Applicability of Literature Values for Green–Ampt Parameters to Account for Infiltration in Hydrodynamic Rainfall–Runoff Simulations in Ungauged Basins

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the suitability of literature parameter values for the Green–Ampt infiltration model to be used in hydrodynamic rainfall–runoff simulations. The outcome of this study supports to decide which literature values should be taken if observed data for model calibration is not available. Different laboratory experiments, a plot-scale experiment in the Thiès catchment in Senegal, and a flash flood in the region of El Gouna in Egypt, have been simulated with the 2D shallow water model Hydroinformatics Modeling System (hms) incorporating the Green–Ampt model. For four test cases with available runoff data, the results of the calibrated models were compared to those obtained from average values after Rawls et al. (Journal of Hydraulic Engineering 1:62–70, 1) and Innovyze (Help documentation of XPSWMM and XPStorm, 2). The results showed a clear underestimation of infiltration in two of three considered laboratory experiments, while for a field experiment in Senegal, average values after Rawls et al. (Journal of Hydraulic Engineering 1:62–70, 1) led to a strong overestimation and the ones after Innovyze (Help documentation of XPSWMM and XPStorm, 2) to an underestimation of infiltration. In a case study on flash floods in an ungauged region in Egypt, the values of both sources led to a strong overestimation of infiltration, when the simulation results are compared to observed flooding areas. It can be concluded, that the values after Innovyze (Help documentation of XPSWMM and XPStorm, 2) lead to overall better results than the ones after Rawls et al. (Journal of Hydraulic Engineering 1:62–70, 1). According to the results, the hydraulic conductivity in ungauged areas with bare sandy soil should be reduced by about 90–100 % compared to the value after Rawls et al. (Journal of Hydraulic Engineering 1:62–70, 1).

Impact of Soil Moisture Dynamics and Precipitation Pattern on UK Urban Pluvial Flood Hazards Under Climate Change

“…The compound impact of uncertainties from the modeling chain may alter the future flood projections to varying degrees. However, the majority of those procedures have been evaluated against observable or higher resolution data (Rossman & Huber, 2016; Tügel et al., 2021). Therefore, though the water depth distribution may be altered slightly with different parameters, the conclusions regarding the future flood risk trend are likely to hold with the recommended parameters in the future flood risk assessment framework.…”

Toward Street‐Level Nowcasting of Flash Floods Impacts Based on HPC Hydrodynamic Modeling at the Watershed Scale and High‐Resolution Weather Radar Data

“…In other words, the vector S RR allows one to extend the application of the 2D‐SWEs modeling from the traditional river flood propagation and mapping studies to rainfall‐runoff simulations in rural areas. In particular, the infiltration module used here is based on the well‐known Green‐Ampt model, widely popular even in the recent literature (Fernández‐Pato et al., 2016; Ni et al., 2020; Tügel et al., 2022), implemented according to the approach proposed in Fiedler and Ramirez (2000).…”