Evaluation of the ood mitigation effect of a Paddy Field Dam project

N. Yoshikawa
a,
*, N. Nagao
b
, S. Misawa
c
a
Research Center for Natural Hazard and Disaster Recovery, Niigata University, 8050 Ikarashi 2-no-cho, Nishi-ku, Niigata 950-2181, Japan
b
Toyama Prefectural Federation of Land Improvement Association, 17 Kurosaki, Toyama 939-8214, Japan
c
Faculty of Agriculture, Niigata University, 8050 Ikarashi 2-no-cho, Nishi-ku, Niigata 950-2181, Japan
1. Introduction
Recent climatic change has brought about a signicant increase
in the frequency of unusually heavy rain events in Asian monsoon
regions. According to the Fourth Assessment Report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007), it is
very likely that heavy rainfall events will continue to become more
frequent at middle and high latitudes. The Extreme Weather
Report 2005 written by the Japan Meteorological Agency (2005)
also reported on the basis of an analysis of the rainfall pattern for
104 recent years that the numbers of days with intense
precipitation exceeding 100 and 200 mm have increased 1.19
and 1.46 times, respectively, when comparing the rst 30 years of
the last century (19011930) with the most recent 30 years (1975
2004).
There has been a recent increase in the risk of ood disaster in
Japan owing not only to the changes in frequency and intensity of
rainfall, but also to changes in land use and modernization of
agriculture leading to the expansion of impervious areas and
shortening of the arrival time of oods. Although investments have
been made in infrastructure for protection against ood damage
such as dam construction, bank heightening, river widening, and/
or channel dredging, further investment in such large-scale
structural measures is not realistic owing to increasing concern
about the negative impact on the natural environment, in addition
to the huge costs to the government.
To overcome these problems, making use of paddy elds as a
ood control system has been highlighted. The paddy elds
themselves are considered to possess an innate ood mitigation
function (Abler, 2004; Matsuno, 2006; Groenfeldt, 2006; Kimet al.,
2006; Huang et al., 2006). Various studies at national and regional
scales have been carried out to evaluate this ood control function.
Shimura (1982), for the rst time, estimated the ood water
storage capacity of all paddy elds at 8.1 billion m
3
, which by far
exceeds 2.4 billion m
3
, the total ood detention capacity of ood
control dams in Japan. Regional cases have also been investigated
taking into consideration topographical features; for example, the
cases of terraced paddy elds in sloped areas (Onishi et al., 2004)
and paddy elds in low-lying at areas (Nakamura et al., 1994;
Hiramatsu and Shikasho, 2001). Most of these regional case studies
concluded that paddy elds play an important role in increasing
the water storage capacity of river basins and lower the peak ows
of rivers to a certain extent, but not to the same degree as Shimura
(1982) estimated. Some studies found a signicant rise in peak
Agricultural Water Management 97 (2010) 259270
A R T I C L E I N F O
Article history:
Received 21 January 2009
Received in revised form 24 September 2009
Accepted 26 September 2009
Available online 25 October 2009
Keywords:
Paddy eld
Runoff control devices
Flood control function
Unsteady ow model
Kinematic wave model
Water balance analysis
A B S T R A C T
To mitigate ood damage due to a recent increase in the frequency and magnitude of heavy rainfall
events, the Kamihayashi district in Niigata prefecture, Japan, has undertaken ood mitigation measures
using paddy elds by installing runoff control devices in drainage boxes of paddy eld plots. The purpose
of this study is to evaluate the ood mitigation performance of the Paddy Field Dam project in terms of a
decrease in discharge volume, drop in channel water level and reduction of inundation damage using
combined hydrologic analyses and ood routing. The model constructed for runoff analysis is composed
of three modules: a hilly/residential area module in which the overland ow is estimated using the
kinematic wave method, a paddy eld module in which runoff from paddy elds is calculated using
water balance analysis, and a channel network module in which ood routing is performed using a one-
dimensional unsteady owmodel. The outputs of the rst two modules are the input of the third module.
The result of the simulation shows the main channel discharge decreased by 26% and the water level
dropped by 0.17 m in the case of the largest observed rainfall event. The simulated effect was larger for
larger rainfall events. In terms of ood water volume, the runoff control devices have the effect of
reducing the ood damage due to the 50-year return period rainfall event to almost that due to the 10-
year return period rainfall event.
2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 25 262 6653; fax: +81 25 262 6653.
E-mail address: natsuky@agr.niigata-u.ac.jp (N. Yoshikawa).
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
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j our nal homepage: www. el sevi er . com/ l ocat e/ agwat
0378-3774/$ see front matter 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.agwat.2009.09.017
runoff with the transformation of paddy elds to other land uses
such as upland dry elds or the abandonment of cultivation (Chiba
et al., 1997; Masumoto et al., 1997; Wu et al., 2001; Masumoto
et al., 2003). To standardize the evaluation of the ood control
function, Masumoto et al. (2006) proposed a method and an index
at a macro scale using the relationship between drainage and
storage capacity.
These studies have contributed to the understanding of the
ood mitigating role of paddy elds and suggest that haphazard
urbanization and abandonment of paddy cultivation may increase
the negative impact on the runoff characteristic. However, it seems
clear that mere conservation of the existing paddy elds will at
most maintain the status quo.
To address the recent increase in the ood risk, an unconven-
tional measure for ood mitigation has been recently introduced
using existing paddy elds with enhanced ood control function as
an inexpensive and environmentally sustainable technique. This
measure is termed the Paddy Field Dam, in which rain water is
intentionally stored in the paddy elds temporarily at times of
intense rainfall by installing runoff control devices in the drainage
boxes of paddy eld plots. Although paddy elds are not deep,
usually surrounded by a levee 1530 cmhigh, the areal extent over
which they spread is large and they therefore provide ample water
storage potential.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the ood mitigation
performance of the Paddy Field Dam, paddy elds with runoff
control devices, using combined hydrologic analyses and ood
routing. The effect is presented by the changes in ow volume and
water level of the drainage channel and the inundation volume and
duration at the city center.
2. The Paddy Field Dam project
2.1. Description of the Paddy Field Dam project
The Paddy Field Dam is an experimental ood control measure
launched in 2002 in Kamihayashi village, Niigata prefecture, Japan,
taking advantage of the ponding characteristics of paddy elds. The
paddy elds within the project site are installed with runoff control
devices in the formof orice restriction plates to reinforce the ood
control function that they innately possess. The reason for the
project being termed the Paddy Field Dam is that the paddy elds
with the reinforced function store excessive rainwater and thus
lowers the peak discharge just like ordinary ood control dams do,
even though it does not fall into the denition of a dam, strictly
speaking.
The basic structure of the paddy elds in the study area is
almost uniform in terms of shape and size as a result of the land
consolidation and reallocation work in the 1980s: 5000 m
2
plots
equipped with two concrete drainage boxes, which are connected
to a drainage channel with a 150 mm inner diameter pipe. In
general, the water level in the paddy elds is maintained at
approximately 5 cm above the paddy eld surface during the
ponding season by placing a rectangular weir at the inlet of
the drainage boxes just as for standard paddy elds in Japan. The
excess water then ows into the drainage channel along the paddy
eld plots.
The runoff control devices are structurally simple; 300 mm
300 mm wooden orice restriction plates with 50 mm orices are
installed on the bottom of the drainage boxes, approximately
40 cm below the paddy eld surface. This shrinks the drain orice
of the boxes from the original pipe size of 15050 mm, reducing
the orice area to one-ninth that of the original pipe as illustrated
in Fig. 1.
One may worry about possible negative impacts on the rice
production due to the retardation of drainage. However, there may
be little damage to the rice crops unless they are completely
submerged for several days since rice is one of the most tolerant
crops against submergence (Inoue, 1999). Since the maximum
ponding depth inside the paddy elds is the height of the levees,
complete submergence occurs only when the water level of the
drainage channel adjacent to the paddy elds increases above the
height of the levees. It means that inundation would be
unavoidable whether or not the runoff control devices are installed
because the effect of the Paddy Field Dam is rather to lower the
water level of the drainage channel by controlling the runoff from
paddy elds.
Although temporary complete submergence may occur when
the top of the rice plant is still below the top of the levees of the
paddy elds, approximately 1 month after the transplantation in
the beginning of May in Japan, rice plants would already have
grown higher than the levees by the rainy season, which begins in
the middle of June.
2.2. Mechanism of surface runoff control for the Paddy Field Dam
When the runoff control devices are not installed during the
ponding season, the volume of surface water runoff from a paddy
eld plot is determined only by the height and length of the
rectangular weir set at the inlet of a drainage box and the overow
depth above the rectangular weir, which in turn determines the
ponding depth of the paddy eld. On the other hand, in the case of
Fig. 1. Paddy eld drainage system. Two drainage boxes are installed and equipped with a runoff control device for each 0.5 ha standard-size paddy eld plot.
N. Yoshikawa et al. / Agricultural Water Management 97 (2010) 259270 260
runoff control devices being installed, the runoff is regulated by
either the rectangular weir or the orice size of the runoff control
devices depending upon the water depth of the paddy eld. That is,
the runoff control devices function only when the water inow
from the paddy eld to the drainage box exceeds the outow
capacity of the orice; otherwise, the surface runoff is regulated by
the overowing runoff above the rectangular weir regardless of the
existence of the devices. Therefore, the surface runoff Q
S
(m
3
s
1
)
can be expressed by
Q
S

Rectangular Weir Equation
Q
W
2EbH
0 3=2
2EbH D
3=2
whenQ
W
Q
O

Orifice Equation
Q
O
2Ca
O

2gh
0
_
2Ca
O

2gH d
_
whenQ
W
>Q
O

_
(1)
where Q
W
is the surface overowrunoff above the rectangular weir
(m
3
s
1
), E is the weir coefcient, b is the weir length (m), H is the
head above the top of the weir (m), H is the water depth of the
paddy eld (m), D is the height of the weir (m), Q
O
is the discharge
via the orice (m
3
s
1
), C is the orice coefcient, a
O
is the area of
the orice (m
2
), g is the gravitational acceleration (m s
2
), h
0
is the
vertical distance between the water surface of the paddy eld and
the bottom of the drainage box (m), and d is the vertical distance
between the paddy eld surface and the bottom of the drainage
box (m) (Fig. 1). The number 2 in both equations indicates that
each standard-size paddy eld is equipped with two drainage
boxes.
The regulating factors may differ during the season of
midsummer drainage, a common practice of paddy cultivation
in Japan in which paddy elds are dried out for about 10 days
between the end of June and the beginning of July to control
surplus tillering and supply plant roots with oxygen. In this period,
the rectangular weirs are removed to release all the ponded water
and several shallow furrows are excavated on the paddy eld
surface toward the drainage boxes to promote quick drainage of
the remaining water. Since the soil dries up during this period, the
surface runoff begins as soon as the soil surface is saturated when
heavy rainfall occurs. In this case, the factors determining the
rainfallrunoff relations are more complex and need to be
quantied without using the rectangular weir equation, although
once the water inow from the paddy eld to the drainage box
exceeds the outow capacity of the orice, the orice size of the
runoff control devices becomes the regulating factor. Because of
the variations in the density and depth of the furrows made on the
surfaces of paddy elds, the runoff characteristics may differ with
respect to each paddy eld plot. Therefore, the average rainfall
runoff relations before the runoff control devices come into effect
need to be derived somehow. In this study, a tank model
(Sugawara, 1972) in which the runoff from the control devices
is incorporated is adopted for this purpose.
3. Materials and methods
3.1. Study area
The study was carried out in the Ishikawa River watershed,
Kamihayashi village, Niigata prefecture, Japan. The Ishikawa River
drains the entire 60.6 km
2
watershed, which comprises hilly areas
(69%), paddy elds (26%) and residential areas (5%) (Fig. 2). The
Ishikawa River then ows into the Sea of Japan. The watershed can
be divided into two areas by drainage systems: an area of
gravitational drainage and an area of pumping drainage. The city
center of Kamihayashi village is situated in the lower part of the
watershed of the Fuefuki River (6.24 km
2
), one of the tributaries of
the Ishikawa River, which largely coincides with the gravitational
drainage area. Most of the remaining area coincides with the
pumping drainage area. After owing through the city center, the
Fuefuki River joins the mainstream of the Ishikawa River. The city
center area (approximately 0.099 km
2
) has an altitude only slightly
above sea level and is, therefore, subject to frequent ood water
damage from the upstream water as well as from backwater
caused by the rising of the Ishikawa River when intensive rainfall
events occur.
The project site comprising paddy elds (3.54 km
2
) and
residential areas (0.88 km
2
) is located within the Fuefuki River
watershed. For the purpose of this study, the inclusion of the whole
Ishikawa River watershed in the analysis was necessary because
the water level and discharge of the Fuefuki River are signicantly
inuenced by the water level of the Ishikawa River, which is in part
determined by the tidal conditionof the Sea of Japan. Therefore, the
Fuefuki River watershed is treated as an inner drainage basin and
the Ishikawa River watershed as an outer river basin because the
analysis for the latter was performed only to determine the water
level boundary condition of the Fuefuki River watershed.
3.2. Field measurements
The study period was 2 years between April 2006 and March
2008. The channel water level was continuously measured and
recorded at 10 min intervals at six important sites in the study
watershed using water level sensors (Hi-net, HTV-020KP) and data
loggers (HIOKI, 3635-55). Precipitation was also measured with a
tipping bucket rain gauge (Davis Instruments, Rain collector II) at
10 min intervals. The channel ow velocity was intensively
measured where the water level sensors were installed when
heavy rainfall events occurred.
3.3. Field experiment
To investigate the surface runoff characteristics of the paddy
elds with and without the runoff control devices, eld experi-
ments using standard-size paddy eld plots were implemented.
The paddy elds plots were intentionally ponded with irrigation
water as deep as possible by clogging the drainage outlets, and
then the ponded water was released from the paddy eld plots
through the two drainage boxes of each paddy eld plot. The water
level was continuously recorded with the water level sensors and
data loggers.
In general, the output components of the water budget of a
paddy eld plot include percolation and evapotranspiration
besides the surface runoff. However, evapotranspiration is not
taken into consideration in this study on the assumption that
evapotranspiration is negligible during heavy rainfall events.
Percolation was measured by lling the paddy eld with water
with the drainage outlets clogged and recording the fall in the
water level at night. This experiment was implemented twice for
different water levels: 120 and 50 mm.
3.4. Observed rainfall event and design hyetographs
The only heavy rainfall event during the study period occurred
on the 29th of July 2007. Fig. 3 is the hyetograph of the observed
rainfall event. The total rainfall depth was 101.8 mm, the return
period of which is determined as being approximately equivalent
to 3.7 years by tting the Gumbel distribution to the available 85-
year annual maximum rainfall data. Although the total depth does
not seem to be outstandingly large, about 80% of the rainfall was
concentrated within 8 h between 5.00 and 12.00 a.m.
To evaluate the ood mitigation function of the runoff control
devices for larger rainfall events, the design storms for 10-year and
50-year return periods were generated using the alternating block
N. Yoshikawa et al. / Agricultural Water Management 97 (2010) 259270 261
method from intensitydurationfrequency (IDF) curves (Chow
et al., 1988) (Fig. 4). The IDF curves for the study area were
obtained from the Niigata prefectural government.
4. Model development
4.1. Watershed model and analytical framework
Runoff analyses were conducted to quantify the effect of the
runoff control devices in terms of the fall in water level and
decrease in discharge of channels. The model constructed for the
runoff analysis is composed of three modules: a paddy eld
module in which runoff from the paddy elds is calculated by
water balance analyses, a hilly/residential area module in which
the overland ow is estimated using the kinematic wave method,
and a channel network module in which ood routing is performed
using a one-dimensional unsteady ow model. The outputs of the
rst two modules are the input of the third module.
4.2. Paddy eld module
Using the coefcients of the rectangular weir and orice of the
runoff control devices determined through the eld experiment,
the runoff from a paddy eld plot is simulated by
I O
dS
dt
; (2)
where I is the rainfall inow to the paddy eld, O is the outow
consisting of the runoff volume via the rectangular weirs or orices
Fig. 2. Description of the study area.
N. Yoshikawa et al. / Agricultural Water Management 97 (2010) 259270 262
and the percolation loss, S is the ponded volume and t is time. The
ponded volume can be approximated as
S
1
S
2
DH
1
2
R
1
R
2
Dt

1
2
Q
S
1
Q
S
2
A
P
_ _

1
2
q
PER
1
q
PER
2

_ _
Dt (3)
where subscripts 1 and 2 denote the time steps of each variable at
t = t
1
and t = t
2
, R is the rainfall depth (m), Q
S
is the surface runoff
volume (m
3
s
1
), q
PER
is the depth of the loss caused by percolation
(m) and A
P
is the area of the paddy eld plot (m
2
).
In the case of the ponding season, the value of Q
S
is calculated
using either the rectangular weir equation or the orice equation
depending upon the ponded water depth whereas it is calculated
using the tank model with the runoff through the runoff control
devices as shown in Fig. 5 in the case of the midsummer drainage
season.
The constructed tank model reproduces the actual paddy eld
structure, where a
T
is the runoff coefcient, q
S
represents the depth
of surface runoff from the study paddy eld block (m), q
PER
represents the percolation depth (m), H is the ponded water depth
(m) and H
I
is the initial ponded water depth (m). To offset the
individual specicity of the paddy elds, the model was applied to
the study paddy eld block comprising 12 standard-size paddy
eld plots, and the results are compared with the runoff observed
at the channel outlet of the study block. The parameter a
T
was
optimized using the least squares method to reproduce the
observed runoff. q
S
is always proportional to the ponded water
depth in the case without the runoff control devices. On the other
hand, the regulating factors of q
S
shift in the case with runoff
control devices depending upon the ponded water depth; that is, q
S
is regulated to be proportional to the ponded water depth when q
T
(the runoff calculated using the tank model) q
O
(the runoff
calculated using the orice equation) and determined by the orice
of the runoff control devices when q
T
> q
O
. The value of q
PER
is the
percolation depth observed in the eld measurement.
4.3. Hilly/residential area module
4.3.1. Basic concept of a kinematic wave model
A kinematic wave model (Chow et al., 1988; Vieux et al., 1990;
Singh, 1996) was used to simulate the ow in the hilly and
residential areas. The kinematic wave equations can be written in
the form of the continuity equation:
@h
@t

@Q
K
@x
r
e
(4)
and momentum equation:
Q
K
ah
m
; (5)
where Q
K
is the runoff volume (m
3
s
1
), h is the owdepth (m), t is
time (s), x is the down slope position, and r
e
is effective rainfall
depth (m). a and m are the kinematic wave parameter and
exponent, respectively. Given that Mannings principle is satised,
a and m can respectively be written as
a

I
p
n
; (6)
m
5
3
; (7)
where I is the longitudinal bed slope and n is the equivalent
roughness.
Fig. 3. Observed rainfall on the 29th of June 2007.
Fig. 5. Tank model reproducing the paddy eldblock. q
T
and q
O
represent q
S
calculated
by the tank model and by the orice equation at an arbitrary ponded water depth,
respectively. The regulating factors switch depending on the ponded water depth.
Fig. 4. Design hyetographs for the 10-year (left) and 50-year (right) return periods generated using the alternating block method.
N. Yoshikawa et al. / Agricultural Water Management 97 (2010) 259270 263
4.3.2. Subcatchments of the hilly area
Since the hilly area comprises several subcatchments, the
runoff from each subcatchment eventually ows into different
channel sections as lateral inow. To determine the destination of
runoff, the hilly area was divided into subcatchments using a
digital elevation model and a GIS (ESRI, ArcGIS 9.2).
The average longitudinal bed slope (I) of each subcatchment
was also calculated using the GIS. The equivalent roughness
coefcient (n) was determined on the basis of calibration using
subcatchment A (Fig. 2), where discharge was continuously
measured and applied to all other subcatchments assuming the
surface roughness is similar throughout the hilly area of the study
watershed.
4.3.3. Subcatchments of residential areas
Residential areas including the city center were identied on
the basis of a plan of the drainage channel network obtained from
the local water management ofce. The average slope of each
district was determined using the digital elevation model. The
equivalent roughness coefcient was assumed to be 0.1, a common
hydraulic recommendation for residential areas (Japanese Ministry
of Construction, 1976) since no direct measurement for calibration
was taken.
4.4. Channel network module
4.4.1. Basic concept of the unsteady ow model
The basic governing equations of an unsteady open channel
ow are the continuity equation:
@a
C
@t

@Q
C
@x
C
Q
LAT
(8)
and momentum equation:
1
g
@v
C
@t

@h
C
@x
C

1
2g
@v
2
C
@x
C

@z
@x
C

n
2
Q
2
C
a
2
C
R
4=3
0; (9)
where a
C
is the cross-sectional area of ow (m
2
), Q
C
is the ow
volume passing through the cross-section (m
3
s
1
), Q
LAT
is the
lateral inow per unit length along the channel (m
2
s
1
), t is time
(s), x
C
is the longitudinal distance along the channel (m), v
C
is the
average ow velocity (m s
1
), h
C
is the water level (m), R is
the hydraulic radius (m), g is gravitational acceleration (m s
2
), z is
the bottom elevation of the channel section and n is Mannings
roughness coefcient. The numerical scheme adopted to approx-
imate the solution of these partial differential equations was the
explicit nite difference method representing a central difference
approximation for both temporal and spatial derivatives.
4.4.2. Channel network system
The channel network system of the study area was modeled on
the basis of the map of the drainage channel network obtained
from the local water management ofce (Fig. 6). The total of 59
drainage channels within the study watershed comprised 200 m
longitudinal distance sections (dx), resulting in 299 sections being
created. A 200 m section collects oodwater as lateral inow from
approximately 10 standard-size (40 m 125 m) paddy eld plots.
The bed slope of each channel section was determined by the
difference between the altitude of the section and that of one
section upstream, where the altitude information was obtained
from longitudinal prole drawings for the main channels and
Global Positioning System (GPS) survey results for small but
important channels. The cross-sectional geometry, approximated
by two trapezoids with a main channel and oodplain for
simplicity, was obtained from cross-sectional prole drawings
and surveyed cross-sections.
The values of Mannings roughness coefcient (n) were
calculated as composite values determined depending upon the
ratio of the wetted perimeter of compound channels and the
roughness coefcient, adopted from the literature as 0.015 for
the concrete ume, 0.03 for the natural main channel, and 0.05 for
the vegetation-covered ood plain (Dingman, 2002).
The lateral inow(Q
LAT
) was calculated as the sumof the inow
from paddy elds (Q
P
), hilly areas and residential areas (Q
K
). In
Fig. 6. Description of the modeled streamnetwork. Each channel section contains information on the cross-sectional geometry and altitude. The lateral inows to the channel
sections are identied using the map of the drainage channel network and eld surveys. The values of lateral inow are determined by the paddy eld module and hilly/
residential area module.
N. Yoshikawa et al. / Agricultural Water Management 97 (2010) 259270 264
addition, the rainfall directly falling on the river and channel was
treated as direct lateral inow and calculated as the product of the
rainfall intensity, the width and the longitudinal distance reaches
of each river and channel section.
4.4.3. Time steps
A time step was set to satisfy the following criterion to avoid
divergence of the numerical calculation:
Dt
Dx
C
v
max

gh
max
_

; (10)
where v
max
(m s
1
) and h
max
(m) are the assumed maximum ow
velocity and maximum stage, respectively. The maximum values
obtained by the eld measurement were v
max
1:6ms
1
and
h
max
= 1.8 m, and thus Dt = 34.5 s given Dx = 200 m. Although 30 s
would be a sufciently small time step to satisfy the criterion given
above, assuming a larger rainfall event, Dt was set at 10 s.
4.4.4. Inverted siphon
There are two inverted siphons crossing a drainage channel
within the project site (Fig. 6). The discharge volume in the section
of the inverted siphon was calculated by estimating the friction
loss using the DarcyWeisbach equation with Mannings friction
coefcient:
v
S

2gDh
S
2n
2
S
g=R
1=3
S
l=R
S

_ _
1=2
; (11)
where v
S
is the ow velocity (m s
1
) in the inverted siphon, Dh
S
is
the head difference between the entrance and exit of the inverted
siphon (m), n
S
is Mannings roughness coefcient, R
S
is the
hydraulic radius (m), and l is the length of the inverted siphon (m).
4.4.5. Drainage pumps
There are three pumping stations in the pumping drainage area
outside the project site. The discharge volume of the actual
pumping stations is dependent on the water level of the channel. In
the simulation, pump discharge volumes were determined
according to the channel water levels that reproduced the actual
pumping operations as listed in Table 1.
4.4.6. Boundary conditions
The downstream boundary condition was dened by the
oceanic tide stage recorded by the tide gauge at the mouth of the
Ishikawa River. The upstream boundary conditions were set at the
most upstream channel section of each channel and given by the
lateral inow calculated as outcomes of the hilly/residential area
module. In addition, the water levels of the channel sections
adjacent to the pumping stations and the inverted siphon were
treated as boundary conditions.
4.4.7. Inundation depth in the city center
The 99,000 m
2
city center area is subject to frequent inundation
damage (Fig. 2). The overow of the channel water begins when
the water level exceeds 2.0 m, the depth of the shallowest channel
in the city. In the model, the channel depth was tentatively set as
greater than 2.0 m to calculate the overow depth. The overow
water volume was simply calculated as the channel stage
exceeding 2.0 m multiplied by the width and the ow velocity
of the channel section calculated in the unsteady ow analysis:
Q
OFt
H
CCt
2:0Bv
CCt
; (12)
where Q
OF
is the overow water volume (m
3
s
1
), H
CC
is the
channel water level with an imaginary channel height (m), B is
the channel width (3.5 m), v
CC
is the ow velocity (m s
1
). The
inundation depth was determined by dividing the accumulated
overow water volume by the city center area, assuming the city
center area is perfectly at and overow water spreads over the
area instantaneously:
INUN
t

Q
OFt
Dt
A
CC
; (13)
where INUN is the inundation depth (m), Dt is the time interval of
the simulation (10 s), and A
CC
is the area subject to inundation
damage (99,000 m
2
).
Table 1
Programs of pump operations in the study watersheds.
Pump 1 Pump 2 Pump 3
Water level Discharge Water level Discharge Water level Discharge
Start H>1.00 m 1.80m
3
s
1
Start H>0.85 m 0.67m
3
s
1
Start H>1.70 m 2.18m
3
s
1
Stop H<0.50 m Stop H<0.40 m Stop H<1.55 m
Start H>1.10 m 3.98m
3
s
1
Start H>1.05 m 2.33m
3
s
1
Start H>1.80 m 15.29m
3
s
1
Stop H<0.60 m Stop H<0.75 m Stop H<1.65 m
Start H>1.20 m 6.16m
3
s
1
Start H>1.25 m 2.68m
3
s
1
Start H>1.90 m 3.87m
3
s
1
Stop H<0.70 m Stop H<0.90 m Stop H<1.75 m
Start H>1.30 m 6.46m
3
s
1
Start H>2.00 m 5.55m
3
s
1
Stop H<0.80 m Stop H<1.85 m
Fig. 7. Ponded water level changes with time (a) with and (b) without the runoff control devices where the orice and rectangular weir are the regulating system, respectively.
N. Yoshikawa et al. / Agricultural Water Management 97 (2010) 259270 265
Q
OF
can take a positive or negative value. As long as INUN is
greater than zero and Q
OF
is negative, INUN decreases as ood
water ows downstream.
5. Results and discussion
5.1. Paddy eld module
5.1.1. Percolation rate
As a result of the percolation measurement, the percolation rate
was found to be higher at the higher water level. The relationship
between the depth of the percolation loss (q
PER
) (m) and the water
level (H
0
) (m) can be expressed by
q
PER
0:00154exp0:0164H
0
(14)
5.1.2. Discharge coefcient of the orice and rectangular weir
Fig. 7 shows the results of the surface runoff experiments.
Fig. 7(a) and (b) presents the ponded water depth changes with
time in the cases with and without the runoff control devices
where the regulating factors of the surface runoff are the orices
and rectangular weirs, respectively. The best-tting discharge
coefcient for the orice was calculated as 0.88. Although this
value seems to be a little larger than the textbook value (in general,
C is approximately 0.6), the value includes leakage from the
inevitable slight gap between the runoff control device and the
oor of the drainage box. This gap is due to the control device being
merely placed into the drainage box without the use of any
adhesives. The discharge coefcient of the rectangular weir, on the
other hand, was calculated as 1.90.
5.1.3. Runoff from a paddy eld plot
The results of the runoff from a paddy eld plot are shown in
Fig. 8. The runoff in the case of the ponding season was simulated
by merely applying the rectangular weir and orice equations with
the identied coefcients (Fig. 8(a)).
For the analysis of the midsummer drainage season, the tank
model parameters for the surface runoff hole (a
T
) and initial surface
water depth (H
I
) were carefully adjusted by trial and error, and
Fig. 8. Calculated runoff per 5000 m
2
standard-size paddy eld plot with and without the runoff control devices responding to the observed rainfall for (a) the ponding season
and (b) the midsummer drainage season.
Fig. 10. Calculated runoff per 5000 m
2
standard-size paddy eld with and without the runoff control devices responding to 10-year and 50-year return periods for (a) the
ponding season and (b) the midsummer drainage season.
Fig. 9. Comparison between the observed and calculated discharges from the 12
paddy elds without the runoff control devices.
N. Yoshikawa et al. / Agricultural Water Management 97 (2010) 259270 266
determined as 0.081 and 15.9 mm, respectively. The result that
the initial surface water depth takes a negative value implies an
initial rainfall loss stored in the unsaturated zone of the paddy eld
top soil and no contribution to the surface runoff. The calculated
discharge from the 12 paddy elds without the runoff control
devices had good accordance with the observed discharge as
shown in Fig. 9.
The surface runoff from a paddy eld plot with the runoff
control devices was calculated. Here, the regulating factor is rst
the surface runoff hole of the tank model at a low ponded water
level and then the orice of the runoff control device as soon as the
water level reaches a certain depth (calculated as 35.5 mm) where
discharge from the tank model exceeds that from the orice. The
calculated runoffs per 5000 m
2
standard-size paddy eld plot with
and without the runoff control devices during the midsummer
drainage season are shown in Fig. 8(b).
Fig. 10 shows the runoff from a paddy eld plot in the case of
the ponding season (Fig. 10(a)) and midsummer drainage season
(Fig. 10(b)) when the design hyetographs of the 10-year and 50-
year return periods are applied. It is important to note the peak
runoff volumes with the runoff control devices being installed
(approximately 0.011 m
3
s
1
) do not differ signicantly regard-
less of the rainfall intensity or season. This is because (1) the
runoff control devices are installed on the bottom of the 400 mm
deep drainage boxes, and the change in the paddy eld surface
water depth is small in comparison with the total water depth
(the depth of the drainage boxes plus the paddy eld surface
water depth) that determines the runoff from the orice and (2)
the runoff from the runoff control devices is proportional to the
1/2 power of the total water depth according to Eq. (1). On the
other hand, the runoff reacts sensitively when the runoff control
devices are not installed since the runoff depends directly on the
paddy eld surface water level, being proportional to the 3/2
power of the paddy eld surface water depth in the case of the
ponding season and the rst power in the case of the midsummer
drainage season.
5.2. Hilly/residential area module
The peak discharge and time series discharge behavior of the
representative hilly subcatchment that was simulated by the
kinematic wave model had fairly good agreement with those of
the observed surface runoff (Fig. 11) applying the calibrated
equivalent roughness (0.62). Likewise, the runoff from residential
areas was simulated using the kinematic wave model. These
results added to the base discharge were used as the input of the
lateral inow to the corresponding channel reach sections of the
channel network module.
5.3. Results of integrated runoff analysis by the channel network
module
5.3.1. Model validation
To validate the performance of the developed algorithms and
calculation procedures, the model was tested using the simulated
ood water level and discharge for the rainfall event of the 29th of
June 2007 under the actual installed runoff control devices of 80%.
The simulation results were compared with the observed
hydrograph where the water level sensors are located; that is,
Fig. 11. Comparison between the observed and calculated discharges fromthe hilly
subwatershed A.
Fig. 12. Results of the model validation. The observed and calculated water levels
and discharges are in good accordance. (a) Observed and calculated water levels at
observation site 1. The cable of the water level sensor was cut by the ood water
around 19:00. (b) Observed and calculated water levels at observation site 2. (c)
Observed and calculated discharges at observation site 2.
N. Yoshikawa et al. / Agricultural Water Management 97 (2010) 259270 267
at observation site 1 on the Fuefuki River and observation site 2 on
the main drainage channel from the paddy eld area (Fig. 12(a)
and (b)).
The simulated time series of the water level reproduce well the
observed uctuation. Although there were only two discharge
measurements taken at observation site 2 (Fig. 12(c)) owing to
time constraints, these values are in accordance with the simulated
values. Since the time series water level and discharge are
simulated successively on the basis of the continuity and
momentum equations (Eqs. (8) and (9)), continuous observation
of the water level and two discharge measurements are sufcient
to validate the model, given that the boundary conditions and the
parameters are correctly dened.
5.3.2. Evaluation of the ood mitigation function of the runoff
control devices
To evaluate the effect of the Paddy Field Dam project, a runoff
simulation using the constructed model was conducted without
(0%) and with (100%) runoff control devices. Since the difference in
the peak runoff frompaddy elds between the ponding season and
midsummer drainage season is not signicant, the evaluation is
made for the midsummer drainage season. The results for two
representative sites (observation site 1 and the city center
simulation site in Fig. 2) are presented and compared below.
Observation site 1 is located on the Fuefuki River approximately
400 m upstream of the conuence with the Ishikawa River, and
there is no inow between the conuence and this site. Therefore,
all ood water from the 528 ha Fuefuki River watershed collects at
this point. The cross-sectional geometry of the river is two
trapezoids with a 17 m width at the top and 3.3 m depth at the
center.
The city center simulation site is the channel section near the
outlet at the city center where the ood water most frequently
overows the channel. Overow occurs in this section because of
its small cross-sectional geometry, a rectangle of 3.5 m width and
2.0 mheight. Since this section is a dugout channel without a bank
along the channel, as soon as the water level exceeds the height of
the channel, overowing water spreads over the city center,
leading to inundation.
5.3.3. Channel stage, ow volume and inundation scale in
the case of observed rainfall
The simulation results for observation site 1 show that the
maximumwater level and runoff volume reduced from2.24 mand
16.06 m
3
s
1
with 0% installed runoff control devices to 2.07 mand
11.84 m
3
s
1
with 100% installed runoff control devices applying
the observed rainfall pattern (Figs. 13(a) and (b)). The differences
between cases with and without the runoff control devices are
0.17 m in water level and 4.22 m
3
s
1
in runoff volume (Table 2).
With respect to the discharge volume, a peak runoff reduction of
more than one-quarter can be expected by installing the runoff
control devices to all paddy eld plots.
At the city center simulation site, the maximum water level
with 100% installed runoff control devices is calculated as 1.88 m
Fig. 13. Simulation results for the actual rainfall. (a) Water level at observation site 1. (b) Discharge at observation site 1. (c) Water level at the city center simulation site. (d)
Discharge at the city center simulation site.
Table 2
Comparison of the simulated maximum water level and discharge at observation site 1 and the city center simulation site.
Observation site 1 City center simulation site
Actual rainfall 50-year return period Actual rainfall 50-year return period
Without
devices
With
devices
Without
devices
With
devices
Without
devices
With
devices
Without
devices
With
devices
Max water level (m) 2.24 2.07 3.07 2.70 2.07 1.88 2.77 2.13
Difference (m) 0.171 0.364 0.190 0.637
Max discharge (m
3
s
1
) 16.06 11.84 35.64 18.98 2.15 1.55 6.18 3.40
Difference (m
3
s
1
) 4.22 16.66 0.60 2.78
Difference (%) 26.3% 46.7% 27.9% 45.0%
N. Yoshikawa et al. / Agricultural Water Management 97 (2010) 259270 268
(Fig. 13(c)). On the other hand, the maximum water level would
have exceeded the channel depth (2.0 m) in the case of no
installation according to the simulation.
The effect of the ood control measure on inundation is
summarized in Table 3. The maximum total inundation volume,
depth and inundation duration for the 0% installation case are
calculated as 205 m
3
, 0.002 m and 2.07 h (Table 3). Because of the
irregular topography of the ground surface and existence of
buildings in reality, the actual inundation depth in some areas
would have been greater than the simulated value.
Although inundation is not great, what is important is that the
installation of the runoff control devices could have prevented
inundation. In fact, the water level did not reach the overowlevel
on the day considered with the actual installed runoff control
devices of 80%. According to the ofcials of the local water
management ofce, who monitor the water level in this area,
overow was usually observed with a similar pattern and scale of
rainfall event before the ood control measure was implemented.
5.3.4. Channel stage, ow volume and inundation depth in the case of
the design hyetographs
Applying the design rainfall of the 50-year return period, the
maximumwater level at observation site 1 was simulated as being
reduced by 0.36 m from 3.07 to 2.70 m. Since the depth of the
channel is 3.30 m, there is only 23 cmextra bank height in the case
of no ood control measure. With regard to the discharge, the peak
discharge is expected to be reduced by as much as 16.7 m
3
s
1
,
accounting for approximately 47% of the peak discharge without
the ood control measure (Table 2).
At the city center, the maximum total inundation volumes and
depths are 6539 m
3
and 0.066 m with the installation of runoff
control devices and 18,223 m
3
and 0.184 m without the installa-
tion. The inundation durations are 14.9 and 37.3 h, respectively
(Table 3). Since the maximum total inundation volume for the 10-
year return period rainfall event is simulated to be 6281 m
3
without the installation of the devices, the runoff control devices
have the effect of reducing the ood damage due to the 50-year
return period rainfall event to almost that due to the 10-year
return period rainfall event.
6. Conclusion
This study quantied and evaluated the effect of the Paddy Field
Dam project, a ood control measure taking advantage of the
ponding function of paddy elds, at the watershed scale using
combined hydrologic analyses and ood routing. The simulation
results show that installing runoff control devices would reduce
the discharge of the river responsible for the drainage of the
watershed by 26% and lower the water level by 0.17 m in the case
of an observed rainfall event, and by 47% and 0.36 min the case of a
50-year return period design rainfall event. As a result, inundation
damage to the city center would be signicantly mitigated. These
results conrmed that the ood control measure is functioning
effectively, as far as the study area is concerned.
The effect of the Paddy Field Damproject would, as a matter-of-
course, depend on the characteristics of the watershed under
study, such as topography, land use and drainage systems, of which
the fraction of paddy eld area in a watershed is of the highest
importance. It is crucial, therefore, to select a suitable site for the
Paddy Field Dam project before its application. Further study will
be required for developing a simpler method to select suitable sites
for the prevalence of the ood control measure in the Paddy Field
Dam project.
Since large-scale investments such as constructing ood control
dams are difcult owing to budget constraints of national and local
governments, this project is presently attractive to policy makers
nationwide as an inexpensive countermeasure to the recent
increase in the frequency and magnitude of heavy rainfall events.
Indeed, some local governments are now exploring the possibility
of introducing the Paddy Field Dam in their paddy eld areas. The
project is applicable not only in Japan, but in many Asian monsoon
regions with regular ood damage and where paddy elds are the
primary means of producing food.
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Table 3
Comparisons of the inundation durations, maximum volumes and depths with and without runoff control devices at the city center simulation site.
Actual rainfall 10-year return period 50-year return period
Without
devices
With
devices
Without
devices
With
devices
Without
devices
With
devices
Max volume (m
3
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Difference (m
3
) 205 5779 11684
Max depth (m) 0.002 0.000 0.063 0.005 0.184 0.066
Difference (m) 0.0021 0.0584 0.1180
Duration (h) 2.07 0.00 10.98 3.78 37.27 14.87
Difference (h) 2.07 7.20 22.40
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