Journal of Hydrology 556 (2018) 674–688

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Journal of Hydrology
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jhydrol

Research papers

The validity of flow approximations when simulating catchment-

integrated flash floods
B. Bout ⇑, V.G. Jetten
University Twente, Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), The Netherlands

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Within hydrological models, flow approximations are commonly used to reduce computation time. The
Received 28 August 2017 validity of these approximations is strongly determined by flow height, flow velocity and the spatial res-
Received in revised form 17 November 2017 olution of the model. In this presentation, the validity and performance of the kinematic, diffusive and
Accepted 20 November 2017
dynamic flow approximations are investigated for use in a catchment-based flood model. Particularly,
Available online 23 November 2017
the validity during flood events and for varying spatial resolutions is investigated. The OpenLISEM hydro-
This manuscript was handled by Marco
Borga, Editor-in-Chief, with the assistance of logical model is extended to implement both these flow approximations and channel flooding based on
Eylon Shamir, Associate Editor dynamic flow. The flow approximations are used to recreate measured discharge in three catchments,
among which is the hydrograph of the 2003 flood event in the Fella river basin. Furthermore, spatial res-
Keywords: olutions are varied for the flood simulation in order to investigate the influence of spatial resolution on
Spatial numerical modeling these flow approximations. Results show that the kinematic, diffusive and dynamic flow approximation
Physically-based modeling provide least to highest accuracy, respectively, in recreating measured discharge. Kinematic flow, which
Flash floods is commonly used in hydrological modelling, substantially over-estimates hydrological connectivity in
Catchment hydrology the simulations with a spatial resolution of below 30 m. Since spatial resolutions of models have strongly
Hydraulics increased over the past decades, usage of routed kinematic flow should be reconsidered. The combination
OpenLISEM
of diffusive or dynamic overland flow and dynamic channel flooding provides high accuracy in recreating
the 2003 Fella river flood event. Finally, in the case of flood events, spatial modelling of kinematic flow
substantially over-estimates hydrological connectivity and flow concentration since pressure forces are
removed, leading to significant errors.
Ó 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction teristics and more on the characteristics of the contributing river

system (the incoming wave) we tend to term these slower and long
Both due to climate change and population growth, global risk lasting floods as ‘fluvial floods’. Other mechanisms of flooding are a
for fluvial floods has been found to increase (Kron et al., 1999; rise of groundwater above the surface, and poor drainage in flat
IPCC, 2012; Hirabayashi et al., 2013). Different processes can lead areas with excessive rainfall. While physically similar, it makes
to flooding in an area, and based on the perception of the dominant sense to recognize and define different flood types from a disaster
process, different types of floods are recognized in Disaster Risk risk reduction perspective, as people have developed a sense of the
Management. Flash floods are characterized by both the spatial associated problems, the timing needed for early warning, and a
and temporal scales in which they take place. They often take place certain impact with these different flood types. In this analysis,
in or close to upstream runoff generating areas and are character- we focus on flash flood events, which cause substantial damage
ized by rapid release of water from a catchment. This type of flood in various regions around the world (Re, 2005; Schiermeier,
event often takes place within a few hours of the rainfall event and 2006). Thus, research into understanding of the hydrological pro-
often lasting less than a day. The dynamics of a flash flood are clo- cesses that precede (flash) flood events and analyzing best ways
sely related to the dynamics of the rainfall event. The dynamics of of simulating flow dynamics is of key importance.
floods that are generated by an overflowing river channel vary Spatial numerical modelling is commonly used to investigate
according to the spatial and temporal scales of the catchment. both flash floods and the preceding hydrological processes. Within
When the dynamics of the flood depend less on the rainfall charac- numerical models, flow approximations are widely used to provide
appropriate and efficient simulation of water flow (Te Chow, 1964;
⇑ Corresponding author. Tsai, 2003). Water flow on the surface can be simulated by solving
E-mail address: [email protected] (B. Bout).
a mass and momentum balance, using gravity, pressure differences

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2017.11.033
0022-1694/Ó 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
 B. Bout, V.G. Jetten / Journal of Hydrology 556 (2018) 674–688 675

and momentum. Under different environmental conditions, pres- matic flow respectively. The diffusive flow approximation imple-
sure differences and/or inertial momentum are not included in ments pressure in the momentum equations. Using this method,
numerical solutions for flow. In practice, two types of model sys- models such as LISFLOOD (Van Der Knijff et al., 2010) approximate
tems are used for flood modeling: a) decoupled systems, in which flood behavior. For detailed spatial modelling of flood behavior, the
the source areas are separated from the flooded areas; and b) inte- Saint-Venant equations (dynamic wave) for shallow flow are com-
grated catchment models. The decoupled model systems have monly used. This approximation, which requires more computa-
essentially two models, one that generates an incoming discharge tion, is used by models such as CCHE2D, CH3D (Wu, 2001), Hec-
wave and one that simulates the flood process from this incoming Ras (Brunner, 1995), TuFlow (Syme, 2001), 3DI (Dahm et al.,
discharge. The advantage is that both model systems can be sepa- 2014) and Delft 2D (Deltares Hydraulics, 1999). Both the diffusive
rate, with different principles, scales and resolutions. Upstream wave and dynamic wave use the DEM directly and water pressure
models divide space in regular gridcells or polygons representing differences between spatial elements and momentum allow the
landscape elements, and even entire subcatchments that generate flow to converge and diverge. Connectivity is not pre-defined, local
runoff which is collected in a stream network to create a discharge storages can exist and need to fill before the flow continues.
wave. Downstream flood models can adopt a gridcell size optimal While the implementation of flow approximations improves
for flood modelling. The disadvantage is the assumption that there efficiency, both the spatial and temporal scale of the simulation
are a few clearly defined inflow points (which is not always the determine the validity of the approximation. The validity then lim-
case). Examples of this type of models are Hec-HMS its the possible application of models to the temporal and spatial
(Scharffenberg & Fleming, 2006), Hec-Ras (Brunner, 1995), TuFlow scales of flash floods (Tsai, 2003). In practice this is largely ignored:
(BMT WBM, 2010) and Mike-She (Prucha et al., 2016). The second the availability of high-resolution data has increased strongly in
type of models are integrated catchment models, that simulate the the past decades (with for instance LIDAR derived digital terrain
complete hydrology and flow, generating runoff, leading to dis- models). The general tendency in thinking is that a higher resolu-
charge and then to flooding. The advantages are that there are no tion offers greater accuracy, but it ignores the validity of flow
entry points but instead open boundaries where runoff can lead approximations. Furthermore, during flash flood events, high water
directly to flooding, the disadvantages are that there is generally heights, flow velocities, and small spatial resolutions influence the
one spatial resolution for the entire domain, and computationally validity of kinematic and diffusive flow further. Therefore, a
these models can be less efficient. detailed investigation into the influence of flow approximations
While integrated catchment models require more computation, on flash flood modelling is required.
depending on the event they can be required for accurate simula- The objective of this paper is to investigate the influence of spa-
tions. In many situations, flash floods cannot be simulated with a tial resolution on the validity of the kinematic, diffusive and
decoupled model system. Often a flash flood is not strictly related dynamic flow approximations for use in integrated flood mod-
to an overflowing channel, as they occur in accentuated terrain. elling. This investigation is separated into two parts. First, the
Sloping areas are prone to overland flow that adds directly to the behavior of these flow approximations for spatial runoff modelling
flood water, especially in hilly urban areas where impermeable is investigated for several spatial resolutions. Secondly, the flow
surfaces dominate. Flash floods are often a combination of an over- approximations are coupled with channel flooding, and the influ-
flowing channel, overland flow and even direct rainfall. Also, rapid ence of flow approximations on the flood simulation is investi-
changes in water height and fluxes may occur over short distances gated. Study catchments from China (Hessel and van Asch, 2003)
which need robust numerical solutions to cope with. Examples of and Spain (Baartman et al., 2013) are used with a spatial resolution
integrated catchment models are FLO-2D (O’brien, 2007) and TREX of 10 and 20 m to investigate runoff behavior. For flooding, calibra-
(Velleux, England & Julien, 2008). Both these models however use tion is performed on 20, 40 and 80 m spatial resolution from the
simplified equations to describe flow behavior. Recent approaches Italian alps (Borga et al., 2007). Calibration is performed on dis-
to integrated flood simulations in a catchment model use hybrid charge data for those catchments. The open source Limburg Soil
modelling. Bellos and Tsakiris (2016) combined the FLO-R2D Erosion Model (OpenLISEM) (Jetten, 2002; Starkloff and Stolte,
model (Tsakiris & Bellos, 2014) and unit hydrograph theory. 2014; Hu et al., 2015) is to perform the simulations. Kinematic, dif-
Nguyen et al. (2015) developed the HiResFlood-UCI model, which fusive and dynamic flow are implemented for overland and chan-
uses the output from a lumped rainfall-runoff model for their flood nel flow dynamics. In order to simulate flooding in a catchment
simulation. However, both methods use clumped runoff, and have environment, dynamic wave channel flooding is included in all
limited interactions between flood water and other hydrological three combinations. For each combination, flow types are fully
processes such as rainfall and infiltration. While both these linked with both each other and other hydrological processes
approaches thus provide improvement over traditional methods, (explained below).
a fully integrated approach to simulate floods in a catchment
model could improve understanding of the processes that lead to
2. Theory
floods.
In the majority of models that include hydrology and flow rout-
For the simulation of overland and channel flow, three com-
ing, three ways of routing are used to simulate surface and channel
monly used approximations for water flow have been imple-
flow. The kinematic flow approximation, which simplifies water
mented: Kinematic flow, diffusive flow and Saint-Venant flow.
flow by neglecting pressure and inertial momentum, gained popu-
For the simulation of channel flooding, Saint-Venant flow is used.
larity in the early years of numerical modelling for its computa-
In this section, the derivation and required assumptions for these
tionally efficient and robust estimations of flow patterns.
flow approximations are described.
Kinematic wave solutions use a predefined converging flow net-
In order to describe continuity of any substance with advection,
work that connects the spatial elements (e.g. through the steepest
the mass balance equation is the basis (Eq. (1)).
slope) and the channel system. This means that there is always
connectivity between the spatial elements, the flow does not have @h @ðhux Þ @ðhuy Þ
to fill up small storages before it can continue. The only way to þ þ ¼RI ð1Þ
@t @x @y
influence the timing of the flow is by the surface friction parame-
ters. Models such as SWAT (Arnold et al., 1998), and Trex (Velleux, where h is the flow height (m), u is the flow velocity (m s1), R is the
England & Julien, 2008) use clumped and spatially routed kine- rainfall (m) and I is the infiltration (m).
676 B. Bout, V.G. Jetten / Journal of Hydrology 556 (2018) 674–688

pffiffiffi
This equation is valid for all the implemented flow approxima- S 2

tions and forms the basis for the numerical methods. In the rest of
u¼R 3 ð10Þ
n
this section, equations that describe conservation of momentum
for the flow approximations are stated. where u is the flow velocity (m s1), R is the hydraulic radius (m)

1

and n is the Mannings coefficient of the surface sm3 .
2.1. Dynamic flow
2.4. Hydrology and data layers in openLISEM
The momentum balance equations for water flow approxima-
tions are typically derived from the Navier-Stokes equations for The flow methods described in this paper have been used to fur-
incompressible flow. When this set of equations is depth averaged ther the development of OpenLISEM, which is open source and
and internal friction forces are neglected, the Saint Venant equa- freely available. The integration of flooding into the model allows
tions result (Barré de Saint-Venant, 1871) (Eqs. (2) and (3)). the detailed investigation into the processes that lead to the flood
2 2 event. The OpenLISEM model implements multiple types of infil-
@hux @ðhux þ 12 gh Þ @ðhux uy Þ tration models such as Smith & Parlange (1978) and the SWATRE
þ þ ¼ ghðSx  Sf ;x Þ ð2Þ
@t @x @y full vertical soil water balance model (Bastiaanssen et al., 1996).
The simulations in this paper use the Green & Ampt infiltration
2 2
@huy @ðhuy þ 12 gh Þ @ðhux uy Þ model, which assumes a wetting front moving down into the soil
þ þ ¼ ghðSy  Sf ;y Þ ð3Þ
@t @y @x due to infiltrating rainfall (Green & Ampt, 1911). The resulting
potential infiltration is subtracted from the available surface water
here g is the gravitational acceleration (m s2), S is the bed slope (Eq. (11)).
term () and Sf is the bed friction term ().
 
The friction slope terms, which are the friction forces divided by hs  hi
f pot ¼ K s w þ1 ð11Þ
the water height and the gravitational acceleration, can be calcu- F
lated using the Darcy-Weisbach friction law (Te Chow, 1964)
(Eqs. (4) and (5)). where fpot is the potential infiltration rate (m s1), F is the cumula-
tive infiltrated water (m), hs is the porosity (m3 m3), hi is the initial
ux j~
uj soil moisture content (m3 m3), w is the matric pressure at the wet-
Sf ;x ¼ n2 ð4Þ
h ting front (h = w + Z) (m) and Ks is the saturated conductivity (m
s1).
uy j~
uj
Sf ;y ¼ n2 ð5Þ Input data consists of soil, land surface and terrain properties,
h and can be defined on a sub-cell basis by using fraction maps as


1
where n is Manning’s n friction coefficient sm3 . input (Fig. 1). The infiltration of water and routing of overland flow
are fully coupled and thus computed for each numerical timestep.
Further details on the underlying physical principles of OpenLISEM
2.2. Diffusive flow can be found in Baartman et al. (2012a) and Jetten (2002) and De
Roo et al. (1996).
In the diffusive flow approximation, inertial terms are assumed
very small when compared to other acceleration terms. When the
2.5. Numerical implementations
inertial terms are neglected, velocity is determined predominantly
by hydraulic gradient, friction forces and the gravitational force.
The numerical implementations of flow equations can, if not
This assumption leads to a simplified set of equations (Eqs. (6)
appropriate, influence behavior and validity. A numerical method
and (7))
should be appropriate to the assumptions of the equations and
  provide a stable, accurate and realistic simulation. Therefore, sep-
dh
g ¼ ðSf x  Sx Þ ð6Þ arate numerical methods were implemented for the flow approxi-
dx
mations. The numerical methods that were implemented during
  the development stages of OpenLISEM are presented in this
dh
g ¼ ðSf y  Sy Þ ð7Þ section.
dy

2.6. Saint-Venant flow – cell-boundary fluxes

2.3. Kinematic flow
The implemented solution for Saint-Venant flow is based on the
In the kinematic flow approximation, both inertial acceleration FullSWOF2D library (Delestre et al., 2014). This library uses a
and acceleration due to a hydraulic gradient are assumed very Monotonic Upstream Cell-Centered (MUSCL) scheme to provide a
small when compared to the other acceleration terms. In this second order spatial accurate solution. This method uses a linear
assumption, velocity is, at any moment, determined by the friction approximates of the flow parameters on the cell boundaries in
and gravitational force (Eqs. (8) and (9)). order to calculate the flux at these boundaries (Fig. 2). The estima-
0 ¼ ðSf x  Sx Þ ð8Þ tion of cell interface fluxes furthermore corrects for elevation dif-
ferences based on a hydrostatic reconstruction (Audusse et al.,
0 ¼ ðSf y  Sy Þ ð9Þ 2004). This results in a solution that is both Total Variation Dimin-
ishing and preserves a steady state at rest. Using the Harten-Lax-
In this set of equations, the velocity depends directly on a bal- van Leer Riemann-solver, shock-wave behavior is captured
ance between gravitational and friction forces and flow always (Harten et al., 1983). Finally, new water heights are calculated
moves in the direction of steepest descent. Solving the kinematic using the hydrostatic reconstruction. In order to gain second order
flow equations with Manning’s friction law leads to Manning’s accuracy in time, Heun’s predictor-corrector method is used, which
law for overland flow velocity (Te Chow, 1964) (Eq. (10)). is a 2 step-Runga Kutta solver.
 B. Bout, V.G. Jetten / Journal of Hydrology 556 (2018) 674–688 677

OpenLISEM
Input data Flowchart
Rainfall
Interception
Infiltration
Surface Ponding
Runoff
Channel Flow
Channel Flooding
Final Water Height

Fig. 1. The input data for OpenLisem (left), and a simplified flowchart (right).

Pressure forces are ignored and flow directions are completely

determined by terrain slope. Because of this, converging slopes will
cause unnatural, oscillating, behavior. To avoid this unnatural
behavior, kinematic flow is implemented using a pre-defined flow
direction network (Fig. 4).
This network must ignore any local depressions to ensure valid-
ity of kinematic flow. Furthermore, the flow direction network
allows for a one-dimensional implementation of kinematic flow
along the network, strongly increasing computational speed. Crea-
tion of this network is done using the Open-Source freeware Raster
GIS PCRASTER (Karssenberg et al., 2010).

2.9. Connecting one and two-dimensional flow

Fig. 2. The MUSCL scheme performs piece-wise linear interpolation.
Channel flow can be simulated in one dimension using the same
equations as for overland flow. Within the model, the channel is
2.7. Diffusive flow – bilinear interpolation assumed to be rectangular, with limited flow depth. To calculate
the inflow from the land surface into the channel, it is assumed
If inertial acceleration terms are ignored, behavior will become that the direction of overland flow, in cells containing channels,
unnatural surrounding local depressions in elevation. While Tayfur is perpendicular to the channel direction. The channel is further-
and Kavas (1994) use a cell-boundary based method to solve diffu- more assumed to be located in the middle of the cell. This way,
sive and kinematic flow, Liu et al. (2004) note that irregularities in using the channel width and flow velocity, the fraction of runoff
the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) cause difficulties for such a water that flows into the channel can be calculated (Eq. (12)).
method. Thus, we implement a distinct advection scheme in order
to solve diffusive flow. For any cell, the location of the water vol- dtu
ume is updated by the velocity (Fig. 3). The water volume is then f qch ¼ ð12Þ
0:5ðC xy  Bc Þ
distributed to the cells that surround the new location (Courant
et al., 1952). where Bc is the channel width at the surface (m).
Similar methods have been shown to provide accurate estima-
2.8. Kinematic flow – flow network tions of channel inflow (Bradbrook et al., 2004; Yin et al., 2013).
Channel overflow immediately adds to flooding. If the channel
A numerical solution for kinematic flow must be coherent with
the assumptions that lead to the kinematic flow approximations.

Fig. 3. Cell coordinates, discharge and an advected cell. Dx and Dy are the cell
length in the two spatial dimensions. Fig. 4. An example of a local drainage direction file (Karssenberg et al., 2010).
678 B. Bout, V.G. Jetten / Journal of Hydrology 556 (2018) 674–688

has extra capacity, available flooding water is likewise immedi- in the upper regions. For this catchment three precipitation events
ately transported into the channel (Fig. 5). from 20-07-1999, 23-08-1998 and 01–08-1998 will be used. The
events were recorded by three rainfall gauges in the area, and rain-
2.10. Connecting overland flow and flooding fall maps based on the nearest station are therefore used as input.
The rainfall events are typically characterized by shorts burst of
Besides channel water, overland flow enters and thus adds to intense precipitation, with durations around 30 min, intensities
the flood volume. When overland flow and channel flooding are up to 100 mm/h and high spatial variability. During such events,
not approximating using the same method, their interactions can- hydraulic conductivity is a limiting factor in the amount of infiltra-
not be solved based on normal Saint-Venant flow. In reality, over- tion. Together with measured rainfall intensity, discharge after
land flow water must be added to the flood depth and an exchange these events is available for every two minutes. More details on
of momentum takes place. For the kinematic and diffusive wave, the events and area are available in Hessel et al. (2003a). The spa-
momentum conservation neglects important terms that are pre- tial resolution of this dataset is 10 m. The channel network in the
sent in the flood water. Therefore, the process of overland flow area consists of small not-channelized streams and gullies that
mixing with flood water is approximated using an empirical rela- converge near the main outlet. For validation and calibration, dis-
tionship (Eq. (13)). charge data is available at a 2 min interval. Discharge values have
 c r hf
 been estimated using water height timeseries at a weir and a
f rf ¼ min 1:0; 1  e hr ð13Þ stage-discharge curve.
A second catchment in Prado, South-Eastern Spain, will be used.
where frf is the fraction of runoff water transferred to the flood This 50 km2 semi-arid region experiences between 250 mm and
water, cr is a coefficient (), hf the flood depth (m) and hr is the 530 mm of rainfall each year. The area has previously been used
overland flow depth (m). Here, the hf and hr are at each moment with LISEM by Baartman et al. (2013; Baartman et al., 2012a;
taken from the local flow properties. The coefficient cr is, purely Baartman et al., 2012b). Land cover consists mainly of natural
based on modelling experience generally taken to be 2.0, since flood shrubs, forests and dryland farming such as cereals. Soil informa-
artifacts disappear at this value. tion was obtained by Baartman et al. (2013) using in-situ measure-
Using this approximation, Overland flow water is gradually ments of all parameters required for OpenLISEM. The soil types are
transferred to the flood water while it does not unnaturally affect primarily Calcic Cambisols and Calcaric Fluvisols. Rainfall data is
flood momentum. available for three rainfall events on 29-09-1997 (top), 09-12-
2003 (middle) and 17-10-2003(bottom) (Baartman et al., 2012a).
3. Materials and methods The events have a total rainfall of 19.7, 26.9 and 49 mm respec-
tively, and a duration of around 2 h. The channel network in the
Three study sites are used to investigate the validity of the area consists of small not-channelized streams and gullies that
implemented flow approximations. An overview of the topogra- converge near the main outlet. Discharge data has been gathered
phy, saturated conductivity and manning’s N for these catchments at the outlet of the described catchment at a 5 min interval. Dis-
are shown in Figs. 6–8. charge values have been estimated using water height timeseries
The first of these is the Danangou catchment, a rural area in the at a weir and a stage-discharge curve. The spatial resolution of this
Loess plateau in China, where soil erosion is a major problem due dataset is 20 m.
to agriculture on steep slopes and the erodibility of loess soil The third catchment is a 164.5 km2 region along the northern
(Hessel and van Asch, 2003). This area was previously used by Italian Alps that has been investigated by Chen et al. (2014). Land
Hessel et al. (2003a, see also Hessel et al., 2003b; Hessel & van use in the region consists mainly of multiple types of forest and
Asch, 2003; Hessel & Jetten, 2007) to calibrate and validate a pre- heathland in the upslope areas, and small build-up regions in the
vious version of the LISEM model. This 257 ha region is character- lower. Rainfall data is available for an intense precipitation event
ized by steep slopes (>20°) large eroded gullies. Land use consists on the 29th of August 2003, which took place after several weeks
predominantly of woods, wild grasslands and parts of cropland of droughts and had a return period between 200 and 500 years

Fig. 5. Coupling of overland flow, channel flow and flooding. The channel acts as a main link between the flow domains.
 B. Bout, V.G. Jetten / Journal of Hydrology 556 (2018) 674–688 679

Fig. 6. An overview of topography saturated conductivity and Manning’s N for the Danangou catchment.

Fig. 7. An overview of topography saturated conductivity and Manning’s N for the Prado catchment.

Fig. 8. An overview of topography saturated conductivity and Manning’s N for the Fella catchment.

(Norbiato et al., 2007). Peak rainfall intensity reached 81 mm/h catchment. Here, total precipitation for the event of 389 mm. For
during an hour at Pontebba, located at the outlet of the selected a detailed description of the precipitation event on the 29th of
680 B. Bout, V.G. Jetten / Journal of Hydrology 556 (2018) 674–688

August 2003 and the methodology in estimating the rainfall inten- tables, spatially homogeneous rainfall over the catchment area
sities, see Borga et al. (2007). Multiple upslope branches of tribu- was assumed. A list of four rainfall stations combined with station
taries of the Fella River experienced flash flooding at small locations were available for the Danangou catchment. Based on
drainage areas (Borga et al., 2007; Nikolopoulos et al., 2013). these rainfall stations, spatial maps of rainfall intensity were made
Besides flooding, the area experienced severe geomorphic impacts that assigned every cell the rainfall intensity of the closest rainfall
during the event, which might have influenced the flow dynamics station. These were then used as input for OpenLISEM to provide
(Marchi et al., 2009). The river network in the area consists of spatial rainfall during the simulation. Outflow boundary conditions
many non-channelized steep side branches, leading to the fella were set to allow outflow at any point. No inflow besides rainfall
river. The main river branch has a wide base (>25 m) and features was specified for the simulations. Finally, the OpenLISEM simula-
culverts near the local highway. The outlet discharge data for this tion parameters are required. A table of these parameters for the
event is based on a stage-discharge relationship, and is available described datasets is shown in Table 1.
for every half hour. The location of this outlet is the Fella river at
Pontebba (Borga et al., 2007). During a post-event survey, peak dis-
charge estimates were determined for one additional location in 3.3. Calibration
the catchment: Uqua at Ugovizza (Borga et al., 2007). The dataset
for this catchment was made as part of the IncREO project (Increas- For all the described study sites, the simulations are calibrated
ing Resilience through Earth Observation-IncREO). An elevation to discharge data. Discharge data was available with a 10 min
model and land use map were made available from the project. resolution for the Prado catchment, a 30 min resolution for the
The alpine area features steep slopes and the majority of the area Fella catchment and a 15 min resolution for the Danangou catch-
is covered by coniferous forest. Soil information was collected from ment. While several measurements were removed for several
the ISRIC database, Wageningen (Hengl et al., 2017) and literature reasons, the available data provided enough certainty in the cal-
data from Saxton and Rawls (2006). The majority of the area has ibration process. To calibrate the simulations, the saturated con-
loam-like soil characteristics. The vegetation index was derived ductivity, Manning’s coefficient and initial soil moisture content
from spot-4 satellite images. The available spatial resolutions are is varied. These parameters have been found to have the highest
20, 40 and 80 m. influence on simulation behavior (Hessel and Jetten, 2007). The
values for these parameters are kept between 50 and 200% of
3.1. Simulated scenarios their original values in order to maintain a physically meaningful
simulation.
To investigate the performance of the described flow approxi- The Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient is used as the
mations, several are used to simulate identical scenarios on the measure of performance (Eq. (14)), where 1 indicates perfect corre-
Danangou and Prado catchments. The used flow approximations lation and increasing negative value a decreasing correlation.
are: kinematic, diffusive and dynamic flow for overland flow and
respectively kinematic, kinematic and dynamic flow for channel X ðQ t  Q t Þ2
E¼1 o m
ð14Þ
flow. Based on the best calibrated simulation, performance of the 2
ðQ to  Q o Þ
flow approximation will be analyzed. Furthermore, spatial patterns
in flow height are used to see how the flow approximations and
where E is the Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient, Q to is the
processes such as infiltration influence each other.
To investigate the performance of the flow approximations in observed discharge at time t (m3 s1),Q tm is the modelled discharge
flash flood modelling, the Fella basin is simulated using all combi- at time t (m3 s1) and Q o is the average observed discharge (m3 s1).
nations of flow approximations. This includes kinematic, diffusive
and dynamic overland flow. These types of overland are combined
with respectively kinematic, kinematic and dynamic flow for the 4. Results and discussion
channels. Finally, these flow approximations are combined with
dynamic channel flooding, leading to a total of 5 combinations of 4.1. Danangou and Prado catchments
flow approximations. To investigate the influence of spatial resolu-
tion on the performance of these flash flood simulations, spatial Both measured and simulated discharge for the Danangou and
flood depth is analyzed for the distinct flow approximations and Prado catchment are shown in Figs. 9 and 10. Calibrated simula-
spatial resolutions. tions for the kinematic, diffusive and Saint-Venant flow approxi-
mations are provided. Calibration parameters had to be altered
3.2. OpenLISEM input data from the original values used by Hessel and Jetten (2007) due to
the usage of different model efficiency functions. The values of
The input data of OpenLisem can be separated into three cate- the Nash-Sutcliffe correlation coefficients and average calibration
gories. Firstly, a catchment description has to be provided in the parameters for each are provided in Tables 2 and 3.
form of spatial rasters. The provided catchment data was already
available in the correct raster format. Preparation of the dataset
was performed using the PCRaster open-source GIS package Table 1
(Karssenberg et al., 2010). For both the Danangou and Prado catch- Input simulation parameters for the OpenLISEM simulations.
ment, maps of soil and land cover parameters were available. In the
Danangou Prado Fella
case of the Fella river basin, the original dataset has a spatial reso-
Timestep (s) 10 10 60
lution 20 ms. Using PCRaster, this dataset was resampled to 40 and
Min Timestep 0.5 0.5 0.5
80 m resolution. On the resampled elevation models, a simple pit Courant Factor () 0.2 0.2 0.2
filling algorithm was used to restore flow pathways. Secondly, Simulation duration (m) 1000 1000 2000
boundary conditions have to be provided to complete the descrip- Runoff to flood Coefficient () 2.0 2.0 2.0
tion of the event. Time series of catchment-averaged rainfall inten- Canopy Openness factor () 0.450 0.450 0.450
Spatial resolution 10 m 200  20 m 583  20 m 881 
sity were available as text tables for the Prado and Fella
200 380 1196
Catchments. These were used as input in OpenLISEM. From these
 B. Bout, V.G. Jetten / Journal of Hydrology 556 (2018) 674–688 681

800 0

Rainfall Intensity
Discharge (m3/s)
600 Rainfall Intensity
50

(mm/h)
Dynamic
400
Diffusive
100
200 Kinemac
0 150 Discharge
0 20 40 60 80
me (minutes)
4000 0
Discharge (m3/s)

Rainfall (mm/h)
3000 50

2000 100

1000 150

0 200
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
me (minutes)

6000 0
Discahrge (m3/s)

5000

Rainfall (mm/h)
50
4000
3000 100
2000
150
1000
0 200
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
me (minutes)

Fig. 9. Calibration results from different flow approximations for the Danangau Catchment. Rainfall events from 01-08-1998 (top), 20-07-1999 (middle) and 23-08-1998
(bottom).

4.2. Connectivity of overland flow reason for the inaccuracy. The influence of flow approximations
on average flow velocities is furthermore visible in the final cali-
The simulation results for the Danangou catchment show sig- bration parameters, where manning’s’ N, the frictional coefficient,
nificant differences in performance for the various flow approxi- is significantly lower for kinematic flow. This indicates that during
mations. The time of peak discharge is simulated with calibration, the flow had to be artificially slowed down to gain
substantially higher accuracy by diffusive and Saint-Venant flow. accuracy.
Both the timing and general shape of the simulated hydrographs The simulation results for the Prado catchment show significant
lead to substantially higher correlation coefficients for the diffusive differences in performance for the distinct flow approximations.
and Saint-Venant flow when compared to kinematic flow. All three flow approximations provided satisfactory results in cal-
Hessel and van Asch (2003) concluded that, for this catchment, ibration for the three rainfall events. Dynamic overland flow per-
the timing of the discharge peak was especially difficult to predict. formed best in recreating the shape of measured hydrographs.
The authors mentioned that inaccuracy of the digital elevation Both diffusive and dynamic flow showed an increase in accuracy
could have led to steeper slopes. This would have increased aver- when compared to the kinematic flow approximation.
age overland flow velocity. However, comparison with dynamic Fig. 13 shows the simulated spatial patterns of overland flow for
and diffusive wave simulations showed that flow velocities have the July rainfall event in the Prado catchment. A predominant dif-
been increased by the inherent properties of the kinematic flow ference in these patterns is the concentration of flow. Compared to
approximation. the dynamic flow, which performed best in calibration, kinematic
Where diffusive and Saint-Venant flow spread due to pressure and diffusive flow respectively over-estimate and under-estimate
forces, kinematic flow concentrates to the width of a single cell. flow concentration. This is evident from the mathematical and
When the spatial resolution is high, this leads to unrealistically numerical descriptions of their behavior. Kinematic flow forces
high water heights. Because of this increase in flow height, flow flow through the width of a single cell, artificially concentrating
velocity increases. This effect is furthermore strengthened by the flow. Diffusive flow adds pressure terms, which act as a diffusive
fact that the routing network ignores local depressions. In force, and neglects other forces, causing an overestimation of flow
Fig. 12, maximum flow depth for the July rainfall event are shown. diffusion. A second difference between the flow approximations is
While kinematic flow forces a direct path through any rough ter- caused by differences in infiltration. On locations where flow con-
rain, diffusive and dynamic flow are partly blocked and re- centrates, infiltration is limited by the infiltration capacity and the
routed. Both of these effects increase the average flow velocity of active surface for infiltration. Flow concentration strongly influ-
kinematic flow and cause the approximation to over-estimate con- ences the available surface area for infiltration. In the north of
nectivity in the catchment. The results of this over-estimation can the Prado catchment, runoff is generated that flows South through
be seen in the form of the early peak discharge time for the kine- an area of high infiltration. Kinematic flow concentrates and limits
matic flow simulations. Therefore, the kinematic flow approxima- the active surface area of infiltration, thus flowing through areas
tion, instead of the digital elevation model, was the dominant with high infiltration capacity quicker. The diffusive and dynamic
682 B. Bout, V.G. Jetten / Journal of Hydrology 556 (2018) 674–688

2000 0
10

Rainfall (mm/h)
1500 Rainfall
20

Q (l/s)
Discharge
1000 30
40 Kinemac
500
50 Diffusive
0 60 Dynamic
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Time (min)
600 0
500 5

Rainfall (mm/h)
400
10
Q (l/s)

300
15
200
100 20

0 25
0 200 400 600 800 1000
Time (min)
3500 0
3000 20
2500

Rainfall (mm/h)
40
2000
Q (l/s)

60
1500
80
1000
500 100
0 120
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
Time (min)

Fig. 10. Calibration results from different flow approximations for the Prado catchment. Rainfall events from 29-09-1997 (top), 09–12-2003 (middle) and 17–10-2003
(bottom).

Table 2 flow are predominantly infiltrated due to their more diffusive flow.
Nash-Sutcliffe coefficients and calibration parameters for the simulated rainfall Within the final calibration parameters, the same effect is visible.
events for the catchment in the Chinese Loess Plateau. Calibration parameters are Due to the larger amount of infiltration with diffusive flow, the cal-
relative to base dataset value.
ibration lead to lower values for the saturated conductivity, which
Nash-Sutcliffe Coefficients 01-08-1998 20-07-1999 23-08-1998 increases final discharge.
Kinematic Flow 0.71 0.61 0.12 Based on the results of both the Danangou and Prado catch-
Diffusive Flow 0.22 0.78 0.89 ment, kinematic flow is highly accurate and efficient in the correct
Saint-Venant Flow 0.58 0.81 0.88 setting. When flow heights relative to spatial resolution is low,
Average Calibration Parameters Kinematic Diffusive Dynamic velocity and flow diffusion are correctly estimated. Mathematical
Mannings N 1.86 1.09 0.87 analysis for the use of flow approximations such as those by
Saturated Conductivity 1.67 0.68 0.74 Vieira (1983) can be used to support the use of flow approxima-
Initial Moisture 1.49 0.93 0.86 tion. A crucial difference in behavior is however caused by spatial
modelling. In the case of spatial flow modelling, concentration of
flow can quickly change flow properties. Due to several effects,
hydrological connectivity can be substantially over-estimated by
kinematic flow. Furthermore, because the routing scheme for kine-
Table 3 matic flow is bound by cell size, errors increase with increasing
Nash-Sutcliffe coefficients and calibration parameters for the simulated rainfall
spatial resolution. Therefore, in the case of spatial modelling, the
events for the Prado catchment. Calibration parameters are relative to base dataset
value. ratio of catchment size versus cell size plays an important role in
the applicability of the kinematic flow approximation.
Nash-Sutcliffe Coefficients 29-09-1997 09-12-2003 17-10-2003
Kinematic Flow 0.242 0.613 0.793
4.3. Validation with flooding
Diffusive Flow 0.302 0.770 0.845
Dynamic Flow 0.519 0.891 0.875
Simulated and measured discharge for the 2003 Fella-Basin
Average Calibration Parameters Kinematic Diffusive Dynamic
flood event are shown in Fig. 11. Simulations using kinematic, dif-
Mannings N 1.44 0.78 0.72
fusive and Saint-Venant approximations both with and without
Saturated Conductivity 1.25 0.87 0.93
Initial Moisture 1.28 0.91 0.94 Saint-Venant based channel flooding have been calibrated and
are provided. The Nash-Sutcliffe correlation coefficient for the
 B. Bout, V.G. Jetten / Journal of Hydrology 556 (2018) 674–688 683

Fig. 11. Maximum simulated overland flow depth in the Danangou catchment for the 20–07-1999 rainfall event.

Fig. 12. Overland flow depth for the northern part of the Prado catchment at identical times in the simulation for the 17-10-2003 rainfall event.

1000 0

900 20

800 40
Rainfall intensity (mm/h)

700 60
Discharge (m3/s)

600 80

500 100

400 120

300 140

200 160

100 180

0 200
3.5 4.5 5.5 6.5 7.5 8.5 9.5 10.5 11.5 12.5
Time (hour)
Rainfall Intensity Discharge
Kinemac & Dynamic Diffusive
Diffusive & Dynamic Kinemac
Dynamic

Fig. 13. Simulated and measured discharge for the 2003 flood event in the Fella basin at the Pontebba outlet using different flow approximations.
684 B. Bout, V.G. Jetten / Journal of Hydrology 556 (2018) 674–688

discharge simulations of the Fella-Basin flood event are provided in Another disadvantage of diffusive and dynamic flow on coarse res-
Table 4. olutions, is that flow spread is generally over-estimated when
pressure terms are included. When spatial resolution is coarse,
flow spread should not be wider than a single cell. However, due
4.4. Flood behavior to pressure terms, diffusive and dynamic flow generally use two
or more cells.
In the case of the 2003 flood event in the Fella river basin, the However, despite the inaccurate flooding of local depressions,
gradual decline in measured discharge after the event confirms both flooding extent and flooding depth are substantially more
the reports of flooding. The decrease in flow height and slope out- consistent with the results of the 20-m simulation in the case of
side of the channel causes a gradual return of flood water into the diffusive or dynamic flow. For kinematic flow, it is visible that a
channel. Flood depth maps for the coupled Kinematic, diffusive and decrease in spatial resolution causes the flooding to take place
Saint-Venant simulations with channel flooding are provided in increasingly upstream. This can be explained by the strong over-
Fig. 14. For three representative locations, flood depth time series estimation of connectivity in the Fella-basin. Because of terrain
for the same simulations are shown in Fig. 15. with high spatial variability, flow velocities are lower when details
The difficulty in recreating the hydrograph differed for the dis- are included. On coarser resolution, kinematic flow ignores an
tinct flow approximations. Without channel flooding, kinematic increasing amount of details in the topography, increasing the
and diffusive flow were not able to provide an accurate recreation over-estimation of connectivity and flow velocity. This would
of the measured hydrograph. The kinematic flow approximation cause the runoff to arrive at the channel earlier, causing flooding
completely neglects the flooding behavior. The diffusive flow in increasingly upstream areas.
approximation strongly underestimates flow velocities at the Summarizing: in the performed simulations, due to the strong
incline of the hydrograph. This leads to a late increase in discharge. over-estimation of connectivity on both higher and lower spatial
The cause of the underestimated velocities can be found in the resolutions, the usage of a kinematic flow approximation could
over-estimation of the spread of the water flow. This is due to not accurately recreate flow behavior. Thus, both the calibration
the presence of pressure term but lack of inertia related accelera- performance, and the consistency of flood extent and volume for
tion. The inertia-related acceleration terms would increase flow varying spatial resolution are substantially higher in the case of
concentration in sharp incised channels. diffusive and dynamic flow.
When the kinematic flow approximation is combined with The influence of spatial resolution on flood connectivity has
Saint-Venant based channel flooding, accuracy increases substan- been described earlier by Haile & Rientjes (2005). In their case,
tially. However, channel flooding only slightly increases accuracy re-sampling of flood-plain elevation influenced the hydraulic con-
in the tail of the hydrograph. The combination of diffusive flow nectivity, and thus the simulated flood extent. They conclude that,
with Saint-Venant channel flooding and a full Saint-Venant especially in terrain with high spatial variability, important details
approximation show accurate recreation of the 2003 Fella-basin in elevation are lost in coarser resolutions. When simulating flood-
flood-hydrograph. The main reason for this is shown in Fig. 7. ing within a catchment model, that includes rough upstream
The flooding during the simulation with kinematic flow is mainly topography, the effect of spatial resolution on flow connectivity
present near the main channel. When this flood water re-enters should therefore be of even higher importance. The manner in
the channel, it can quickly leave the area. For the diffusive and which flow approximations are influenced by the topography has
Saint-Venant flow, flooding takes place substantially more in the been recognized previously (Kazezyılmaz-Alhan and Medina,
upstream areas. Because of this, water takes a longer time to reach 2007). In their simulations, steeper slopes (>0.11 degrees) show
the outlet once it re-enters the channel. Thus, while addition of higher accuracy in using kinematic and diffusive wave approxima-
channel-based flooding improved calibration accuracy for kine- tions in a one-dimensional setting. In our two-dimensional simula-
matic flow, this method has limited predictive power when com- tions, similar effect are visible. Steep slopes tend to provide larger
pared to diffusive and dynamic overland flow. For these flow gravitational acceleration. Therefore, inertial and primarily pres-
approximations, flooding behavior can take place at any location, sure forces, which are ignored by the kinematic flow approxima-
allowing a greater degree of accuracy in the simulations. tion, lose relative magnitude when compared to the gravitational
While dynamic and diffusive flow outperform kinematic flow forces. The slope values for the described catchments are shown
when using a spatial resolution of 20 m, difficulties arise in the in Fig. 16. Particularly the Danandau catchment, which features
case of 40 and 80 m. For both 40 and 80 m resolution, the coarser steep slopes, and. While the catchment edges in the Fella basin fea-
resolution creates local depressions in the digital elevation model. ture very steep slopes (>40 degrees), the central river area is very
The routing network that is used for kinematic flow neglects these flat, leading to inaccurate behavior of kinematic flow. Finally, the
local depressions, while diffusive and saint Venant flow first fill Prado catchment features mostly gentle slopes (<5 degrees). As
these, leading to spurious flooded cells. Correction to the elevation expected, performance differences between flow approximations
model could be made to increase connectivity for diffusive and are less noticeable when compared to the other catchments.
dynamic flow. However, such corrections are a difficult process A final consideration in the performance of the flow approxima-
and can substantially alter slopes on a complex topography. tions in flash flood modelling is mass conservation. Typically,
numerical flow computations loss or gain water outside of the nor-
mal water balance when computational errors are made. An over-
Table 4
The Nash-Sutcliffe correlation coefficients for the simulations of the 2003 Fella-Basin view of the water balance errors in the Fella flash flood simulations
flood event. are shown in Table 5. Within the implementation of the kinematic
and diffusive flow, numerical errors are strictly limited to machine
Simulation Nash-Sutcliffe Simulation Time Mass Balance
Method Correlation Coefficient (Minutes) Error (%) precision rounding errors, since the flow advection is implemented
20 m. resolution in a strictly mass-conserving manner. For dynamic flow, this is not
Kinematic 0.42 108 7.4e12 the case, and mass balance errors increase during the simulations.
Kinematic & SV 0.76 432 1.3e3 The total amount of water lost in the full dynamic flow simulation
Diffusive 0.65 389 7.6e12 is 8.7e2. Due to the insignificant amounts of water lost during the
Diffusive & SV 0.93 532 2.5e11 simulation, there is no relationship with the quality of the
Saint Venant 0.91 621 8.7e2
simulation.
 B. Bout, V.G. Jetten / Journal of Hydrology 556 (2018) 674–688 685

Fig. 14. Flood depth maps for the 2003 Fella-Basin flood event. Use flow approximations are: Diffusive flow and Saint-Venant channel flooding (left) and Saint-Venant flow
(right). Parameters are taken from the calibrated 20 m model.

4.5. Sensitivity analysis conductivity. In these cases however, it is important to note that
a lower sensitivity does not necessarily mean higher accuracy. In
Results from a sensitivity analysis are shown in Fig. 17. Cali- the case of kinematic flow, infiltration for example, is not limited
brated parameters for the Fella flash flood simulations are shown by the hydraulic conductivity, but rather by the flow width. This
in Table 6. decreases sensitivity to a change in hydraulic conductivity. The
The result of the sensitivity analysis show several variables to diffusive flow approximation shows an especially high sensitivity
which the flow methods is highly sensitive. Both saturated conduc- for maximum flood depth and maximum flood velocity. Finally,
tivity and Manning’s coefficient have a strong influence on the out- the Saint-Venant flow shows an average sensitivity for all investi-
put of the model. The influence of model resolution on the gated variables
simulation is relatively low when compared to the saturated con-
ductivity and the Manning’s coefficient. Especially average flood
depth and flood velocity are substantially affected by the input 5. Conclusions
parameters.
The distinct flow approximations have substantial differences in Based on the simulation results, diffusive and dynamic flow
sensitivity. The kinematic flow approach has the highest sensitivity overland flow provide a substantial increase in calibration perfor-
to resolution changes. This is caused by the usage of the local drai- mance when compared to kinematic flow. In both the Danangou
nage network. This causes flow to move through the width of a sin- and Prado catchment, kinematic, diffusive and dynamic flow per-
gle cell. When cell sizes are changes, this significantly influences formed respectively least to most accurate in calibration to mea-
flow height and thus velocity. For the other methods, the sensitiv- sured hydrographs. For these catchments, with a spatial
ity of flood properties is comparable to similar detailed flood mod- resolution of 10 and 20 m, kinematic flow performed substantially
els (Haile & Rientjes, 2005; Horritt and Bates, 2001). less. In both catchments, the kinematic flow approximation over-
Generally, the kinematic flow approximation shows the lowest estimated connectivity within the catchment. Both due to flow
sensitivity to the Manning’s coefficient and the saturated concentration, the use of a routing network and decreased infiltra-
686 B. Bout, V.G. Jetten / Journal of Hydrology 556 (2018) 674–688

Fig. 15. Flood depth trends for the calibrated settings with Dynamic Wave flooding in three locations in the Fella area.

Fig. 16. Slope values for all described catchments: Danangau (left), Fella (middle), Prado (right).

Table 5
Comparison of estimated peak discharges and simulated peak discharges in the Fella basin.

Outlet Point Estimated Peak Discharge (m3 s1) Kinematic Kinematic & SV Diffusive Diffusive & SV Saint Venant
Uqua at Ugovizza 200 325 292 245 231 182
Fella at Pontebba 680 692 673 677 678 697
 B. Bout, V.G. Jetten / Journal of Hydrology 556 (2018) 674–688 687

Fig. 17. Sensitivity analysis for the 2003 Fella-Basin flood event. Values indicate relative change in output variable compared to the change in input parameter.

Table 6
Sensitivity analysis for the 2003 Fella-Basin flood event. Calibration parameters are relative to base dataset value.

Calibrated Parameters Kinematic Kinematic & Dynamic Diffusive Diffusive & Dynamic Dynamic
Initial Moisture Multiplier 0.74 0.71 1.42 1.63 1.69
Saturated Conductivity Multiplier 1.8 1.45 1.57 1.14 1.12
Manning’s N Multiplier 2.1 1.68 1.24 0.89 0.82

tion, hydrological connectivity is in some cases highly over- resolutions, the usage of kinematic flow can have a significant
estimated when kinematic flow is used. Therefore, the assump- impact on the model. Usage of this flow approximation should then
tions that lead to kinematic flow have a high influence on hydro- be based on a thorough investigation. The extent in which a kine-
logical connectivity. matic, diffusive or dynamic wave can be used in flow simulations
For simulations of flood events, kinematic flow similarly pro- at different spatial resolutions depends on the type of area and par-
vides the least accuracy. The implementation of Saint-Venant ticularly the slopes and spatial variability of the topography. In the
based channel flooding strongly increased calibration performance. case of flood simulations, the implementation of channel-based
The transition to Diffusive and Saint-Venant equations for overland flooding with dynamic flow is required for catchment-based simu-
flow further increased accuracy and realism. The best results were lations of flooding. Ignoring pressure terms by assuming infinite
obtained with a combination of diffusive overland flow and channels results in unrealistic flow heights and velocities. For the
dynamic flow for channel flooding. Both this combination and full same reason, kinematic flow was, for the Fella river simulations,
dynamic flow were able to recreate the hydrograph of the 2003 not an appropriate method for simulating overland flow. The usage
Fella-Basin flood event. The primary cause of this was that for dif- of a flow network artificially increases flow concentration and
fusive and dynamic flow, flood behavior is not limited by the pres- ignores pressure terms, which are crucial in describing the behav-
ence of a channel. For kinematic flow, flooding is initiated along the ior of flood water. Similarly, in applications related to spatial haz-
channels, limiting the predictive nature of the model. Spatial reso- ard susceptibility, usage of routing networks and kinematic flow
lution of the dataset has a significant impact on the performance of should generally only be considered as a viable alternative when
the flow approximations. In the case of coarser resolutions (40 m the investigations shows the topography, slopes and spatial resolu-
or higher), local depressions were ignored by kinematic flow. This tion do not lead to inaccurate behavior of the flow approximation.
improved the relative accuracy of this method. In the case of higher
spatial resolutions, pressure forces within water flow become Acknowledgements
important. As a result of the substantial over-estimations of con-
nectivity and flow velocity on both lower and higher spatial reso- We want to gracefully acknowledge the help of researchers that
lutions, the usage of kinematic flow could not accurately recreate kindly allowed for the use of their datasets for this research pro-
flow behavior in the simulated flood event. ject. Dr. J. E. Baartman provided the dataset for the Prado-
The performed simulations show that validity of the approxi- Catchment. Dr C. J. van Westen and Dr. D Shrestha provided the
mation is highly dependent on the type of event and the spatial dataset for the Fella Basin. Part of the data-preperation process
resolution. With the increasing availability of detailed elevation was part of the Increo Project (Increasing Resilience through Earth
data and increasing computational power, simulations with high Observation-IncREO, Grant Agreement No. 312461). Finally, Dr. R.
spatial resolutions become more common. For higher spatial Hessel provided the dataset for the Danangou catchment.
688 B. Bout, V.G. Jetten / Journal of Hydrology 556 (2018) 674–688

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