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Influence of Hydrological Model Complexity on the Estimation of Floods in an Alpine Catchment for PMP Conditions

Author(s): Theodora Cohen; Javier Garcia Hernandez; Jerome Dubois; Jean-Louis Boillat

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Abstract: In order to estimate the flood discharge in complex catchment areas, production and routing of the flow are calculated by numerical models. The results of the simulation vary and depend on the type and the complexity of the model used. In the presented analysis, the semi-distributed conceptual code Routing System II is used for the comparison of different degrees of complexity and different initial conditions on the simulation of the Probable Maximum Flood (PMF). The method developed is divided into three steps: calibration of the model on a first flood event, validation of the model on a second flood event and simulation of PMF. The results are evaluated in terms of Nash coefficient, peak discharge ratio and volume ratio. All the configurations present a good correlation with the observed data, confirming the robustness of the model. However, when the Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP) is used as input, the results vary strongly depending on the structure of the model and the implemented initial conditions. This emphasizes the fact that an enhancement of the PMP-PMF approach in mountainous regions is needed.

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Year: 2009

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