Modelling overbank flow on farmed catchments taking into account spatial hydrological discontinuities
Abstract
In agricultural catchments, hydrological processes are largely variable in space due to human impact causing hydrological discontinuities such as ditch network, field limits and terraces. The ditch network accelerates runoff by concentrating flows, drains the water table or replenishes it by reinfiltration of the runoff water. During extreme flood events, overbank flow occurs and surface pathflows are modified. The purpose of this study is to assess the influence of overbank flow on hydrograph shape during flood events. For that, MHYDAS, a physically based distributed hydrological model, was especially developed to take into account these hydrological discontinuities. The model considers the catchment as a series of interconnected hydrological unit. Runoff from each unit is estimated using a deterministic model based on the pounding-time algorithm and then routed through the ditch network using the diffusive wave equation. Overbank flow is modelled by modifying links between the hydrological units and the ditch network. The model was applied to simulate the main hydrological processes on a small headwater farmed Mediterranean catchment located in Southern France. The basic hydrometeorological equipment consists of a meteorological station, rain gauges, a tensio-neutronic and a piezometric measurement network, and eight water flow measurements. A multi-criteria and multi-scale approach was used. Three independent error criteria (Nash, error on volume and error on peak flow) were calculated and combined using the Pareto technique. Then, a multi-scale approach was used to calibrate and validate the model for the eight water flow measurements. The application of MHYDAS on the extreme ten flood events of the last decade enables to identify the ditches where overbank flows occur and to calculate discharge at various points of the ditch network. Results show that for the extreme flood event, more than 45% of surface runoff occur due to overbank flow. Discussion shows that in this elementary catchment, water emerging as runoff travels by multiple routes and the main hydrological processes are affected by the spatial variability of soils, topography, land use and cover, climate, and human-induced changes and management.
- Publication:
-
EGS - AGU - EUG Joint Assembly
- Pub Date:
- April 2003
- Bibcode:
- 2003EAEJA.....4872M