By Dr.

Shakil Ahmad

Introduction & Importance of HEC-HMS

 Installation of HEC-HMS
 HEC-HMS Model Components
 Graphical User Interface (GUI)

Developing a HEC-HMS Project
 Create a New Project
 Input Data Preparation
 Create a Basin Model
 Create a Meteorological Data
 Define Control Specifications
 Create and Compute a Simulation Run
 View Model Results

Example for HEC-HMS Project

HEC-HMS Projects Home Assignment
 Simulation of Precipitation-Runoff Processes of a Watershed
 Simulation of Channel & Reservoir Routing
 By Dr. Shakil Ahmad

Main Web Page:

http://www.hec.usace.army.mil/software/hec-hms/

Download:

http://www.hec.usace.army.mil/software/hec-hms/download.html

Documentation:

Quick Start Guide

User's Manual

Applications Guide

Technical Reference Manual

http://www.hec.usace.army.mil/software/hec-hms/documentation.html
 By Dr. Shakil Ahmad

HEC-HMS simulates the precipitation-runoff processes

Applicable in a wide range of geographic areas, includes large river

basin water supply & flood hydrology, and small urban or natural
watershed runoff

Hydrographs produced by HEC-HMS program are used for studies of:

 Water availability
 Urban drainage
 Flow forecasting
 Future urbanization impact
 Reservoir spillway design
 Flood damage reduction
 Floodplain regulation
 Systems operation
 By Dr. Shakil Ahmad

Now, lets build a simple HEC-HMS model to see how this system works.
Choose File/New

Type in a Name and Description for the Project, select a file location, and select
a Unit System for the project as US Customary Units (the default is SI units)

Hit Create to create this Project File.

 By Dr. Shakil Ahmad

HEC-HMS contains a series of Components, and in this project, lets start with the
Basin Model Manager

We need to create a New basin model, for which the default name is Basin 1.
You should enter a short description of this basin, and select Create.

and close the Basin Model Manager window.

 By Dr. Shakil Ahmad

Now, when you look back at your HEC-HMS main interface, you’ll see that the
Test project now has an entry for Basin Models and if you expand that, you’ll see
Basin 1 appears. If you click on Basin 1, you’ll see lots of things open up on your
screen:

In particular, there are on the top line, a series of Basin Elements

 By Dr. Shakil Ahmad

And if you mouse over them, you’ll see what kind of element each one is. Lets
select the Subbasin Creation Tool

If you click within the Basin Model window, you’ll be able to create a new
Subbasin:
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And if you expand your Basin 1 model icon, you’ll find you’ve now got some
options to define the properties of your Subbasin.
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Lets make the area of Basin 1 to be 20 square miles, and select the SCS Curve
Number and User-Specified Unit Hydrograph as the Loss Method and Transform
Method options. Select None as the Baseflow Method

Lets choose a curve number of CN = 60

 By Dr. Shakil Ahmad

The curve number method was developed by the USDA Natural Resources
Conservation Service, which was formerly called the Soil Conservation Service
(SCS) — the number is still popularly known as a "SCS runoff curve number”

The runoff curve number (also called a curve number or simply CN) is an
empirical parameter widely & efficiently used in hydrology for predicting
approximate direct runoff or infiltration from rainfall excess in a particular area

The runoff curve number is based on the area's hydrologic soil group, land use,
treatment and hydrologic condition.

The runoff equation is , where

Q is runoff
P is rainfall
S is the potential maximum soil moisture retention after runoff begins
Ia is the initial abstraction or amount of water before runoff, such as infiltration or
rainfall interception by vegetation; & it is generally assumed that Ia=0.2S
CN has a range from 30 to 100; lower numbers indicate low runoff potential while
larger numbers are for increasing runoff potential. The lower the curve number,
the more permeable the soil is.
 By Dr. Shakil Ahmad

Ok, now lets specify User-Specified Unit Hydrograph of Basin 1.

Select Components/Pair Data Manager  data type Unit Hydrograph Curves

and Create a new Unit Hydrograph Curve called UHG 1 for our model
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Now, when you return to the main HEC-HMS screen, you’ll see a UHG 1
component appear:

We are going to specify Unit Hydrograph manually associated with the Basin 1
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Specify the Unit Hydrograph ordinates manually associated with the Basin 1:

Now we are going to specify Unit Hydrograph associated with the Basin 1:

Use File/Save to save the properties of the Basin Model

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Now lets put some precipitation our model.

Select Components/Meteorologic Model Manager

And create a new Test Precipitation called Met 1 for our model
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Now, when you return to the main HEC-HMS screen, you’ll see a Met 1
component appear:

We are going to use the Specified Hyetograph method and put some rainfall in
associated with a gage. But, first, lets used the Basins tab to let the
Meteorologic Model know that we are applying this meteorology to the
Subbasins in this model:
 By Dr. Shakil Ahmad

Ok, now lets specify our Hyetograph at a gage. We’ll create an artificial one since
we don’t yet have actual gage rainfall to work with.

In the components, select Time Series Manager

Select Precipitation Gages and Create a new precipitation gage called Gage 1 for
our model
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Choose Incremental Inches for the Precipitation & 15 Minutes as Time Interval
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Once you save those choices, you’ll be able to edit the Time Window

And lets add the precipitation in the Table view. Note that you cannot enter
anything into the first time interval 00:00
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Now, lets go back to Meteorologic Model & link Specified Hyetograph to Gage 1

Use File/Save to save the properties of the Meteorologic Model

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The last thing that we need to specify is the Control Specifications Component

and set up a Control 1 Specifications

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And lets enter the specifications as shown below

This defines the time period of the simulation and the time interval within that at
which computations will be performed.
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Ok, after this rather laborious process of specifying all the input information, we
are now ready to do a simulation run. Choose Compute/Create Simulation Run

Choose the default name Run 1

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Select test basin,

Test Precipitation

and Control specifications

And now you hit Finish and you’re ready to go

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Select Compute Run [Run 1]

And everything computes.

Ignore the warnings about:

missing precipitation values and Unit hydrograph "UHG 1" volume does not match
unit volume for subbasin "Subbasin-1".
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Now, go to the Basin Model display, right click on Subbasin-1 and select View
Results [Run 1] Graph
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Select View Results [Run 1] Summary Table

Determine the total precipitation, losses, & amount of excess rainfall.

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Select View Results [Run 1] Time-Series Table