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A volume law for specification of linear channel storage for estimation of large floods
Author(s) -
Zhang Shangyou,
Cordery Ian,
Sharma Ashish
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1029/2000wr900045
Subject(s) - hydrograph , routing (electronic design automation) , hydrology (agriculture) , channel (broadcasting) , flood myth , outflow , storage model , water storage , volume (thermodynamics) , environmental science , computer science , computer data storage , geology , meteorology , geography , geotechnical engineering , geomorphology , computer network , physics , archaeology , quantum mechanics , inlet , operating system
A method of estimating large floods using a linear storage‐routing approach is presented. The differences between the proposed approach and those traditionally used are (1) that the flood producing properties of basins are represented by a linear system, (2) the storage parameters of the distributed model are determined using a volume law which, unlike other storage‐routing models, accounts for the distribution of storage in natural basins, and (3) the basin outflow hydrograph is determined analytically and expressed in a succinct mathematical form. The single model parameter is estimated from observed data without direct fitting, unlike most traditionally used methods. The model was tested by showing it could reproduce observed large floods on a number of basins. This paper compares the proposed approach with a traditionally used storage routing approach using observed flood data from the Hacking River basin in New South Wales, Australia. Results confirm the usefulness of the proposed approach for estimation of large floods.