Search results for "curve number"

Empirical determination of the average annual runoff coefficient in the Mediterranean area

2014

Runoff estimation in ungauged basin is a challenge for the hydrological engineers and planners. For an y hydrological study on an ungauged basin, a methodology has to be appropriately selected for the determination of runoff at its outlet. Several meth ods have been used to estimate the basin runoff production. In this study the empirical Kennessey m ethod to determine average annual runoff coefficien t, RC, is tested on 61 Sicilian basins characterized b y different climate conditions, surface permeabilit y, mean slope and vegetation cover. A comparison between observed and calculated RC showed that a calibration of the Kennessey model could be necessary. The slight and not satisfying impr…

Exploiting the topographic information in a PDM-based conceptual hydrological model

2014

In this work, a conceptual lumped model was developed to simulate runoff and analyze hydrological processes with the goal of incorporating the morphological information into a probability-distributed model (PDM). PDMs usually describe the process of runoff generation as the result of soil saturation excess caused by precipitation with soil storage capacity represented by a spatially distributed quantity and described by a probability distribution. The proposed model, called topography-based probability distributed model (TOPDM), based on a simple water balance whose components are basin soil moisture storage, precipitation, drainage to groundwater, evapotranspiration, and Dunnian and Horton…

Empirical Investigation of Curve Number Method Parameters in the Mediterranean Area

2012

AbstractThe curve number (CN) method is widely used as a technique for estimating surface runoff depth from rainstorms. This simply lumped method is based on the main parameter CN, which represents the lumped expression of basin absorption, and on a parameter that represents interception, infiltration during the early part of a storm, and surface depression storage, called initial abstraction. In this paper, CN is evaluated at the basin scale from rainfall-runoff multiday events, in the observation period 1940–1997 (recorded length mean equal to 20 years) for 61 Sicilian basins with three different methods: NEH4 method, asymptotic fitting method, and a least-squares method. A first analysis…

EHSM: a conceptual ecohydrological model for daily streamflow simulation

2013

A parsimonious conceptual lumped model is here presented with the aim of simulating daily streamflow in semi-arid areas. The model, processing daily rainfall and reference evapotranspiration at basin scale, reproduces surface and subsurface runoff, soil moisture dynamics, and actual evapotranspiration fluxes. The key elements of this numerical model are the soil bucket, where rainfall, evapotranspiration, and leakage drive soil moisture dynamics, and two linear reservoirs working in parallel with different characteristic response times. The surface reservoir, able to simulate the fast response of the basin, is fed by rain falling on impervious area and by runoff generated with excess of sat…

Parametrizzazione del metodo del Curve Number per i bacini siciliani

2011

Empirical methods to determine average annual runoff coefficient in Sicilian basins

2012

Comparison between Curve Number empirical values and Curve Number obtained by handbook tables at basin scale in Sicily, Italy

2012

Standard Asymptotic Response and Expected Runoff from Curve Number Theory

2015

The Standard Asymptotic response is a common finding with rainfall-runoff analysis with the Curve Number method. Widely-observed in data analyses, it is the secondary relationship between the data-defined CN and the causative rainfall P, for which the empirical fitting equation CN(P) = CN∞+ (100-CN∞)exp(-kP) has been found to fit well. This is an unexpected variation in the handbook methodology. It is investigated here on a “theoretical” basis by using the handbook tabled values of CN for the three AMC classes, I, II, and III; the storm-to-storm S (=1000/CN-10); and the observed 12-50-88 percent conditional probabilities for the ARC classes. With this, and treating S as a variable across th…

Estimation of synthetic flood design hydrographs using a distributed rainfall–runoff model coupled with a copula-based single storm rainfall generator

2014

Abstract. In this paper a procedure to derive synthetic flood design hydrographs (SFDH) using a bivariate representation of rainfall forcing (rainfall duration and intensity) via copulas, which describes and models the correlation between two variables independently of the marginal laws involved, coupled with a distributed rainfall–runoff model, is presented. Rainfall–runoff modelling (R–R modelling) for estimating the hydrological response at the outlet of a catchment was performed by using a conceptual fully distributed procedure based on the Soil Conservation Service – Curve Number method as an excess rainfall model and on a distributed unit hydrograph with climatic dependencies for the …

Generation of Natural Runoff Monthly Series at Ungauged Sites Using a Regional Regressive Model

2016

Many hydrologic applications require reliable estimates of runoff in river basins to face the widespread lack of data, both in time and in space. A regional method for the reconstruction of monthly runoff series is here developed and applied to Sicily (Italy). A simple modeling structure is adopted, consisting of a regression-based rainfall–runoff model with four model parameters, calibrated through a two-step procedure. Monthly runoff estimates are based on precipitation, temperature, and exploiting the autocorrelation with runoff at the previous month. Model parameters are assessed by specific regional equations as a function of easily measurable physical and climate basin descriptors. Th…