Hydrodynamic modelling of a large flood-prone river system in India with limited data

The article presents a detailed review on the issues and constraints of hydrodynamic modelling of floods in data-poor countries with large flood-prone rivers. A one-dimensional (I D) hydrodynamic model is used to simulate the river flows with limited available data in the delta region of Mahanadi River basin in India. The shuttle radar topography mission digital elevation models (SRTM DEM) was analyzed and compared with the elevations derived from available topomaps and measured river cross-sections. Subsequently, the SRTM-derived river cross-section elevation values are refined for use in the hydrodynamic model. The I D hydrodynamic model is set up and calibrated using the refined cross-sections derived from SRTM DEM along with the measured ones and all available river discharge as well as water-level data at different gauging sites for the monsoon period (June-September) of the year 2004. The calibrated set up is validated using both discharge and water-level data for the same period for the years 2001 and 2002. The performance of the calibration and validation results of the hydrodynamic model is evaluated for all the years using different performance indices. The model-simulated discharge and water levels are found to be in close agreement with the observed ones. The study demonstrates the usefulness of using the SRTM DEM to derive river cross-sections for use in hydrodynamic modelling studies. Copyright (c) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.