CE 397 K.2 Surface Water Hydrology
Regional Hydraulic Model for the City of Austin area
Objective
Research works at the CRWR have demonstrated GIS can be used to approach floodplain mapping. The procedure uses a hydraulic model (HEC-RAS) to determine stream cross-sections and flood elevations, then moves into GIS environment and creates a polygon representing the floodplain extent. A 3D visualization of the floodwaters can also be attempted once a TIN model of the terrain has been developed. These works have been done for a single stream system.
The objective of this project is to create a regional hydraulic model to calculate flood water levels in a detritic network of creeks rather than just one creek.
Data needed
Data required for the study includes the Digital Elevation Model for the area, the reach files to obtain a digital representation of the streams, and flow values to run the hydraulic model.
Analysis
The first step is to analyze the limitations are on setting this model up. The project will focus on creating a regional hydrology model for a network of streams over quite a large area around the City of Austin. The idea is to choose a subset of streams and apply the methodology already developed for a single creek.
Prepared by Esteban Azagra