Empirical and model based analysis of extreme flood events in a humid region

P. A. Troch, J. A. Smith, Eric F. Wood, F. P. De Troch

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This paper reports the results of empirical and model based analysis of extreme flood events observed in a small basin situated in a humid region. Based on second order analysis of observed rainfall we have identified a cluster point rainfall model for each month separately. Hydrograph analysis provides information about the characteristics of the hydrologic response during flood events. Model based analysis of hydrologic response is used to study the dominating runoff processes in the catchment. In this study, we use a distributed version of Topmodel (Beven & Kirkby, 1979; Sivapalan et al., 1987) to model runoff generation. The runoff generation model relies on a topographic index to predict saturation excess runoff and on Philip's infiltration equation to predict infiltration excess runoff. The relative roles of initial conditions, soil properties, and rainfall rate in determining hydrologic response in the basin are investigated. The flood frequency distribution seems to be quite insensitive to scaled maximum rainfall intensity. However, in the catchment under study, the flood frequency distribution is very much affected by the scaled initial storage capacity. (Authors)

Original languageEnglish (US)
Journal[No source information available]
StatePublished - Jan 1 1993
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Engineering

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