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Yung Dodson & Associates, Inc. Kenneth R. Nixon and David R. Legates Computational Geosciences, Inc.
Introduction
There have been numerous advances in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in recent years. These advances include the ability to share spatial information from government agencies and others, and the development of GIS and hydrologic software that enhance hydrologic modeling of watersheds. It is believed that these advances will provide for a more efficient and a more accurate alternative to traditional methods for studying watersheds. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC) has recently made HEC-GeoHMS available to the public. This software is intended to serve as a geospatial hydrology toolkit for engineers and hydrologists. Dodson and Associates, Inc. (Houston, Texas) and Computational Geosciences, Inc. (Norman, Oklahoma) collaborated on an effort to utilize weather radar data, GIS data, HEC-GeoHMS, and HEC-HMS to perform a hydrologic case study watershed analysis. The purpose of the study was to determine the practical applicability of this automated approach for widespread use.
2001, Dodson & Associates, Inc. - Houston, Texas, USA - www.dodson-hydro.com - All rights reserved.
HMS). The raw data typically includes topographic and zoning maps, aerial photographs, field surveys, soil surveys, precipitation gage data, intensity-duration-frequency data, etc.
Case Study
A hydrologic model of the 325 square mile East Fork San Jacinto River watershed upstream of USGS stream gage number 08070000 near Cleveland Texas was prepared. An observed hydrograph from the October 1719, 1998 event was used as a basis of comparison with computed model results. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the current practical application of using the HEC-GeoHMS and HEC-HMS to perform gridbased hydrologic modeling analysis. With recent technological advances, hydrologists have anticipated that the modeling process can be improved by adding precision to the analysis, and simplifying the data
2001, Dodson & Associates, Inc. - Houston, Texas, USA - www.dodson-hydro.com - All rights reserved.
processing effort. The case study relied heavily on readily available digital GIS data, minimized the use of other resources, and did not include field surveys, hydraulic modeling, or a site visit by the authors.
Modeling Results
Modeling results indicated a reasonably close reproduction of observed peak discharge (within 4%) and total runoff volume (within 7%). However, there were notable differences in the shape of the two hydrographs. It appeared that improved stream routing based on hydraulic modeling, more knowledge of the site, and field survey data of the channel would have helped produce a closer match with the observed hydrograph.
Conclusions
Several practical lessons related to the application of HEC-GeoHMS and HEC-HMS to grid-based hydrologic modeling were learned as a result of performing this case study, including: 1. HEC-GeoHMS is not as complete a product as it may first appear. 2. HEC-GeoHMS has some practical application for most hydrologists, although limited. 3. Digital data is not a substitute for site reconnaissance. 4. If possible, non-recording gages should also be considered when defining precipitation using NEXRAD data. 5. The HEC-GeoHMS extension is currently practical for processing digital data to define watershed and sub-basin boundaries, river lengths, longest flow paths, slopes, centroid locations and lengths to centroids, and the HEC-HMS basin schematic and map file. 6. Other digital data can potentially (at the discretion of the modeler) be used along with ArcView to develop sub-basin average information (precipitation, soils, land use, etc.) for a lumped basin model. 7. It is not currently practical for most hydrologists to use HEC-GeoHMS and HEC-HMS to prepare a distributed (grid-based) hydrologic model. be realized. However, upon the HECs release of additional documentation and the anticipated file conversion utilities, the full capabilities of these applications will
Reference
Doan, James H. 2000. Geospatial Hydrologic Modeling Extension, HEC-GeoHMS Users Manual: US Army Corps of Engineers, Hydrologic Engineering Center.
2001, Dodson & Associates, Inc. - Houston, Texas, USA - www.dodson-hydro.com - All rights reserved.