Impact of Infiltration on Flood Volume and Peak

Abstract

Flood volumes, flood peaks, and durations have not been studied extensively, although there are many practical situations, such as when designing a dam, in which the full hydrograph is of interest. A flood hydrograph may be described by a multivariate function of the peak, volume, and duration. Three-parameter functions are required to fit highly skewed data, such as flood peak and flood volume series. However, hydrological frequency analyses are usually focused on flood peaks. A few studies suggest that infiltration rates increase during the flood season due to an increase in the stream stage, but some others show that infiltration rates were also low during the flooding season. However, due to an increase in the wet perimeter within the stream during flooding periods, the total recharge amount to the aquifer was increased. The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of infiltration rates on volume and flood peak. The authors sought to understand whether infiltration rates increased during flood events or not.