Setting up HECHEC-HMS

model and simulate for Gin

River basin
Design AssignmentAssignment-Engineering Hydrology
G. H. A. C. Silva
18th February 2013

Gin_River at a glance

Location
Climate zone
Rain:
Annual Precipitation:
River Length:
Catchment area:
Main Cultivation:
Other significant:

:Southern Sri Lanka

:Wet
:South_West monsoon, Inter monsoon
:2500+ mm
:113 km
:932 km2
:Paddy
:Source for Galle City Water Supply
Neluwa (Upstream)

Wakwella (Downstream)
High: 1272 m

Low: 0
Slide 2

DEM and river network

Slide 3

Soil and LandLand-use data layers

Slide 5

Sub basins within the catchment

Slide 6

Spatial distribution of rainfall

0

10 km

Slide 7

Spatial distribution of rainfall

0

10 km

Aningka
nde
Estate

Baddega
ma

Thawala
ma

Slide 8

Spatial distribution of rainfall

0

10 km

Slide 9

Setting up the HEC_HMS

Basin Model Component
The basin model represents the physical watershed. The basin model was developed by
adding and connecting hydrologic elements such as Sub basins, Reaches and Junctions.
10 Sub basins
06 Reaches
06 Junctions and 01 outlet.

Meteorological Model Component

The meteorological model allocates the precipitation gage point for relevant sub basin
elements. Also, snow melt and evapotranspiration can be included.

Control Specifications Component

The control specifications set the time span of a simulation run.
Information in the control specifications includes;
Starting date and time: To be set up by individuals
Ending date and time: To be set up by individuals
Computation time step: 01 day or any finer resolution
Slide 10

HEC Basin model development

Sub basins
Reaches
Junctions
Outlet

= 10
= 06
= 06
= 01

Slide 11

HEC Basin model development

Slide 12

Area of Study
N
0
km

Sinharaja
Forest
5

10

Aninkande
Thawalama

Baddegama

Gintota

Slide 13

Parameters
Sub-basin area

Slide 14

Parameters
Runoff-volume:
Initial and constant rate loss model

Pros

Cons

Easy to set up and use.

Includes only a few parameters

Difficult to apply to ungaged basins.

Model may be too simple to
predict losses within event.

Slide 15

Parameters
The initial and constant-rate loss model
The underlying concept of the initial and constant-rate loss model is that the maximum potential
rate of precipitation loss, fc , is constant throughout an event. Thus, if pt is the Mean Arial
Precipitation (MAP) depth during a time interval t to t+t, the excess, pet , during the interval is
given by:

An initial loss, Ia, is added to the model to represent interception and depression storage. This
loss occurs prior to the onset of runoff. Until the accumulated precipitation on the pervious area
exceeds the initial loss volume, no runoff occurs. Thus, the excess is given by:
Ia varies 10-20% of total rainfall for forested
areas and 0.1-0.2 inches for urban areas.

Slide 16

Transform: Snyders unit hydrograph

Parameters

Slide 17

Parameters
Snyders unit hydrograph: Lag time and Peaking coefficient.
Snyder selected the lag, peak flow, and total time base as the
critical characteristics of a UH. He defined a standard UH as one whose rainfall
duration, tr, is related to the basin lag, tp, by:

For the standard case, Snyder discovered that UH lag and peak per unit of excess precipitation
per unit area of the watershed were related by:

where Up = peak of standard UH; A = watershed drainage area; Cp = UH peaking coefficient;

and C = conversion constant (2.75 for SI or 640 for foot-pound system).

Slide 18

Parameters

Base flow modeling: Exponential Recession model

Slide 19

Parameters
Exponential Recession Model
HEC-HMS includes a exponential recession model to represent watershed
baseflow (Chow, Maidment, and Mays, 1988). It defines the relationship of Qt , the baseflow at
any time t, to an initial value as:
where Qo = initial baseflow (at time zero); and k = an exponential decay constant.
k is defined as the ratio of the baseflow at time t to the baseflow one day earlier. The starting
baseflow value, Qo, is an initial condition of the model.
The baseflow model is applied both at the start of simulation of a storm event, and later in the
event as the delayed subsurface flow reaches the watershed channels. Here, after the peak of the
direct runoff, a user-specified threshold flow defines the time at which the recession model
defines the total flow. Subsequent total flows are computed with above equation with Qo = the
specified threshold value.

Slide 20

River reach routing: Muskingum method

Parameters

Slide 21

Parameters
Muskingum Routing Model
The Muskingum routing model, like the modified Puls model, uses a simple
finite difference approximation of the continuity equation:

Storage in the reach is modeled as the sum of prism storage and wedge storage. The volume of
prism storage is the outflow rate, O, multiplied by the travel time through the reach, K. The
volume of wedge storage is a weighted difference between inflow and outflow, multiplied by the
travel time K. Thus, the
Muskingum model defines the storage as:

where K = travel time of the flood wave through routing reach; and
X = dimensionless weight (0 X 0.5).

Number of sub-reaches
Slide 22

Model calibration: By parameter optimization trials

Flowchart of parameter optimization trials

Slide 23

Model calibration: Setting the objective function

Slide 24

Model calibration: Optimized Parameters

Slide 25

HMS Calibration (May 31 - June 02, 2008)

Slide 26

HMS Validation (08-19 January, 1985)

Slide 27

Discharge Generation by HEC-HMS

Slide 28

HEC-HMS Download

http://www.hec.usace.army.mil/software/hec-hms/download.html
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HEC-HMS Manuals

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End

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