Modelling Flash Floods Driven by Rain-on-Snow Events Using Rain-on-Grid Technique in the Hydrodynamic Model TELEMAC-2D

Abstract

Due to the changing climate, flash floods have been increasing recently and are expected to further increase in the future. Flash floods caused by heavy rainfall with snowmelt contribution due to sudden rises in temperature or rain-on-snow events have become common in autumn and winter in Norway. These events have caused widespread damage, closure of roads and bridges, and landslides, leading to evacuations in the affected areas. Hence, it is important to analyze such events. In this study, the rain-on-grid technique in the TELEMAC-2D hydrodynamic model was used for runoff modelling and routing using input of snowmelt, and precipitation partitioned on snow and rain was calculated via the hydrological model HBV. The results show the importance of including snowmelt for distributed runoff generation and how the rain-on-grid technique enables extracting flow hydrographs anywhere in the catchment. It is also possible to extract the flow velocities and water depth at each time step, revealing the critical locations in the catchment in terms of flooding and shear stresses. The rain-on-grid model works particularly well for single peak events, but the results indicate the need for a time-varying curve number for multiple peak flood events or the implementation of another infiltration model.

Comparison of two hydrodynamic models for their rain-on-grid technique to simulate flash floods in steep catchment

“…Based on the experience from the multipeak event (Figure 7) and the application of the CN method in T2D in the earlier study (Godara et al, 2023a), it is evident that the CN method has limitations to produce satisfactory results for flood events with multiple peak flows. Therefore, the HR2D model with the GAR infiltration method was tested to simulate such events because GAR has a variable infiltration rate unlike the CN method.…”

Assessing the effects of sponge city construction in Beijing with an improved coupled hydrologic-hydrodynamic model

“…The phenomena that can be considered include: Nonlinear effects such as long-wave propagation, bottom friction, Coriolis force, meteorological factors such as atmospheric pressure and wind, turbulence, supercritical and sub-critical flows, horizontal temperature and salinity gradients on density, hydraulic structures such as weirs, embankments, culverts, and porosity phenomena (Godara et al,2023). There are not many application cases of TELEMAC-2D combined with SWMM model in urban flooding simulation.…”