Hydrologic simulation with HSPF based on Arc Hydro data model

Abstract

Hydrologic model setup is an important process in the whole model simulation. This study introduces an approach for hydrological simulation analysis based on extracting watershed features from DEM using Arc Hydro Tools. This method consists of two steps: firstly, extracting watershed features from DEM using Arc Hydro Tools. Then, process hydrological simulation analysis with hydrologic model HSPF using watershed features obtained from the former step. HSPF is a comprehensive surface water simulation model frequently applied in the modeling of rainfall-runoff relationships. The procedures used in hydrological simulation with HSPF, generally speaking, involve several steps including 1) generate time series file (WDM), 2) import Arc Hydro data into BASINS 4.0, 3) hydrological parameters setup, 4) GenScn, 5) parameter adjustment. In this study, Hillsborough River watershed, located in the central Florida, was selected as study area. Simulation of surface flow in a time series of 16 years (from 1974 to 1990) is available. The study results showed that, automatically extracting watershed features based on Arc Hydro Tools is feasible, and the HSPF hydrologic simulated results are pretty matching the observed values.