Abstract
Hydrological modelling of large river catchments has become a challenging task for water resources engineers due to its complexity in collecting and handling of both spatial and non-spatial data such as rainfall, gauge-discharge data, and topographic and hydraulic parameters. In this article, a flood forecast model is developed for the Godavari Basin, India through a distributed modelling approach using space inputs. The approach includes rainfall runoff modelling, hydrodynamic flow routing, calibration, and validation of the model with field discharge data. The study basin is divided into 128 subbasins to improve the model accuracy. Topographic and hydraulic parameters of each subbasin and channel are computed using the land use / land cover grid that is derived from the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS-P6) AWiFS sensor data (56 m resolution), Shuttled Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) Digital Elevation Model (DEM), and the soil textural grid. The model is calibrated using the field hydrometeorological data of 2000 and validated with the data of 2001. The model was tested during the 2010 floods with real-time 3-hour interval hydrometeorological and daily evapotranspiration data. Accuracy in estimating the peak flood discharge and lag time was found to be very good. Flood forecast lead time is increased by 12 hours compared to conventional methods of forecasting.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bogner, K., and M. Kalas. 2008. Error Correction Methods and Evaluation of an Ensemble Based Hydrological Forecasting System for the Upper Danube Catchment. Atmospheric Science Letters 9(2): 95–102.
CWC (Central Water Commission of India). 1989. Manual on Flood Forecasting. New Delhi: Central Water Commission.
—. 1999. Reassessment of Water Resources Potential of India. New Delhi: Central Water Commission.
De Roo, A., B. Gouweleeuw, J. Thielen, P. Bates, M. Horritt, et al. 2003. Development of European Flood Forecasting System. International Journal of River Basin Management 1(1): 49–59.
Durga Rao, K. H. V., V. Bhanumurthy, and P. S. Roy. 2009. Application of Satellite Based Rainfall Products and SRTM DEM in Hydrological Modelling of the Brahmaputra Basin. Journal of Indian Society of Remote Sensing 37(4): 539–552.
Gupta, M. C., V. K. Sharma, L. C. Gupta, and B. K. Tamini, eds. 2001. Manual of Natural Disaster Management in India. National Centre for Disaster Management, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India.
Jain, M. K., U. C. Kothyari, and K. G. Ranga Raju. 2004. A GIS Based Distributed Rainfall-Runoff Model. Journal of Hydrology 299(1–2):107–135.
Jaun, S., and B. Ahrens. 2009. Evaluation of a Probabilistic Hydrometeorological Forecast System. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 13: 1031–1043.
Jorgensen, G. H., and J. Host-Madsen. 1997. Development of a Flood Forecasting System in Bangladesh. In Proceedings of Conference on Operational Water Management, 137–148. 3–6 September 1997, Copenhagen. AA Balkema.
Sahoo, G. B., and C. Ray. 2006. Flow Forecasting for a Hawaii Stream using Rating Curves and Neural Networks. Journal of Hydrology 340(1–2): 119–121.
SCS (Soil Conservation Service). 1972. National Engineering Handbook, Section 4. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Subramanya, K. 1991. Engineering Hydrology. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing.
Thielen, J., J. Bartholmes, M.-H. Ramos, and A. de Roo. 2009. The European Flood Alert System—Part 1: Concept and Development. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 13(2): 125–140.
Tsai, C. W. 2005. Flood Routing in Mild-Sloped Rivers—Wave Characteristics and Downstream Backwater Effect. Journal of Hydrology 308(1–4): 151–167.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. 2000. Hydrological Modelling System HEC-HMS Technical Reference Manual. Davis, CA: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Hydrologic Engineering Centre.
—. 2001. Hydrological Modelling System HEC-HMS User’s Manual. Davis, CA: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Hydrologic Engineering Centre.
—. 2003. Geospatial Hydrological Modelling Extension HECGeoHMS, User’s Manual. Davis, CA: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Hydrologic Engineering Centre.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
About this article
Cite this article
Rao, K.H.V.D., Rao, V.V., Dadhwal, V.K. et al. A distributed model for real-time flood forecasting in the Godavari Basin using space inputs. Int J Disaster Risk Sci 2, 31–40 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13753-011-0014-7
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13753-011-0014-7