, R. (1977). “A distributed kinematic model of upland watersheds.” Hydrology Paper, Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, Colo., 52.
Russo, D., and Bresler, E. (1981). “Soil hydraulic properties as stochastic processes: I. An analysis of field spatial variability.” Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 45(4), 682–687.
Russo, D., and Bresler, E. (1982). “A univariate versus a multivariate parameter distribution in a stochastic-conceptual analysis of unsaturated flow.”Water Resour. Res., 18(3), 438–488.
Saghafian, B., Julien, P. Y., and Ogden, F. L. (1995). “Similarity in catchment response. 1. Stationary rainstorms.” Water Resour. Res., 31(6), 1533–1542.
Sivapalan, M., and Wood, E. (1986). “Spatial heterogeneity and scale in the infiltration response of catchments.” Scale problems in hydrology: Runoff generation and basin response, V. K. Gupta, I. Rodriguez-Iturbe, and E. F. Wood, eds., D. Reidel, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 81–106.
Smith, R. E., and Goodrich, D. C. (2000). “Model for rainfall excess patterns on randomly heterogeneous areas.” J. Hydrol. Eng., 5(4), 355–362.
Smith, R. E., and Hebbert, R. H. B. (1979). “A Monte Carlo analysis of the hydrologic effects of spatial variability of infiltration.” Water Resour. Res., 15(2), 419–429.
Woolhiser, D. A. (1975). “Simulation of unsteady overland flow.” Unsteady flow in open channels, K. Mahmood and V. Yevjevich, eds., Water Resources Publications, Fort Collins, Colo., 485–508.
Woolhiser, D. A., Smith, R. E., and Giraldez, J. V. (1996). “Effects of spatial variability of saturated hydraulic conductivity on Hortonian overland flow.” Water Resour. Res., 32(3), 671–678.
Zimmerman, D. A., and Wilson, J. L. (1990). Description of and user’s manual for tuba: A computer code for generating two-dimensional random fields via the turning bands method, SeaSoft, Albuquerque, N.M.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 13 • Issue 10 • October 2008
Pages: 948 - 959
Copyright
© 2008 ASCE.
History
Received: Jul 25, 2007
Accepted: Jan 11, 2008
Published online: Oct 1, 2008
Published in print: Oct 2008
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.