CHAPTER 1:INTRODUCTION TO HEC-

HMS
1.1. INTRODUCTION
The progress and advances in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in the past few years
have had a large impact on watershed modelling. GIS enables the user to incorporate spatial
details beyond the past capabilities of watershed models and allows the user to manage larger
data sets more efficiently than in the past. One of the most notable improvements in the field
has been the incorporation of GIS data into watershed modelling programs.
The Hydrologic Engineering Centres (HEC) Hydrologic Modelling System (HMS) is one of
these programs.
1.2. WHAT IS HEC-HMS AND WHAT IS ITS ROLE?
HEC-HMS is a numerical model that can predict runoff volumes, peak flows, and timing of
flows by simulating the behaviour of the entire watershed. This includes the behaviour of the
reservoirs and channels that lie within the watershed boundaries. This program offers a
number of advantages because it can be applied to watersheds of varying size, shape, and
parameters. The HEC-HMS simulation methods represent:
Watershed precipitation and evaporation: These describe the spatial and temporal
distribution of rainfall on and evaporation from a watershed.
Runoff volume: These address questions about the volume of precipitation that falls on the
watershed: How much infiltrates on pervious surfaces? How much runs off of the impervious
surfaces? When does it run off?
Direct runoff, including overland flow and interflow: These methods
describe what happens as water that has not infiltrated or been stored on the watershed moves
over or just beneath the watershed surface.
Base flow: These simulate the slow subsurface drainage of water from a hydrologic system
into the watersheds channels.
Channel flow: These so-called routing methods simulate one-dimensional open channel
flow, thus predicting time series of downstream flow, stage, or velocity, given upstream
hydrographs.

One of tools that has made incorporating GIS data into HMS such a success is
CRWR-PrePro. PrePro is an Arc View extension developed by Dr. Francisco Olivera. It is a
data pre-processor that calculates all of the information required to build a basin model in
HMS from GIS data that represents the land surface and soil parameters. Once this data is
input into HMS, a flow hydrograph can be computed at specified locations throughout the
basin. The output hydrographs can be used for any number of hydrologic studies including
flood warning, flood loss-reduction, flood frequency, reservoir design, and urbanization
impact studies.

1.3. WHAT STUDIES REQUIRE WATERSHED AND CHANNEL
INFORMATION?
Given below are a few areas where watershed and channel information are required:-
1) Planning and designing new flood-damage reduction facilities: These planning
studies are commonly undertaken in response to floods that damage property and threaten
public safety. The studies seek solutions, both structural and non structural, that will reduce
the damage and the threat. Hydrologic and hydraulic information forms the basis for design
and provides an index for evaluation of candidate damage-reduction plans.

2) Operating and/or evaluating existing hydraulic-conveyance and water control
Facilities: Watershed runoff forecasts provide the information for operation of hundreds of
reservoirs nationwide for flood control, water supply, hydropower generation, navigation, and
fish and wildlife protection.
3) Preparing for and responding to floods: Beyond controlling flood waters to
reduce damage and protect the public, other activities include flood emergency preparedness
planning and emergency response. In the first case, a thorough evaluation of flood depths,
velocities, and timing is necessary, so that evacuation routes can be identified, temporary
housing locations can be found, and other plans can be made. In the second case, forecasts of
stage a few hours or a few days in advance are necessary so that the response plans can be
implemented properly.
4) Regulating floodplain activities: For wise use of the nations floodplains,
hydrologic engineers commonly delineate these floodplains to provide information for use
regulation. This delineation requires information about watershed runoff, creek and stream
stages, and velocities.
5) Restoring or enhancing the environment: Activities like ecosystem restoration,
environmental stewardship, and radioactive site cleanup requires information about the
hydrology and hydraulics of sensitive sites so that well-informed decisions can be made.

1.4. WHAT IS THE SOURCE OF THE REQUIRED INFORMATION?
Analysis of historical records
In some cases, a record of historical flow or stage can provide all the information needed for
the decision making. However historical records are not often available or are not appropriate
for the decision making. The record length may be too short for reliable statistical analysis,
the gage may be at a location other than the location of interest, or the data of interest may be
something that cannot be measured.
Similarly, a record of inflow is needed to determine appropriate reservoir releases should a
tropical storm alter its course and move over the contributing watershed. But until the rain
actually falls and runs off, no record of such inflow will be available. Waiting to observe the
inflow is not acceptable, because actions must be taken beforehand to protect the public and
property. In these cases, flow, stage, velocity, and timing must be predicted to provide the
required information. This can be achieved with a mathematical model of watershed and
channel behaviour a set of equations that relate something unknown and of interest (the
models output) to something known (the models input). In hydrologic engineering studies,
the known input is precipitation or upstream flow and the unknown output is stage, flow, and
velocity at a point of interest in the watershed.

1.5. HOW SHOULD HEC-HMS BE USED?
Using the software
The HEC-HMS Users Manual (USACE, 2008) provides instructions for developing a
hydrologic model using computer program HEC-HMS. That manual describes how to install
the program on a computer. It also describes how to use the HEC-HMS graphical user
interface (GUI) to create and manage analysis projects; create and manage basin models;
create and manage meteorological models; create and manage HEC-HMS control
specifications; create and manage simulation runs; calibrate the models; and review the
results. However, using HEC-HMS to gain information required for decision making goes far
beyond the mouse-clicking and entering data described in that manual.



Using the model

To use HEC-HMS to develop information required for planning, designing, operating,
permitting, and regulating decision making, the following steps should be taken:
1. Identify the decisions required. This is perhaps the most difficult step in a modelling
study: deciding exactly what decisions are to be taken as a consequence of a study. In some
cases, this may be obvious. For example, in a flood-damage reduction planning study, the
decision to be taken is what measures, if any, to implement to reduce damage in a watershed.
In other cases, the decision is not as obvious. However, it is seldom the case that the objective
of the study is simply to model the watershed or its channels. Instead, the modelling is a
source of information that is to be considered in the decision making.
2. Determine what information is required to make a decision. After the decision that is to
be made has been identified, the information required to make that decision must be
determined. This subsequently will guide selection and application of the methods used.
While infiltration plays some role in estimating this frequency function, infiltration
information itself is not required for the decision making. Thus the emphasis should be on
development of a model that provides peak flow and stage information, rather than on
development of a model that represents in detail the spatial distribution of infiltration.
3. Determine the appropriate spatial and temporal extent of information required.
HEC-HMS simulation methods are data driven; that is, they are sufficiently flexible to permit
application to watersheds of all sizes for analysis of events long and short, solving the model
equations with time steps appropriate for the analysis. The user must select and specify the
extent and the resolution for the analysis. Decisions about the watershed extent, about
subdividing the watershed, and about the appropriate time step must be made at the onset of a
modelling study to ensure that appropriate methods are selected, data gathered, and
parameters estimated, given the level of detail required for decision making.
4. Identify methods that can provide the information, identify criteria for selecting one
of the methods, and select a method. In some cases, more than one of the alternative
methods included in HEC-HMS will provide the information required at the spatial and
temporal resolution necessary for wise decision making. If the necessary data or other
resources are not available to calibrate or apply the method, then it should not be selected,
regardless of its academic appeal or reported use elsewhere. Furthermore, the assumptions
inherent in a method may preclude its usage.
5. Fit model and verify the fit. Each method that is included in HEC-HMS has parameters.
The value of each parameter must be specified to fit the model to a particular watershed or
channel before the model can be used for estimating runoff or routing hydrographs. Some
parameters may be estimated from observation of physical properties of a watershed or
channels, while others must be estimated by calibrationtrial and error fitting.
6. Collect / develop boundary conditions and initial conditions appropriate for the
application. Boundary conditions are the values of the system inputthe forces that act on
the hydrologic system and cause it to change. The most common boundary condition in HEC-
HMS is precipitation; applying this boundary condition causes runoff from a watershed. For
channel methods, the initial conditions are the initial flows, and for watershed methods, the
initial conditions are the initial moisture states in the watershed. Both initial and boundary
conditions must be selected for application of HECHMS. This may be a complex, time-
consuming task.
7. Apply the model. Here is where HEC-HMS shines as a tool for analysis. With its
graphical user interface and strong data management features, the program is easy to apply,
and the results are easy to visualize. As noted earlier, the details of applying the program are
presented in the program users manual.
8. Do a reality check and analyze sensitivity. After HEC-HMS is applied, the results must
be checked to confirm that they are reasonable and consistent with what might be expected.
The peaks might be compared with peaks computed with other models. If the results are
significantly different, and if no good explanation of this difference is possible, then the
results from the HEC-HMS model should be viewed with suspicion, and input and
assumptions should be reviewed carefully.
(As with any computer program, the quality of the output depends on the quality of the
input.)
9. Process results to derive required information. In most applications, the results from
HEC-HMS must be processed and further analyzed to provide the information required for
decision making. For example, if EAD values are required for comparing flood-damage
reduction alternatives, the peaks computed for various frequency-based storms must be found
in multiple runs of HEC-HMS and must be collected to derive the required flow-frequency
function. And if backwater influences the stage associated with the flow, then runs of an open
channel flow model may be necessary to develop the necessary stage-frequency function.





CHAPTER 2. REVIEW OF PAST WORKS AND
OBJECTIVE

In the previous chapter we learnt about what HEC-HMS is, its role in flood plain mapping.
We also learnt about the type of studies that require watershed and channel information, the
source of the required information to work under the software and also on how HEC-HMS is
used. This section deals with previous work that has been done in this field and the methods
that have been employed to this effect.

This chapter presents

a)A brief insight into the past work on the development of HEC-HMS,

b)An understanding of the objective and scope of this project.

2.1. LITERATURE OVERVIEW.

I n I taly, Pistocchi, A., Mazzoli, P., in order to predict flood effects across Romagna river
basins, used HEC-RAS and HEC-HMS models with ArcView for hydrologic risk
management.

In his paper a Autorit dei Bacini Regionali Romagnoli, P.zza G.B. Morgagni, 2 47100
Forl, I taly he discusses how the well known USACE HEC models, RAS and HMS, are fully
integrated within the decision support system of the Romagna River Basins in order to predict
flood effects.
The models cope with such a variety of problems as rainfall-runoff modelling, river and civil
works hydraulics, and the mapping of hydraulic hazard. The paper illustrates the
methodology followed to integrate existing topographic and hydrologic data, calibrate both
hydrologic and hydraulic models, and produce maps directly usable in land planning. The
paper stresses the organizational problems involved in the development of such a decision
support system, and sketches the main issues in pipelining general planning analysis and river
training and management design, in order to achieve a fully self-updating decision support
system which feeds back analysis results to design evaluations and again updated information
from developed works to the prediction models.

William Scharffenberg, Steve Daly and Mathew Fleming from the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers (USACE), Institute for Water Resources (I WR), Hydrologic Engineering Centre
(HEC) developed Hydrologic Modelling System (HEC-HMS) and its physically based
simulation components.

The Hydrologic Modelling System (HEC-HMS) was conceived as a software-based
tool for simulating the hydrologic cycle in the context of engineering problem solving. Water
movements in the cycle relevant to common problems in water resources engineering were
included: precipitation, infiltration, surface runoff, base flow, and open channel flow. The
first generation of the software focused on simulating individual storm events. The second
generation of the software added new components for infiltration modelling to permit
continuous simulation.
Snowmelt and potential evapotranspiration components, along with an advanced reservoir
component, were added for the third generation. The software is very adaptable because it
includes a variety of model choices for each segment of the hydrologic cycle. It has been
used in many studies for achieving goals in flood damage reduction, reservoir and system
operation, floodplain regulation, environmental restoration, water supply planning, among
others.
Current and past software releases mostly utilize simulation components built from
conceptual models. These models typically rely on empirical data to make predictions about
water movement. Nevertheless, many of these models contain parameters with a physical
basis and may be estimated from measurable properties of the watershed. These models can
function very effectively when calibration data is available. In the ungaged case, it is
generally accepted that physically-based models are a better choice.
Several physically-based simulation components have been included in the software
beginning with the very first release. Additional physically-based components were added
during the second and third generations. These methods are summarized including the Green
Ampt and Smith-Parlange infiltration components, kinematic wave surface runoff
component, and Priestley-Taylor potential evapotranspiration component.
One approach to developing a physically-based model is to use an energy balance. This
approach has been used to develop a new snowmelt simulation component. Companion to the
snowmelt component are models for direct and diffuse solar shortwave radiation, and
down welling long wave radiation. These models are discussed in detail. The individual
model
components are also reused for application in a potential evapotranspiration simulation
component, and a reservoir evaporation model.

In 2010, Zhonglong Zhang and Billy E. J ohnson, submitted a paper on HEC-HMS
Development in Support of Russian River Watershed Assessment

The objective of this technical note is to briefly describe the Hydrologic Engineering
Centres Hydrologic Modelling System (HEC-HMS) and its application to the Russian River
watershed study. HEC-HMS simulates rainfall-runoff at select locations within a watershed
given the physical characteristics of the watershed. It is a tool for watershed management that
can be used to account for human impacts in regards to the magnitude, quantity, and timing
of runoff at points of interest. The current version of HEC-HMS simulates flow and soon-to-
be released versions will also simulate sediment and water quality.
Traditionally, stream and sub-watershed characterizations have been accomplished using an
approach based on Digital Elevation Model (DEM) terrain analysis within a GIS. The Geo-
HMS Arc View extension package was used in developing the topographic values needed to
develop the initial watershed model. When the model was completed, a calibration was
performed for a select sub-area within the Russian River Watershed.

I n 2002, M.L.Anderson, Z.-Q.Chen, M.L.Kavvas, and Arlen Feldman, submitted a paper
on Coupling HEC-HMS with Atmospheric Models for Prediction
of Watershed Runoff.
The operation of reservoirs in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California for flood control
relies on forecasts of reservoir inflows. In the past, accurate forecasts of the reservoir inflows
resulting from watershed runoff have been made, but only after the water has entered the
main channel. During flooding events, this limits the amount of time available for the
implementation of emergency management procedures. Translating precipitation forecasts
into runoff forecasts can greatly improve the runoff-forecast lead time. The operational
National Centre for Environmental Prediction Eta model provides 48-h-ahead forecasts of
precipitation in 6-h intervals in a 40340 km gridded form. In this study, the mesoscale model,
MM5, is used to transfer the Eta forecast data down to the appropriate space and time scales
required to link the Eta model precipitation forecast results to the watershed model, HEC-
HMS, for runoff prediction. An initial diagnostic study of this procedure has been performed
on the Calaveras River watershed in Northern California. Initial results indicate that:-
1)model parameterization choice in MM5 is necessary to refine the precipitation
forecasts;
2) the method shows promise for generating 48-h-ahead forecasts of reservoir
inflows; and
3) calibration of the HEC-HMS model with distributed precipitation is necessary for
this methodology.
This paper presents the study results along with a discussion of the methodology.

I n Turkey, Yener, M.K., Sorman, A.U., Sorman, A.A., Sensoy, A, Gezgin, T, gave a paper
on Modelling Studies with HEC-HMS and Runoff Scenarios in Yuvacik Basin,Turkiye.

Basin and river management includes precipitation-runoff modelling studies. Precipitation-
runoff models have been widely used through the last century to formulate a reliable
relationship between the precipitation (input of the model) and runoff (output of the model).
In this study, Yuvack Basin, which is located in south-eastern part of Marmara Region of
Trkiye, is selected as the application basin with the drainage area of 257.86 km2 and
hydrologic modelling studies are performed for the basin. The calibrated model is then to be
used as a decision support tool in the operation and management of Yuvack Dam Reservoir.
The modelling studies were carried out by dividing the basin into three sub-basins: Kirazdere,
Kazandere, and Serindere and each sub-basin is modelled with its own parameters. For the
hydrologic modelling studies the new version of HEC-HMS hydrologic modelling software
released in April 2006 by US Army Corps of Engineers is used. Modelling studies consist of
two items: event-based hourly simulations and runoff scenarios using intensity-duration-
frequency curves. As a result of model application studies, infiltration loss and base flow
parameters of each sub-basin are calibrated with hourly simulations. Hourly model
parameters are used in spring, summer and fall seasons to predict runoff. Runoffs that
correspond to different return periods and probable maximum precipitation are predicted
using intensity-duration-frequency data as input to frequency storm method of HECHMS.
The simulated runoff values can be used for flood control and flood damage estimation
studies.

I n 2007, Z.Yusop, C.H.Chan and A.Katimon presented a paper on Runoff
characteristics and application of HEC-HMS for modelling storm flow
hydrograph in an oil palm catchment in J ohor, Malaysia.
Rainfall-runoff processes in a small oil palm catchment (8.2 ha) in Johor, Malaysia were
examined. Storm hydrographs show rapid responses to rainfall with a short time to peak. The
estimated initial hydrologic loss for the oil palm catchment is 5mm. Despite the low initial
loss, the catchment exhibits a high proportion of base flow, approximately 54% of the total
runoff. On an event basis, the storm flow response factor and runoff coefficient ranges from
0.003 to 0.21, and 0.02 to 0.44, respectively. Peak flow and storm flow volume were
moderately correlated with rainfall. The hydrographs were satisfactorily modelled using
(HEC-HMS). The efficiency indexes of the calibration and validation exercises are 0.81 and
0.82, respectively. Based on these preliminary findings, it could be suggested that an oil palm
plantation would be able to serve reasonably well in regulating basic hydrological functions.

2.2) OBJECTIVE

The main objective is to know the methodology of how GIS can be integrated with HEC-
HMS in order to predict the impact of future urban development on a watershed.
Here the first step is to model the existing basin in HMS. Then, the model is to be
edited to resemble future urbanization in the study area. The last step is to run the new model
and compare the hydrographs which will show how development and a change in land use
can affect the runoff in a watershed. One can also analyze the watershed using a number of
different sub-basins sizes and test the sensitivity of the stream definition threshold to see how
large of an impact it can have on runoff volume and timing in hydrologic modelling.
Care should be taken to minimize a common problem that arises when using the CRWR-
PrePro extension to construct a HMS schematic. The algorithm in the extension does not
allow a reach of stream to be only 1 grid cell in length. This is because the inlet and outlet to
the stream would be in the same place.