Study on the applicability of the SCS-CN-based models to simulate floods in the semi-arid watersheds of northern Algeria
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RESEARCH ARTICLE - HYDROLOGY
Study on the applicability of the SCS‑CN‑based models to simulate floods in the semi‑arid watersheds of northern Algeria Ishak Abdi1 · Mohamed Meddi1 Received: 7 December 2019 / Accepted: 6 November 2020 © Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences & Polish Academy of Sciences 2020
Abstract Algeria has experienced catastrophic floods over the second half of the twentieth century, causing many deaths and extensive material damage. This study was conducted to find a suitable event-based rainfall-runoff (RR) model for semi-arid conditions, where continuous data are not available in all regional basins. The study compared, based on data availability, the SCS-CN model based on the antecedent moisture conditions (AMC) and four modified SCS-CN models incorporating antecedent moisture amounts (AMA) in order to find the best model to reproduce the flood hydrographs in two catchments. The modified models were predominant over the SCS-CN method. Nonetheless, the Singh et al. (Water Resour Manag 29:4111–4127, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-015-1048-1) model (M4) and the Verma et al. (Environ Earth Sci 76:736, 2017a. https ://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-017-7062-2) model (M5) were superior and demonstrated more stable structures. Coupled with the Hayami routing model, the models showed promising results and were able to reproduce the observed hydrographs’ shape. However, it was impossible to choose the preferred model since they each excelled as to a criterion. Therefore, the corresponding outputs were combined using the simple average (SA) method and the weighted average (WA) method. We found that the WA method showed better results in the two catchments and allowed a more accurate prediction according to the performance criteria. Keywords AMC · AMA · Event-based · Flood prediction · RR model · SCS-CN
Introduction Recurring floods are the most devastating natural hazards in many regions of the world. Therefore, many regional authorities increased awareness of flood and inundation hazards (Pilon 2002; WMO 2004). Particular focus has been placed on climate change, urbanization growth, and landuse change (Hdeib et al. 2018). Mediterranean regions are prone to flood risk due to their local climate (Gaume et al. 2009; Llasat et al. 2010), also the case for Algeria, which experienced catastrophic floods during the second half of the twentieth century. These floods caused many deaths and Communicated by Michael Nones, Ph.D. (CO-EDITOR-I/NCHIEF)/Luigi Cimorelli, Ph.D. (ASSOCIATE EDITOR)/Renata J. Romanowicz (ASSOCIATE EDITOR). * Ishak Abdi [email protected] 1
Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Hydraulique, LGEE, Blida, Algeria
extensive material damage. The November 10–11, 2001 flood in Bab El Oued, Algiers and the flood on April 18–19, 2007, in Ghardaïa, remain the most devastating floods in recent years. They led to thousands of casualties and traumatized public opinion. As a result, protective measures have become a necessity, by using structural or non-structural strategies based on a s
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