Center for Research in Water Resources, University of Texas at Austin
Surface water yield is that portion of the precipitation which drains from a watershed to its outlet. Runoff, specifically, refers to that part that drains as surface water. In this section, you will find articles and reports that focus on:
Addresses how to determine hydrographs when the terrain is non-uniform. These papers propose a generalization of the unit-hydrograph model in which the restriction of uniformly distributed precipitation and small watershed are, to a certain extent, relaxed.
Runoff Computation Using Spatially Distributed Terrain Parameters prepared by Francisco Olivera and David Maidment for the ASCE North American Water and Environment Congress '96, Anaheim, California, 1996. (Available via Internet)
Storm Runoff Computation Using Spatially Distributed Terrain Parameters prepared by Francisco Olivera
Spatially Distributed Modeling of Storm Runoff and Non-Point Source Pollution using Geographic Information Systems, prepared by F. Olivera, D.R. Maidment, and R.J. Charbeneau , CRWR Online Report 96-4, December 1996.
Linking GIS to the Hydrologic Modelling System: An investigation of the Midwest Flood of 1993 prepared by Aubrey Dugger, David Maidment and Edward Holley, December 1997
Addresses the calculation of spatially distributed runoff yield in large areas by using a rainfall-runoff function applied to a terrain model defined using the Terrain module. This approach was first applied by Francisco Olivera for the Niger River Basin in West Africa and for the Souss Basin in Morocco. An improvement of the methodology was proposed by Seann Reed who applied it for the case of Texas.
Mean-Annual Water Balance of the Niger River, West Africa prepared by Francisco Olivera, Daene C. McKinney, David R. Maidment, Ye Zichuan and Seann Reed for the UNESCO Symposium on Runoff Computations for Water Projects, St. Petersburg, Russia, Oct. 30 - Nov. 3, 1995.
Water Balance of the Souss Basin, Morocco prepared for the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations Organization (UNO)
Spatial Water Balance of Texas prepared by Seann Reed for the Texas Water Resources Institute and the U.S. Geological Survey.
Non-Point Source Pollution in the Mission Basin Exercise prepared by Ann Quenzer, Ferdi Hellweger and David Maidment discusses an example of rainfall/runoff relationships.
Discusses the estimation of watershed parameters based on spatially distributed terrain data, and of peak discharges using regression equations and TR-55. Calculation of watershed parameters using DEM's was first developed by Peter Smith in the Hydrologic Data Development System and later improved by Francisco Olivera and Juling Bao in the Flood Discharge Calculator (ArcView extension).
Hydrologic Data Development System prepared by P. Smith and D. Maidment, CRWR Online Report 95-1, August 1995
ArcView Extension for Estimating Watershed Parameters and Peak Discharges According to the TxDOT Statewide Regional Rural Regression Equations prepared by Francisco Olivera and Juling Bao for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT).
GIS for Hydrologic Data Development for Design of Highway Drainage Facilities (Overheads) by Francisco Olivera and David R. Maidment, presented at the Transportation Research Board 77th Annual Meeting, Washington DC, Jan. 11-15, 1998.
SCS TR-55 Tabular Hydrograph Method in ArcView prepared by Ferdi Hellweger.
Once the runoff has been calculated using the methods presented above, the flow needs to be routed to the watershed outlet, and then through the river system. The Rivers Model is a fairly comprehensive system for routing water in rivers, including the effects of reservoirs, water flow over the land surface and in the subsurface environment, and optimization of watershed model parameters. The model was originally developed by Zichuan Ye and David Maidment and contains methods developed by Francisco Olivera for watershed runoff routing. The reservoir water balance component was subsequently developed by Kwabena Asante.
The model has five major components:
Map-based Surface and Subsurface Flow Simulation Models: An Object Oriented and GIS Approach prepared by Z. Ye and D. Maidment, CRWR Online Report 96-5.
Water Balance of the Niger River Basin in West Africa prepared by David R. Maidment, Francisco Olivera, Seann Reed, Zichuan Ye, Sandra Akmansoy and Daene C. McKinney, and presented at the 1997 ESRI User's Conference, San Diego, California. Overheads.
GIS Based Reservoir Planning for the Souss Basin, Morocco prepared by Kwabena Asante and David R. Maidment, CRWR Online Report 97-7.
Map-based Surface Water Simulation prepared by Zichuan Ye. ( Available via Internet)
Map-based Ground Water Simulation prepared by Zichuan Ye. (Available via Internet)
Four exercises that use data of the Niger and Souss Basins in Africa have been developed. Each exercise demonstrates a different component of the model.
Exercise 1: Surface Water Simulation Model in the Souss Basin This exercise starts with the delineation of watersheds and the stream network and shows how a Rivers model is created. There is no calibration of estimated against observed flows. There are 12 monthly flows for hydrologic conditions in 1987 in the Souss Basin, Morocco. This is a modified form of Exercise 6 of the FAO/UNESCO Water Balance of Africa Exercises.
Exercise 2: Surface Water Model Calibration in the Niger Basin This exercise starts with a Rivers model of the Niger Basin and shows how to cut out a submodel for a subwatershed of the basin and calibrate the estimated flows against those observed at a gage at the subwatershed outlet. There are 90 months of hydrologic data from July 1983 through December 1990 for the Niger Basin in West Africa.
Exercise 3: Reservoir Water Balance in the Souss Basin This exercise deals with the insertion of three dams in the Rivers model for the Souss Basin with the watershed and routing parameters already calibrated. The hydrologic data are for a 24 month period for 1991-1992. The focus of the exercise is on setting up and running the reservoir simulation portion of the Rivers model.
Exercise 4: Ground Water Flow Between Two Rivers This exercise deals with computing groundwater flow between two rivers in a hypothetical basin. It is intended to demonstrate the mechanism by which groundwater flow can be computed in Arc View and connected to flow in a river network. More information on surface water - groundwater interaction computation can be found in CRWR Online Report 96-5.
Input data files for the exercises vary depending on the components being used. Links to the data files required for each exercise are given within the instructions for the particular exercise.
CRWR-PrePro -- a system of ArcView scripts and associated controls -- has been developed to extract hydrologic, topographic and topologic information from digital spatial data of a hydrologic system and to preprocess these data for input into non-GIS modeling packages. Though it will be able to work with other models in the future, CRWR-PrePro at this time is only able to prepare an input file for the Hydrologic Modeling System (HMS) developed by the Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC) of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Starting with a DEM and a SCS curve number grid, CRWR-PrePro delineates streams and watersheds, calculates parameters for each of them, determines their interconnectivity, and prepares an input file for HMS that includes the computed hydrologic parameters.
HEC-PrePro: An ArcView Pre-Processor for HEC's Hydrologic Modeling System prepared by Francisco Olivera, Seann Reed and David Maidment, and presented at the 1998 ESRI User's Conference, San Diego, California, 1998. (Please note that at the time of this paper's writing, CRWR-PrePro retained the name HEC-PrePro.)
Connecting Digital Elevation Models (DEM) to the Hydrologic Modeling System (HMS) Computer Program prepared by Francisco Olivera, Aubrey Dugger, David Maidment and Edward Holley for the Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC).
Digital Watershed Delineation and CRWR-PrePro (Class Exercise) prepared by S. Ahrens and D. Maidment.
Primary contact for Runoff and Routing:
Francisco
Olivera
University of Texas at Austin
Center for Research in Water Resources
Austin, Texas 78712
e-mail: folivera@mail.utexas.edu
Phone: (512) 471-0570
Fax: (512) 471-0072
These materials may be used for study, research, and education, but please credit the authors and the Center for Research in Water Resources, The University of Texas at Austin. All commercial rights reserved. Copyright 1998 Center for Research in Water Resources.