Oklahoma Watershed Response Model
Marc Petrequin
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Abstract
This project centered on the development of a linear reservoir response model for an unspecified watershed in Oklahoma. I was tasked with analyzing a rainfall hyetograph and corresponding watershed outflow from a past storm event, determining a range of appropriate parameters from this analysis, using these parameter to develop a series of different linear watershed models, calibrating these models to match the given hyetograph of the past rainfall event, and applying these models to predict the outflow of a future storm event. A significant portion of this project required assumptions inferred from the brief watershed description and the observed characteristics of the outflow curve of the watershed’s response.
Key takeaways
- The first two intervals were derived from observed instants in the recorded hydrographs of the precipitation and outflow of the watershed; for the centroid lag time, I relied on Equation 9-3 in Dingman to compute the centroids of effective water input and hydrograph response.
- This design accounted only for the initial outflow and the response time of the given watershed, the latter of which I had initially based on the centroid lag time calculated in Part 1.
- For the second advanced model, I significantly cut the evaporative outflow from tree cover, increased the estimated base flow, and added groundwater (GW) outflow components, as the watershed description of heterogeneous loamy soils with some tree and agriculture cover suggested the former aspect would have a stronger impact.
- If pressed to rely on one of the two models to predict the outflow of the watershed in response to a storm event, I would have to choose the latter model, incorporating canopy interception, multiple reservoirs with different surface streamflow rates, and multiple regions of varying groundwater infiltration.
- Outflow ET Effective Precipitation design seemed more realistic in a watershed where the sandy and loamy soils and scattered tree cover would ensure groundwater infiltration would play a much larger role than canopy interception in changes to the overall water storage.
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