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performing Project Studies for USACE Projects.
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The hydrologic cycle begins with the evaporation of water from the surface of the
ocean. As moist air is lifted, it cools and water vapor condenses to form clouds.
Moisture is transported around the globe until it returns to the surface as
precipitation. Once the water reaches the ground, one of two processes may occur; 1)
some of the water may evaporate back into the atmosphere or 2) the water may
penetrate the surface and become groundwater. Groundwater either seeps its way to
into the oceans, rivers, and streams, or is released back into the atmosphere through
transpiration. The balance of water that remains on the earth's surface is runoff, which
empties into lakes, rivers and streams and is carried back to the oceans, where the
cycle begins again.
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We can begin to answer these questions by breaking down the hydrologic cycle into
defined steps. This is the hydrologic cycle broken into a logical set of steps for inclusion
into HEC‐HMS
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Types of studies requiring Watershed Modeling
Planning and designing new flood risk management facilities. These
planning studies are commonly undertaken in response to floods that damage
property and threaten public safety.
• Operating and/or evaluating existing hydraulic‐conveyance and watercontrol
facilities. The USACE has responsibility for operation of hundreds of
reservoirs nationwide for flood control, water supply, hydropower generation,
navigation, and fish and wildlife protection.
• Preparing for and responding to floods. Beyond controlling flood waters to
reduce damage and protect the public, USACE activities include flood emergency
preparedness planning and emergency response.
• Regulating floodplain activities. As part of the USACE goal to promote wise
use of the nation’s floodplains, hydrologic engineers commonly delineate these
floodplains to provide information for use regulation.
• Restoring or enhancing the environment. The USACE environmental mission
includes ecosystem restoration, environmental stewardship, and radioactive site
cleanup. Each of these activities requires information about the hydrology and
hydraulics of sensitive sites so that well‐informed decisions can be made.
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Solid lines = median curve
Dashed lines = confidence limits (uncertainty)
1. Start in upper left with a desired exceedance probability
2. Determine the corresponding flow using hydrology (HMS)
3. Move to the left and determine a corresponding stage for the flow (RAS)
4. Move down and determine a corresponding damage for the stage (FDA or FIA)
5. Move to the right and assign an exceedance probability for the damage
6. Repeat multiple times and INTEGRATE to determine EAD
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The first step is for the hydrologist or hydrologic engineer to develop a flow‐frequency
curve. A location(s) is/are selected based on the needs of the study. Sometime you will
get lucky and the location of the flow‐frequency curve will correspond with a gaging
station location and the data from the station can be used to develop a flow‐frequency
curve. However, and unfortunately, most of the time this is not he case and the curve
will need to be developed synthetically. Sometimes there is a gage in the basin that
can be used, other times not real data exists and dats from surrounding area must be
used.
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The USGS maintains and publishes stage and flow information at MANY locations
throughout the United States. This data is publically available and should be used to
develop stage‐ or flow‐frequency relationships and/or calibrate a hydrologic or
hydraulic model.
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If a gage exists at a location of interest, a stage‐ or flow‐frequency curve can be
developed. Analytical frequency distributions (like the Log Pearson Type III, LPIII) are
used in the determination of flow‐frequency curves because the procedures can be
(somewhat) uniformly applied. An analytical distribution is more easily fit to an annual
maximum series of flow than stage since stage‐frequency exhibits noticeable
inflections from high to low chances of exceedance.
Within the United States, Bulletin 17C procedures should be used to determine a flow‐
frequency curve given an annual maximum series of
Bulletin 17B procedures can be used to develop a frequency curve. Of course it may be
necessary to adjust the data to remove impacts of storage, and other similar impacts,
before applying the 17B procedures since they apply to unregulated, homogeneous
data.
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Orange box = gage shown on the previous slide
Yellow arrows = transference of information to location of interest (could be
dimensionless flow‐frequency information; MOVE I, II, III; regional runoff parameters;
etc)
Typically data from other gaging stations in the area can be accessed. It is important
that the data used come from a similar meterological region. It would not be prudent
to use a gage from a location that receives a lot of rain to estimate the runoff of a
desert area.
Regional information related to loss rates, runoff transform, baseflow, and stream
routing parameters should also be used to inform the selection of parameters for a
smaller area.
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The building of an HMS model may take additional work based on the amount of data
available but once the model is built it can then be applied to any risk reduction
measures to determine their impacts on flow.
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Calibration of the model is generally a spiral effort. You will make changes and then
rerun the simulation. This will most likely need to be repeated multiple times before
the model is behaving correctly. It is also important to use multiple flood events to
calibrate the model, if data is available.
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Make adjustments to the HMS parameters, within reason, to calibrate the HMS model.
Care should be taken that when adjusting parameters that they are not adjusted out of
the range of reality just to make the model reproduce an existing hydrograph. If you
have to adjust parameters to unrealistic values than most likely there is something
wrong with the HMS model. Either wrong parameters are being used, a method or
methods are being used incorrectly or, possibly, the model is not physically connected
correctly.
The computed hydrograph is the solid blue line
The observed hydrograph is the black line
What should be changed to make the computed hydrograph better match the
observed
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The computed hydrograph is the solid blue line and the observed hydrograph is the
black line.
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When the model has been calibrated, the flow‐frequency curve can be developed
using hypothetical events. The Frequency Storm meteorologic model can be used to
generate flows with large and small annual chances of exceedance. If available in the
region of interest, NOAA Atlas 14 provides estimates of precipitation depth for
durations from 5‐minutes to 96‐hours and annual chances of exceedance from 1/1 –
1/1000. After making the frequency runs, you will have the flows necessary to make a
flow‐frequency curve. One note of caution is that it is important that the rainfall you
are using be reflective of the rainfall over the drainage area above your location of
interest. HMS can automatically account for this by using the Depth‐Area Analysis
compute.
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Instead of simulating discrete events, the hydrologic model can be used in a
continuous simulation to generate a large amount of runoff information. Then, annual
maxima can be extracted from the results and used to estimate a flow‐frequency
curve.
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The USACE Headquarters website contains many Engineering Manuals (EM),
Engineering Regulations (ER), Engineering Circulars (EC), Engineering Technical Letters
(ETL) that provide guidance in many areas relating to studies. The website is
http://publications.usace.army.mil/publications
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Mahoning Creek flows through Punxsutawney, PA. Mahoning Creek is a tributary of
the Allegheny River which is a tributary of the Ohio River.
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