Paper/Poster/Presentation Title

An Overview of Rainfall-Runoff Model Types

Keywords

Environmental Modeling, Precipitation, Hydrological Cycle, Hydrological Micro Services

Start Date

27-6-2018 9:00 AM

End Date

27-6-2018 10:20 AM

Abstract

This paper aims to inform the audience of the strengths and weaknesses of various rainfall-runoff models. Runoff plays an important role in the hydrological cycle by returning excess precipitation to the oceans and controlling how much water flows into water systems. Water resource managers use runoff data from models to help understand, control, and monitor the quality and quantity of water resources. Access to runoff data can be time consuming and restrictive. The goal of the USEPA’s Hydrologic Micro Service (HMS) project is to develop a collection of interoperable water quantity and quality modeling components that leverage existing internet-based data sources and sensors via a web service. Each component may have multiple implementations, ranging from coarse to detailed levels of physical process modeling. Each rainfall-runoff model contains algorithms that control the calculation of runoff. Models can be categorized by the structure and spatial processing of these algorithms into empirical, conceptual, physical, lumped, semi-distributed, and distributed models. Several runoff models, including SCS Curve Number, Hydrological Simulation Program-Fortran, and Penn State’s Integrated Hydrological Modeling System, are described, providing information to determine which best suits the modeling objective.

Stream and Session

Stream C:Integrated Social, Economic, Ecological, and Infrastructural Modeling

Session C11: Integrated Methods and Tools for Flood Risk and Water Supply Management

COinS
 
Jun 27th, 9:00 AM Jun 27th, 10:20 AM

An Overview of Rainfall-Runoff Model Types

This paper aims to inform the audience of the strengths and weaknesses of various rainfall-runoff models. Runoff plays an important role in the hydrological cycle by returning excess precipitation to the oceans and controlling how much water flows into water systems. Water resource managers use runoff data from models to help understand, control, and monitor the quality and quantity of water resources. Access to runoff data can be time consuming and restrictive. The goal of the USEPA’s Hydrologic Micro Service (HMS) project is to develop a collection of interoperable water quantity and quality modeling components that leverage existing internet-based data sources and sensors via a web service. Each component may have multiple implementations, ranging from coarse to detailed levels of physical process modeling. Each rainfall-runoff model contains algorithms that control the calculation of runoff. Models can be categorized by the structure and spatial processing of these algorithms into empirical, conceptual, physical, lumped, semi-distributed, and distributed models. Several runoff models, including SCS Curve Number, Hydrological Simulation Program-Fortran, and Penn State’s Integrated Hydrological Modeling System, are described, providing information to determine which best suits the modeling objective.