Laboratory Simulation of Urban Runoff and Estimation of Runoff Hydrographs with Experimental Curve Numbers Implemented in USEPA SWMM
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 137, Issue 6
Abstract
The prognostic capabilities of a lumped hydrologic modeling approach may be complicated by routing and connectivity among infiltrative and impervious surfaces. We used artificial rainfall to generate runoff from impervious and bare soil boxes arranged in series to simulate different extents and connectivity of impervious surfaces under different moisture conditions for pervious areas. Curve numbers were calculated from observed rainfall and runoff data, compared with published values, and used in the curve number infiltration algorithm in the U.S. EPA Storm Water Management Model 5 (USEPA SWMM5) to generate runoff hydrographs. Experimental curve numbers were higher than tabular USDA values, ranging from 91 to 96. Simulations of infiltration and runoff response with experimental curve numbers showed overall good agreement with observed data, although SWMM5 was unable to re-create early term infiltration patterns, and simulated runoff lagged observed, which is attributed to implicit accounting for soil moisture and other assumptions of the SWMM5 curve number application. Our results highlight some prospects for the use of curve numbers in modeling infiltration and runoff.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 137 • Issue 6 • June 2011
Pages: 343 - 351
Copyright
© 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 9, 2009
Accepted: Oct 7, 2010
Published online: Oct 12, 2010
Published in print: Jun 1, 2011
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