Radar Rainfall Application in Distributed Hydrologic Modeling for Cypress Creek Watershed, Texas
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 18, Issue 2
Abstract
Recent advances in hydrologic models have depended on the use of radar rainfall input in physically based, fully distributed models. Previous research conducted for case studies near Houston, Texas, have focused on the use of radar rainfall for large storm events such as tropical storms and hurricanes. A fully distributed model, Vflo, was used to model streamflow during small storm events in the Cypress Creek watershed, near Houston, Texas. Two events were simulated both with rain gauge—corrected radar data and exclusively with rain gauges. Then a third event was modeled exclusively with rain gauge data to assess model performance with only rain gauge data. The modeled streamflow was then compared to the USGS observed streamflow, using peak streamflow, time to peak, and volume streamflow, to evaluate the model performance between radar and rain gauge input. A comparison of the models for the events shows that the radar input results better match the observed streamflow for the streamflow volume and peak streamflow.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the USGS Woodlands office for streamflow monitoring and data acquisition support. In addition, the authors would also like to acknowledge Vieux and Associates, Norman, Oklahoma, for the use of the Vflo model and the processing and calibration of the radar rainfall data sets.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 18 • Issue 2 • February 2013
Pages: 219 - 227
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 28, 2010
Accepted: Jan 4, 2012
Published online: Jan 15, 2013
Published in print: Feb 1, 2013
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