Watershed Runoff and Erosion Modeling with a Hybrid Mesh Model
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 14, Issue 1
Abstract
Distributed watershed modeling has gained popularity in recent years. Prevalent models in the United States include CASC2D and WEPP, among others. Although the existing models have been successful for some applications, a number of limitations exist. This paper presents a new watershed runoff and erosion model, SRH-W, with the aim to improve the numerical methods used by the existing models. The new model builds upon process features of the existing models such as CASC2D. However, a new representation of the watershed geometry with the zonal hybrid mesh is proposed, and a new solution technique with the conservative finite-volume formulation is implemented. The modeling concept and the mathematical and numerical formulations are first described. An illustrative case is then simulated to show some new features of the model. A number of verification and validation cases are also presented to demonstrate the model performance, accuracy, and efficiency. The new model is flexible, overcomes some shortcomings of the existing models, and performs well in the selected verification cases.
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Acknowledgments
The writer would like to thank Chih T. Yang at the Colorado State University for inspiration and guidance in working on the subject. Peer reviews by John England and Cassie Klump at the Bureau of Reclamation are greatly acknowledged. The work was funded by a number of sources, including the Environmental Protection Agency under the Interagency Agreement No. UNSPECIFIEDDW14948044, Reclamation’s Science and Technology Program, and other Reclamation projects.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 14 • Issue 1 • January 2009
Pages: 15 - 26
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: May 3, 2007
Accepted: Apr 10, 2008
Published online: Jan 1, 2009
Published in print: Jan 2009
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