Design Flow Estimates for Catchments in El Dorado County, CA

Boyle, D. P.; Slater, R. S.; ,

Design Flow Estimates for Catchments in El Dorado County, CA

by D. P. Boyle, El Dorado County Dep Transportation, Placerville, United States,
R. S. Slater, El Dorado County Dep Transportation, Placerville, United States,

Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: Engineering Hydrology

Abstract:

A hydrologic model consisting of a rainfall-runoff model and a set of design storms is proposed for design flow calculation in El Dorado County, California. The rainfall-runoff model will be calibrated to reproduce observed historical events for several gaged catchments which are representative of areas frequently developed within the County. Reliable discharge-frequency functions cannot be developed since streamflow records for these catchments are limited to ten years of data. Therefore, discharge frequency functions will be statistically developed for larger, less representative catchments in the eastern portion of the County that have a minimum of 25 years of data. Frequency-function quantiles (design flows for specified frequencies) will then be computed for the larger catchments with the proposed hydrologic model and compared with quantiles from the statistical frequency functions for a reasonable fit within specified confidence limits. This procedure will provide a complete evaluation of the entire hydrologic model and allow the model to be applied to compute design flows in hydrologically similar ungaged catchments within the County. Finally, less complex alternative models for small catchment runoff analysis will be identified and analyzed for consistency with the larger catchment model.

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