Quantitative assessment of flood damage reduction projects through physically-based watershed models

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Antonio Arenas, Marcela Politano, Joseph Dvorak, Larry Weber

Thursday 2 july 2015

17:39 - 17:42h at Central America (level 0)

Themes: (T) Water resources and hydro informatics (WRHI), (ST) Catchment hydrology, Poster pitches

Parallel session: Poster pitches: 13H. WRHI - Catchment

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Several communities in the State of Iowa, USA are located in areas prone to flooding and therefore resources are continuously devoted to reducing flood related damage. Numerical models can help quantify the benefit of proposed flood mitigation projects and contribute to a more efficient allocation of resources. This study presents results from a physically-based HUC 12 watershed model. The control-volume finite element model HydroGeoSphere was used. Computational grids include a highly-detailed representation of the main features of the watershed. Simulations were used to quantify the impact of flood mitigation projects. For the analyzed window, the model predicts a 4.5% reduction in peak discharge. Model performance was assessed against data for saturated water content and discharge. A detailed analysis of the measured data used for model performance assessment is presented in a companion paper entitled “Comprehensive analysis of hydrologic processes and nitrate concentrations at the watershed scale based on continuous monitoring data”.