A Comparison of Two Hydrologic Modeling Approaches for the Estimation of Flood Frequency Distributions

Abstract

Several previous studies have compared design storms with continuous simulation results for the purposes of estimating flood frequency distributions. These previous studies were limited in scope to primarily urban single lumped catchments. This thesis attempted to perform a more detailed comparison of design storm and continuous simulation flood frequency distributions by extending the analysis to different basin types, as well as examining the effect of more complex watershed systems and storage elements (detention ponds). It was found that design storms could reasonably reproduce continuous simulation flood frequency distributions if an appropriate distribution and antecedent conditions were selected. Design storms were found to compare increasingly well to continuous simulation results in more complex watershed systems and through storage elements.