Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

5-2018

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

M.S.

Department (Legacy)

Department of Geography and Geosciences

Degree Program

Geography (Applied), MS

Committee Chair

Day, C. Andrew

Committee Co-Chair (if applicable)

Howarth, David

Committee Member

Howarth, David

Committee Member

Lambert, Thomas

Author's Keywords

curve number method; hydrograph; runoff; lag time; calibration; stormwater

Abstract

According to the US EPA when a watershed reaches 75% impervious land cover, surface runoff accounts for 55% of precipitation input losses compared to 10% for a ‘natural cover’ watershed, exacerbating urban flooding during extreme rainfall events. This research modeled historical rainfall-runoff processes for six urban watersheds within the city of Louisville, KY for a series of these extreme rainfall events. Precipitation and resultant runoff discharge events were collected in the field over the spring and summer of 2016. Surface biophysical data in the form of gridded elevation, land cover and soil type were also collected and processed for each watershed. These datasets allowed for a calibration of the HEC-HMS rainfall-runoff model utilizing the CN method to route the surface flow towards each watershed outlet. It is hoped that the analysis employed will emphasize the significance of exploring urban flood modeling methods towards developing flood response and mitigation strategies at these and similarly impacted location.

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