An algorithm for delineating and extracting hillslopes and hillslope width functions from gridded elevation data

Noël, P.; Rousseau, Alain N.; Paniconi, Claudio

doi:10.5194/hessd-8-8865-2011

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…An exponential hillslope shape was assumed by Troch et al (2004). At present, GIS tools are available to simply delineate trapezoidal hillslope shapes (e.g., Noël, Rousseau, Paniconi, & Nadeau, 2014), and tools are under development by the authors for exponential forms. The generality of either morphology for describing real hillslopes is not well established, and each form has advantages—the simplicity of planar forms for a trapezoidal assumption, and the smoothness and continuity of exponential forms.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analytical solutions to runoff on hillslopes with curvature: numerical and laboratory verification

Lapides

David

Sytsma

et al. 2020

Hydrological Processes

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Predicting the behavior of overland flow with analytical solutions to the kinematic wave equation is appealing due to its relative ease of implementation. Such simple solutions, however, have largely been constrained to applications on simple planar hillslopes. This study presents analytical solutions to the kinematic wave equation for hillslopes with modest topographic curvature that causes divergence or convergence of runoff flowpaths. The solution averages flow depths along changing hillslope contours whose lengths vary according hillslope width function, and results in a one‐dimensional approximation to the two‐dimensional flow field. The solutions are tested against both two‐dimensional numerical solutions to the kinematic wave equation (in ParFlow) and against experiments that use rainfall simulation on machined hillslopes with defined curvature properties. Excellent agreement between numerical, experimental and analytical solutions is found for hillslopes with mild to moderate curvature. The solutions show that curvature drives large changes in maximum flow rate qpeak and time of concentration tc, predictions frequently used in engineering hydrologic design and analysis.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analytical solutions to runoff on hillslopes with curvature: numerical and laboratory verification

Lapides

David

Sytsma

et al. 2020

Hydrological Processes

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“…As shown in Fig. 1b, 127 hillslopes are delineated in the East River watershed based on the elevation following Noël et al, (2014) and using Topotoolbox developed by Schwanghart and Scherler (2014). A threshold of flow accumulation was set to match the stream observations at major tributaries of the East River (Carroll et al, 2018).…”

Section: Hillslope Delineationmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the similarity of hillslope hydrologic function: a clustering approach based on groundwater changes

Maina

Wainwright

Dennedy‐Frank

et al. 2022

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Hillslope similarity is an active topic in hydrology because of its importance in improving our understanding of hydrologic processes and enabling comparisons and paired studies. In this study, we propose a holistic bottom-up hillslope clustering based on a region's integrative hydrodynamic response quantified by the seasonal changes in groundwater levels ΔP. The main advantage of the ΔP clustering is its ability to capture recharge and discharge processes. We test the performance of the ΔP clustering by comparing it to seven other common hillslope clustering approaches. These include clustering approaches based on the aridity index, topographic wetness index, elevation, land cover, and machine-learning that jointly integrate multiple data. We assess the ability of these clustering approaches to identify and categorize hillslopes with similar static characteristics, hydroclimate, land surface processes, and subsurface dynamics in a mountainous watershed – the East River – located in the headwaters of the Upper Colorado River Basin. The ΔP clustering performs very well in identifying hillslopes with six out of the nine characteristics studied. The variability among clusters as quantified by the coefficient of variation (0.2) is less in the ΔP and the machine learning approaches than in the others (> 0.3 for TWI, elevation, and land cover). We further demonstrate the robustness of the ΔP clustering by testing its ability to predict hillslope responses to wet and dry hydrologic conditions, of which it performs well when based on average conditions.

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“…River reaches are one-dimensional elements that support streamflow simulation processes, whereas RHHUs are basic elements for all rainfall-runoff simulation processes. Often referred to hydrologic response units (HRU) in the literature, RHHUs represent either elementary subwatersheds or hillslopes, depending on the user's interest (Noël et al, 2014), taking into account the spatial variability of topography, land cover, soil types, and meteorological variables (Lavigne et al, 2004). In this study, since only one basin is modeled, the network discretization was pushed to a high resolution where the RHHUs and reaches were determined up to the Strahler order number 2.…”

Section: Hydrological Model Hydrotel and Model Setup Over The Richelimentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of a High‐Resolution Distributed Hydrological Model on a U.S.‐Canada Transboundary Basin: Simulation of the Multiyear Mean AnnualHydrograph and 2011 Flood of theRichelieu River Basin

Lucas‐Picher

Arsenault

Poulin

et al. 2020

J Adv Model Earth Syst

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During spring 2011, an extreme flood occurred along the Richelieu River located in southern Quebec, Canada. The Richelieu River is the last section of the complex Richelieu basin, which is composed of the large Lake Champlain located in a valley between two large mountains. Previous attempts in reproducing the Richelieu River flow relied on the use of simplified lumped models and showed mixed results. In order to prepare a tool to assess accurately the change of flood recurrences in the future, a state-of-the-art distributed hydrological model was applied over the Richelieu basin. The model setup comprises several novel methods and data sets such as a very high resolution river network, a modern calibration technique considering the net basin supply of Lake Champlain, a new optimization algorithm, and the use of an up-to-date meteorological data set to force the model. The results show that the hydrological model is able to satisfactorily reproduce the multiyear mean annual hydrograph and the 2011 flow time series when compared with the observed river flow and an estimation of the Lake Champlain net basin supply. Many factors, such as the quality of the meteorological forcing data, that are affected by the low density of the station network, the steep terrain, and the lake storage effect challenged the simulation of the river flow. Overall, the satisfactory validation of the hydrological model allows to move to the next step, which consists in assessing the impacts of climate change on the recurrence of Richelieu River floods.Plain Language Summary In order to study the 2011 Richelieu flood and prepare a tool capable of estimating the effects of climate change on the recurrence of floods, a hydrological model is applied over the Richelieu basin. The application of a distributed hydrological model is useful to simulate the flow of all the tributaries of the Richelieu basin. This new model setup stands out from past models due to its distribution in several hydrological units, its high-resolution river network, the calibration technique, and the high-resolution weather forcing data set used to drive the model. The model successfully reproduced the 2011 Richelieu River flood and the annual hydrograph. The simulation of the Richelieu flow was challenging due to the contrasted elevation of the Richelieu basin and the presence of the large Lake Champlain that acts as a reservoir and attenuates short-term fluctuations. Overall, the application was deemed satisfactory, and the tool is ready to assess the impacts of climate change on the recurrence of Richelieu River floods.

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An algorithm for delineating and extracting hillslopes and hillslope width functions from gridded elevation data

Cited by 5 publications

References 20 publications

Analytical solutions to runoff on hillslopes with curvature: numerical and laboratory verification

Analytical solutions to runoff on hillslopes with curvature: numerical and laboratory verification

On the similarity of hillslope hydrologic function: a clustering approach based on groundwater changes

Application of a High‐Resolution Distributed Hydrological Model on a U.S.‐Canada Transboundary Basin: Simulation of the Multiyear Mean AnnualHydrograph and 2011 Flood of theRichelieu River Basin

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