Partitioning Daily Streamflows for Curve Number Calibrations
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 147, Issue 10
Abstract
The records of about 8,500 USGS streamflow measuring stations in the US provide an immense amount of runoff data over most of the country that would be useful for calibration of the curve number if the usual component of baseflow could be removed. A streamflow partitioning method that separates the flow into surface runoff and baseflow components works directly on a daily streamflow record with a commonly available spreadsheet program. The method is simple enough for manual calculation if only a few runoff events need to be partitioned, as in some flood studies, and is easy to use when many years of data are involved. The method uses a single parameter to calibrate to a streamflow record, and the calculated surface runoff and calibrated curve number have low sensitivity to changes in the value of the parameter. The method offers opportunities for improvement of the curve number because of the large number of calibrated values that could become available.
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Data Availability Statement
All the data, models or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 147 • Issue 10 • October 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 31, 2020
Accepted: May 18, 2021
Published online: Jul 28, 2021
Published in print: Oct 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Dec 28, 2021
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Cited by
- David A. Chin, The Curve Number Method in the 21st Century, Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, 10.1061/JIDEDH.IRENG-10108, 149, 6, (2023).
- David A. Chin, Essential Considerations in Applying the Curve-Number Method, Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, 10.1061/(ASCE)IR.1943-4774.0001649, 148, 2, (2022).