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Modeling Rainfall Runoff and Snowmelt in the Pine Flat Watershed. By Rachael Hersh-Burdick USACE Water Management Sacramento District UC Davis Civil and Environmental Engineering Department Rachael.Hersh-Burdick@us.army.mil. Goals of Pine Flat Modeling Project.
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Modeling Rainfall Runoff and Snowmelt in the Pine Flat Watershed By Rachael Hersh-Burdick USACE Water Management Sacramento District UC Davis Civil and Environmental Engineering Department Rachael.Hersh-Burdick@us.army.mil
Goals of Pine Flat Modeling Project • Can HEC-HMS accurately model snowmelt runoff volume? • Inflow model for reservoir operators • Create comfort and familiarity with HEC-HMS in Corps Sac District
Overview • Characteristics of Pine Flat • Model Structure • Snow-Melt Modeling with HEC-HMS
Why model Pine Flat? Pine Flat Reservoir Elev. 970 ft
Central Valley Project Watersheds • Pine Flat Basin • Mean elevation: 7,635 ft • Elevation Range: 700 – 14,000 ft • Area = 1,541 mi2
Why model snowmelt? • Average April 1 volume of water stored in the snow pack = 1.8 MAF • Reservoir Storage = 1.0 MAF 2006 1997
Pine Flat Precipitation (& Discharge) Gages ’97 Event Kings R Below Trimmer Kings R Above Trimmer Pine Flat Flow in (computed)
Basic Snowmelt Modeling Concepts Temp Rain on snowvsSun on snow Wind Snow cold content f(snow density, temp) Groundmelt
Numerical Snow Models Energy Budget • Components • Wind • Temperature • Water Vapor • Radiation (net) • Precipitation • Advection (rain) • Groundmelt • Detailed (layered) snow pack Temperature Index • Components • Temperature • Precipitation • Single layer snow • Calibration of meltrate coefficient implicitly accounts for other factors (Dr. Steve Daly)
Temperature Index • Degree-day approach • Fixed amount of snowmelt for each degree above freezing • Primary Equation: • Snowmelt= (Air –Freezing Temp)*CC = time variant factor that includes: • total heat transfer at snow surface (LW & SW radiation) • latent heat • sensible heat • wind speed, aspect, slope, vegetation • Meltrate
Kings River Below North Fork ’97 Event Blue = Daily observed Flow; Red = Daily modeled flow
Getting a Better Calibration…. • Different temperature gage • Adjust number of elevation bands • Increase baseflow
Snow Water Equivalent Blue = Observed; Red= Modeled (in Reynold’s Creek Example)
Getting a Better Calibration…. • Different temperature gage • Adjust number of elevation bands • Increase baseflow • Create more subbasins