Testing the Effects of Detachment Limits and Transport Capacity Formulation on Sediment Runoff Predictions Using the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers GSSHA Model
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 20, Issue 7
Abstract
The physics-based Gridded Surface Subsurface Hydrologic Analysis (GSSHA) model was developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for hydrologic, sediment transport, and water quality analyses. GSSHA simulates erosion and transport of sediments on the overland flow plain based on rainfall intensity and overland flow depth and velocity. The original sediment transport capabilities in GSSHA were taken from the GSSHA predecessor, CASC2D-SED. Independent testing of the sediment transport methods in CASC2D-SED by researchers identified several deficiencies in the formulation that caused significant overestimation of sediment yield during hydrologic events that were much larger than a calibration event. Sediment detachment limits and a variety of overland sediment transport equations were incorporated into the GSSHA model to address these deficiencies. This paper presents an evaluation of these modifications in terms of GSSHA sediment yield predictions of both single-event and summer growing season sediment yields. Simulation results are compared with research-quality sediment discharge data set from the USDA Goodwin Creek Experimental Watershed (GCEW). Results show that the reformulated GSSHA sediment transport model predicts event-total sediment discharge volume within () 50% over hydrologic events that vary by three orders of magnitude. The transport capacity method selected for use in the simulation had a large effect on the model results.
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Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the USDA-ARS National Sedimentation Laboratory in Oxford, Mississippi, for providing access to the Goodwin Creek Experimental Watershed data set. This work was partially supported by the U.S. Army Research Office through Grant 52454EVDPS to the third author.
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Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 20 • Issue 7 • July 2015
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 16, 2013
Accepted: Sep 16, 2014
Published online: Oct 28, 2014
Discussion open until: Mar 28, 2015
Published in print: Jul 1, 2015
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