Abstract
Abstract. One of the widely used methods for predicting flood runoff depth from ungauged catchments is the curve number (CN) method, developed by Soil Conservation Service (SCS) of US Department of Agriculture. The CN parameter can be computed directly from recorded rainfall depths and direct runoff volumes in case of existing data. In presented investigations, the CN parameter has been computed for snowmelt-runoff events based on snowmelt and rainfall measurements. All required data has been gathered for a small agricultural catchment (A = 23.4 km2) of Zagożdżonka river, located in Central Poland. The CN number received from 28 snowmelt-runoff events has been compared with CN computed from rainfall-runoff events for the same catchment. The CN parameter, estimated empirically varies from 64.0 to 94.8. The relation between CN and snowmelt depth was investigated in a similar procedure to relation between CN and rainfall depth.
Highlights
Determination of effective rainfall defined in hydrology as a portion of total rainfall that contributes to runoff is a crucial step in application of rainfall-runoff models
This paper presents an attempt for application of the Curve Number (CN) method for snowmelt runoff events based on measured snow water content, rainfall and runoff in a small lowland catchment
The analyses conducted for Czarna station after applying matching technique for 71 rainfall and runoff data pairs resulted in Eq (6) (Banasik et al, 2014b) that is a projection of asymptote proposed by Hawkins (1993)
Summary
Determination of effective rainfall defined in hydrology as a portion of total rainfall that contributes to runoff is a crucial step in application of rainfall-runoff models. One of the often used approaches is the so called Curve Number (CN) method. 1950 by USDA Soil Conservation Service (Hawkins et al, 2010) Since this time, the method has been applied for an estimate of effective rainfall in various catchments. The application of CN method for snowmelt conditions is rare. It is used in continuous modelling (Van Mullen et al, 2002). This paper presents an attempt for application of the CN method for snowmelt runoff events based on measured snow water content, rainfall and runoff in a small lowland catchment
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