A mathematical model for flood routing and flood stage prediction of the lower Yellow River

Flood disaster in the Lower Yellow River was the misery of China. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Lower Yellow River has not breached its embankment during flood season for 50 years consecutively. Besides the significant effect of enhancing flood control projects, flood forecasting and prediction have played an important role. This paper summarized the problems encountered when the hydrodynamic mathematical model is applied to the Yellow River, and the approaches taken for solving those problems. Special attentions are paid to the characteristics of the Yellow River when deal with the characterization of channel cross section, roughness of the channel and the flood plain, exchange of water between channel and the flood plain, and sediment deposition and scouring. Some updated research results are also adopted in this paper. A good agreement is found between the computed results and the field measurements.