4th Intake (2017/2018)

River Modelling for Udappuwa Bridge Design, Puttalam

Semester I (PBL Mid)

Advanced River Engineering and Estuary Hydraulics - (CE5812)

Lecturer in Charge: Dr. R.H.L.H. Lalith

Index No:
Rohit Adhikari

M.Sc./ PG. Diploma in Water Resources Engineering and Management

UNESCO Madanjeet Singh Centre for South Asia Water Management
Department of Civil Engineering
University of Moratuwa

Email Address: rd.adhi@gmail.com

Place of Employment: APECS Consultancy, Bhutan
Date of Submission: 24th June 2017
Table of Contents
1. Project Outline and Introduction ........................................................................................................... 2
1.1 Project Title ...................................................................................................................... 2
1.2 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 2
2. Problem Identification and issues to be addressed ................................................................................ 3
2.1 Problem Identification ...................................................................................................... 3
3. Problem Solving Approach/Methodology ............................................................................................ 4
3.1 Methodology .................................................................................................................... 4
3.2 Flow Chart ........................................................................................................................ 6
4. Description of Project Area................................................................................................................... 7

List of Figures
Figure 1: The Estuary being widened in 2016 November. (Photo Courtesy: Sundat Times,
SriLanka)......................................................................................................................................... 3
Figure 2: Difference between travel distances between the two villages ....................................... 4

List of Tables
Table 1: General Input and Output Parameters of HEC-HMS and HEC-RAS .............................. 5

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 1. Project Outline and Introduction
1.1 Project Title
River Modelling for Udappuwa Bridge Design, Puttalam.

1.2 Introduction
Udappuwa is village located in the North-Western side of Sri Lanka. Situated at 7o4500 N,
79o4730 E, and is 105 km north of Colombo. It is a coastal village bordered on the west by the
Indian Ocean and on the south by Andimunai sand dunes a noted tourist attraction. It also has the
Munda Lagoon to east of the village.

Udappu is located exactly at the neck part, linking the Katpiddy (Kalpitiya in Sinhala) Peninsula
with the main island of Sri lanka. It is just one km width of ridge, a sand bank that separates the
Indian Ocean and the Munthal (Mundal) Lagoon, at Udappu, linking the peninsula.

The area is a popular tourist destination and has huge potential for shrimp farming. A road connects
Poonapitiya to Udappu. This road network is extremely crucial for the area because it reduces the
distance considerably. In the absence of this connectivity the only option is to take the A3 highway
to reach from Poonapitiya to Udappu.

With the increase in water level during wet season, the river overflows and the road is closed. This
induces great risk for the Udappu village. When the levels exceed an acceptable level, people use
machinery to cut open a channel to allow flow. The channel which is 2 m in width would within
half an hour become a size of 30 m.

After the opening of the channel, remedial measures to relink the divided villages are often not
provided or carried out very late. As reported by Sunday Times (Sri Lanka) on 10th January 2016,
the villagers are (now) forced to travel by boat to get from one end of the village to the other.
The headline of the story was Divided Village needs Bridge.

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 Figure 1: The Estuary being widened in 2016 November. (Photo Courtesy: Sundat Times, SriLanka)

2. Problem Identification and issues to be addressed

2.1 Problem Identification
The road between Ponnapitiya and Udappu is fully functional during the dry season. However,
during the wet season the water level in the Mundaal lagoon rises and submerges the road. This
compels people to travel through the Puttalam-Colombo Highway, approximately 31 km to reach
on the other side; whereas the crow fly distance between the two place is a mere 250 m.

In such a circumstance, the Government of Sri Lanka wishes to envisage construction of a bridge
along the road which will allow accessibility at all time. This Problem Based Learning aims to
model the river that would safely discharge the water into the Indian Ocean without damaging the
bridge. This would mean calculating the flood extent and flood heights. The modelling is to be
carried out with 25, 50 and 100-year design return periods.

To enumerate a few notable problems;

1. Lack of connectivity between the two villages.
2. Difficulty and high risk involved in travelling by boats.
3. High economic loss for travel
4. High risk of loss of life and property due to flooding.
5. Impact on the socio-economic level and daily livelihood of the shrimp farmers.

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 Figure 2: Difference between travel distances between the two villages

3. Problem Solving Approach/Methodology

3.1 Methodology

The logical solution to flood height and extent prediction would be flood modelling. The design
return period to be considered are 25, 50 and 100 years.

Hydrologic Engineering Center-Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS) will is used to build

the hydrologic model while Hydrologic Engineering Center-River Analysis System (HEC-RAS)
is used to build the hydraulic model. These tools are commonly used and have been employed for
conducting various types of studies including building flood forecasting and flood inundation
models (Knebl et al., 2005; Whiteaker et al., 2006), analyzing different flood control alternatives
(Benavides et al., 2001), addressing social impacts of small dam removals (Wyrick et al., 2009),
and developing a flood early warning system (Matkan et al., 2009).

For rainfall event selection, the Maximum Exceedance Method will be used on the available 50-
year dataset.

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 Table 1: General Input and Output Parameters of HEC-HMS and HEC-RAS

Input Output Remarks

A. HEC-HMS
1. Watershed stream network and size. 1. Hydrographs SCS CN
2. Infiltration loss method i.e. Initial and 2. Flow Volume Method for
Constant, Deficit and Constant, Exponential, Loss Method
Green-Ampt, Smith Parlange, Soil Moisture is used.
Accounting, SCS curve Number. SCS Unit
3. Transform method for transforming excess Hydrograph
precipitation into runoff i.e. SCS, Clark or Method for
Snyder unit hydrographs, Kinematic wave, Transform
ModClark, User specified unit hydrograph Method.
4. Routing methods i.e. Muskingum, Kinematic Constant
Wave, Lag, Modified Puls, Muskingum- Monthly
Cunge, and Straddle Stagger, Method for
5. Meteorologic data i.e. precipitation, and Base Flow
6. The time span of the simulation Method.
B. HEC-RAS
1. River geometric data: width, elevation, shape, 1. Water surface Flow
location, length, elevations Hydrograph is
2. River floodplain data: length, elevation, 2. Rating curves produced.
3. The distance between successive river cross- 3. Hydraulic Stage
sections, properties i.e. Hydrograph is
4. Manning n value for the landuse type energy grade line produced.
covering the river and the floodplain area, slope and Unsteady Flow
5. Boundary conditions e.g. slope, critical depth, elevation, flow Analysis is
6. Stream discharge values. area, velocity carried out.
4. Visualization of
stream flow, which
shows the extent of
flooding

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3.2 Flow Chart

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 4. Description of Project Area
As discussed above the project area is in North Western Sri Lanka. It falls under Putullam
District. Two rivers contribute their outflow to the road and need to be released safely to the
Indian Ocean.

s
At a Glance:
District: Puttalam
Divisional Sector: Mundala
Coordinates: 745'2.24"N, 7947'32.37"E
Catchment Area: 450 Sqkm
Expected Discharge: 700 m3/s

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