Floodway Analysis in a Two-Dimensional Flood Routing Model
The purpose of floodway concept is to reserve an unobstructed area of flood conveyance
passage while allowing for potential utilization of the floodplain. Floodway boundaries are designed to accommodate a 100-yr flood within acceptable limits. The floodplain areas that can be eliminated from potential flood storage without violating the floodway criteria can be considered for potential development. The general guidelines for floodway delineation are:
The floodway is based on the 100-yr flood.
The floodplain is divided into floodway and floodway fringe zones. It is generally assumed that all the flood conveyance in the floodway fringe is eliminated. The floodway will pass the 100-yr flood without raising the water surface elevation more than 1 ft above the maximum floodplain water surface. The floodway is determined by means of equal reduction of conveyance on both sides of the channel.
The general procedure to delineate a floodway in HEC-RAS is to apply encroachment conditions
using one or more of the encroachment options and make reasonable adjustments until acceptable results are obtained both from a flood hydraulics standpoint and from a floodplain management perspective. Floodway determination is difficult on streams with a mild slope and large floodplain, on rivers with split flow or levee overflow, on alluvial fans with unconfined flooding and mobile boundaries, on high velocity channels and in developed floodplain areas with ineffective flow areas. One of primary concerns is that the floodway encroachment procedure using HEC-RAS ignores the effects of floodwave attenuation and potential increase in water surface elevation in the downstream floodway fringe zone. Physically constricting the conveyance flow area with a floodway would have the effect of forcing more flood volume downstream. Using a single discharge model to delineate a floodway can underestimate the potential impacts of increased downstream flooding resulting from permitting encroachment on the upstream floodplain. A floodway routine has been implemented into the FLO-2D model. Since FLO-2D is a flood routing model, the floodway component can address all the problems associated with the HEC-RAS floodway encroachment scheme. The procedure for identifying the floodway in FLO-2D is automated. First it is necessary to complete a FLO-2D model project simulation to define the water surface for the existing conditions. An output file (FLOODWAY.OUT) is generated that lists the maximum water surface elevations for each floodplain grid element. For the floodway analysis, the user sets the floodway switch to on and assigns the encroachment depth (typically 1 ft). The FLO-2D project model is then re-run. The model will add the encroachment depth to the maximum water surface elevation in the FLOODWAY.OUT file to compute an encroachment water surface elevation for a given grid element that must be exceeded in order for the model to exchange the discharge with other grid elements. As the overbank flooding ensues, the model confines the flood to those floodplain grid elements whose encroachment water surface elevation is not exceeded. This forces more water volume downstream increasing floodplain inundation in response to the upstream confined floodway conveyance. The result is a mapped area of the floodway and floodway fringe that reflects the redistribution of the flood volume.