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HEC-1 Interface

CHAPTER

WMS - Public Domain

WMSPublic Domain facilitates creating input files for various hydrologic models, including HEC-1, TR-20, TR-55, and NFF. WMS-PD further provides an effective manner to visualize model results.

1.1

Objectives
In this tutorial, you will experiment with the public domain version of WMS. You will use the Hydrologic Modeling module to build a one-dimensional representation of watershed basins and outlets. Since the public domain version of WMS doesnt support automated watershed delineation from digital elevation data, running the hydrologic model requires that you supply the required model variables. The tutorial will show you where to manually enter these values. It will also highlight how the commercial version of WMS would be used to automatically calculate those values. In fact this tutorial builds the same HEC-1 model that is developed using digital elevation, land use, and soil using the commercial version of WMS.

1.2

Single Basin Analysis

The first simulation will be defined for a single basin. You will need to create a simple schematic of the watershed, including a basin and an outlet. The following sections will also show you how to set up the parameters for running the NFF and HEC-1 models on your watershed.

1.2.1 Building the Watershed Schematic The public domain version of WMS primarily makes use of the Hydrologic Modeling module and its model interfaces. This version of WMS requires that you be acquainted with the topology of a watershed. Because basins and outlets are represented by icons in a schematic diagram, you must manually define the model parameters. Begin by adding an outlet and a basin:
1. Make sure you are in the Hydrologic Modeling module 2. Select Tree | Add Outlet 3. Select Tree | Add Basin

You will see a circular outlet icon connected to a square basin icon. This diagram defines the topology for your single basin.
4. Set the current model to NFF in the Model drop-down list

1.2.2 Running NFF

1. Choose the Select Basin tool 2. Double-click on the square basin icon labeled 1B 3. Choose Utah from the list of States 4. Enter 31.9 for the Total Basin Area 5. Select Four Corners Region 8 from the list of Available Equations 6. Choose the Select -> button 7. Enter 7552 for the Mean Basin Elevation variable 8. Select the Compute Results button

You should now see the peak flows computed by NFF in the Results window.
9. Select Done

1.2.3 Setting up the Job Control for HEC-1 Next, you will compute a peak flow with HEC-1. Most of the parameters required for an HEC-1 model are defined for basins, outlets, and reaches. However, there are many global parameters that control the overall simulation and are not specific to any basin or reach in the model. These parameters are defined in the WMS interface using the Job Control dialog.
1. Change the current model to HEC-1 in the Model dropdown list 2. Select HEC-1 | Job Control. 3. Enter Clear Creek Tributary Watershed for the second ID line. Enter your name and current date in the third line.

4. Leave the Day, Month, and Field years alone 5. Enter 5 (minutes) for the computation time interval, and 400 for the number of ordinates. Leave the starting time 0. 6. Set the computation units to English (this should be the default). 7. Select OK.

For now, we will leave the other Job Control settings at their default values. 1.2.4 Setting up the Basin Data Parameters for HEC-1 In the first simulation you will treat the entire watershed as a single basin.
1. Choose the Select Basin tool 2. Double-click on the square basin icon labeled 1B. Double-clicking on a basin or outlet icon always brings up the parameter editor dialog for the current model (in this case HEC-1). 3. Select the Basin Data button 4. Change the Basin name to CCTrib. HEC-1 will only use the first SIX characters, so do not use names longer than six characters for basins and outlets. 5. Enter 31.9 for the Area (this should already be set to 31.9 as a result of defining it in NFF, but if you start directly with an HEC-1 analysis you will need to enter the area manually in this field). 6. Select OK 7. Select the Precipitation button 8. Choose the Basin Average option 9. Enter 1.8 (inches) for the average precipitation depth 10. Select the Define Series button

In order to simulate a rainfall event you must enter both a rainfall depth and a temporal distribution. The SCS uses standard time distributions for different areas of the U.S. These series have been created and stored in a file that you can import. You could also define your own series according to an actual storm, or a design storm.
10. Select the Import button 11. Change the Files of type: filter to All Files (*.*) 12. Open the file named scstabs.ser 13. In the Selected Curve drop down list, select typeII-24hour 14. Select OK 15. Select OK

16. Select the Loss Method button. 17. Enter a Curve Number (CRVNBR field) of 69 18. Select OK 19. Select the Unit Hydrograph Method button 20. Make sure the SCS dimensionless option is chosen (it is the default) 21. Enter 2.13 for the lag time (TLAG) 22. Select OK 23. Select Done.

You have all of the parameters set to run HEC-1 on a single basin. 1.2.5 Running HEC-1 Whenever you run an HEC-1 simulation, WMS will first save a standard HEC-1 input file. You will also be prompted for the name of an output file and a solutions file. The output file is the standard text output file generated by HEC-1 and the solution file is a plot file that contains the hydrographs formatted in a way that makes it easy for WMS to read and plot (it is actually the HEC-1 TAPE22 file).
1. Select HEC-1 | Run Simulation 2. Change the text in the Prefix for all files field to be CCTrib 3. Select the Update All Prefixes button 4. Select OK 5. Double-click on the hydrograph icon.

A plot window will appear with the hydrograph. The resulting hydrograph should look something like the solution shown in Figure 1-1.

Figure 1-1: Solution hydrograph for HEC-1 simulation

6. Close the hydrograph window by selecting the X in the upper right of the window. 7. Select Hydrographs | Delete All

1.3

Adding Sub-basins and Routing

You will now subdivide the watershed into two upper basins and one lower basin and define routing for the reaches that connect the upper basins to the watershed outlet. 1.3.1 Adding Sub-basins
1. Choose the Select Outlet tool 2. Select the circular outlet icon labeled 1C 3. Select Tree | Add Outlet You will notice that the newly created outlet becomes selected. 4. Select Tree | Add Basin 5. Select Tree | Add Basin Your Tree diagram should appear similar to Figure 1-2 below.

Figure 1-2: Tree diagram for the multiple basin analysis.

Note that when adding outlets and/or basins, you should select the outlet to which the basin or outlet is to be connected. Since new outlets remain selected after they are added, new schematic icons will be connected to the outlet that was most recently created.

1.3.2 Updating the Basin Parameters The lower basin has been assigned several parameters that applied to the original watershed, such as area and Curve Number. Since the original watershed has now been split into three sub-basins, you will need to enter new parameters for all three basins. You will also define precipitation and lag time for the two upper basins.
1. Select the Select Basin tool 2. Double-click on the basin labeled CCTrib 3. Select the Basin Data button. 4. Change the Area to 17.56 5. Select OK

Because the precipitation values set previously are still applicable, you do not need to enter new precipitation values for this basin.
6. Select the Loss Method button 7. Enter 69 for the Curve Number (this is the same value as before, but in general the CN will likely change when subdividing). 8. Select OK 9. Select the Unit Hydrograph Method button 10. Enter 1.86 for the Lag time (TLAG) 11. Select OK 12. While the Edit HEC-1 Parameters dialog is still open, select the basin labeled 2B. You may need to move the Edit HEC-1 Parameters window so that you can see this basin. 13. Select the Basin Data button 14. Enter Right for the Basin Name 15. Enter 8.51 for the Area 16. Select OK 17. Select the Precipitation button. 18. Choose the Basin Average option. 19. Set the Average Precipitation to be 1.8 (the same as the lower basin). 20. Select the Define Series button. 21. Choose the typeII-24hour curve in the Selected Curve drop down list 22. Select OK 23. Select OK 24. Select the Loss Method button

25. Enter 69.6 for the CRVNBR variable 26. Select OK 27. Select the Unit Hydrograph Method button 28. Enter 1.36 for the TLAG variable 29. Select OK 30. With the Edit HEC-1 Parameters dialog still open, select the basin labeled 3B. Once again, you may need to move the HEC-1 window in order to see the basin. 31. Select the Basin Data button 32. Enter Left for the Basin Name 33. Enter 5.81 for the Area 34. Select OK 35. Select the Precipitation button 36. Select the Basin Average option 37. Set the Average Precipitation to be 1.8 38. Select the Define Series button 39. Choose the typeII-24hour curve in the Selected Curve drop down list 40. Select OK 41. Select OK 42. Select the Loss Method button 43. Enter 68.9 for the CRVNBR variable 44. Select OK 45. Select the Unit Hydrograph Method button. 46. Enter 1.49 for the TLAG variable 47. Select OK 48. Select Done.

1.3.3 Setting up the Routing Parameters If you were to run HEC-1 now (you can if you want) you would see that the hydrographs from the upper basins would be combined with the lower basin hydrograph at the watershed outlet without any lag or attenuation because you havent yet set the routing parameters. You will now define a routing method, which will instruct HEC-1 to compute lag and attenuation on the combined upper basin hydrographs before adding to the lower hydrograph. In WMS, routing for a reach is always defined at the upstream outlet of the reach.

1. Select the Select Outlet tool 2. Double-click on the circular outlet labeled 2C 3. Select the Routing Data button 4. Select the Muskingum-Cunge method for routing 5. Enter 22520 for the channel length (L) 6. Enter 0.033 for the channel slope (S) 7. Set the Mannings roughness (N) to be 0.05 8. Enter 5 for the width (WD) field (five feet wide) 9. Enter 1 for the side slope (Z) (1:1 side slope). 10. Select OK 11. Select Done.

1.3.4 Running HEC-1 You now have everything defined to run a three basin HEC-1 analysis that includes routing the upper basins through the reach connecting them to the watershed outlet.
1. Select HEC-1 | Run Simulation 2. Change the name in the Prefix for all files field to Routing 3. Select the Update All Prefixes button. 4. Select OK 5. While holding the <SHIFT> key down, select all of the hydrograph icons, double-clicking on the last one so that all hydrographs are drawn in the same plot window. 6. Close the plot window by selecting the X in the upper right corner.

1.4

Computing Basin Parameters with the Commercial Version of WMS

This tutorial demonstrates how the public domain version of WMS can be used to set up and run hydrologic models (NFF and HEC-1 in particular but the other models are executed in a similar manner). However, as you have seen, this version of WMS requires that you compute all of the basin parameters from paper maps or other digital maps and enter them manually using the WMS interface. The commercial version of WMS can compute many of these parameters in an automated fashion. The following list illustrates which parameters entered manually in this tutorial could be calculated by the commercial version of WMS:
Basin Area

Basin Slope Curve Number for each basin Lag Time (from runoff distances and slopes) Mean Basin Elevation Channel Length Channel Slope

The commercial version of WMS can be used in conjunction with a DEM, or other forms of digital elevation data, to delineate watershed basins. Also, the commercial version of WMS provides tools for using Land Use and Soil Type data to calculate Composite Curve Numbers, Runoff Coefficients, etc. For more details on how the commercial version of WMS can be used to compute parameters such as those listed above, see the tutorial on the HEC-1 interface. This tutorial uses commonly available data (DEM, Land Use, Soils) that can be downloaded from the internet free of charge to set up the same model developed in this tutorial.

1.5

Conclusion
This concludes the tutorial about using the public domain version of WMS to analyze watershed runoff. The concepts learned include the following:
Creating a drainage basin tree diagram with the Hydrologic Modeling module Entering the various basin parameters required by NFF and HEC-1 Analyzing a single basin with NFF and HEC-1 Analyzing a multiple basins system with HEC-1 Viewing results from the NFF and HEC-1 simulations.