Title

Comparison of floodplain surface roughness parameters derived from land cover data and field measurements

Authors

Authors

S. C. Medeiros; S. C. Hagen;J. F. Weishampel

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

J. Hydrol.

Keywords

Surface roughness; Field measurements; Manning's n; Canopy; Effective; roughness length; SUBMERGED FLEXIBLE VEGETATION; CONTERMINOUS UNITED-STATES; SCANNING; LASER ALTIMETRY; ANCILLARY DATA SOURCES; THEMATIC MAPPER DATA; AERODYNAMIC ROUGHNESS; HYDRAULIC RESISTANCE; SPATIAL VARIABILITY; SOUTHERN LOUISIANA; FURROW IRRIGATION; Engineering, Civil; Geosciences, Multidisciplinary; Water Resources

Abstract

Parameterizing surface roughness is a key element in the application of tidal and storm surge inundation models. In this context, surface roughness refers to the ability of the terrain to act as a momentum sink to the overland water flow and also the prevailing winds that help drive this flow. These effects are typically parameterized using estimates of Manning's n, surface canopy coverage and effective aerodynamic roughness length which vary spatially across the modeling domain as a function of the physical landscape. The current methodology for coastal inundation in the United States assigns these parameters based on published land use/land cover data such as the National Land Cover Dataset. This paper compares those assigned values to values computed based on field measurements at 24 sites in Florida that are representative of land use/land cover classes affected by storm surge. It is shown that while the land use/land cover method is capable of automatically parameterizing surface roughness over a large model domain, parameter prediction errors due to variability within land cover types, misclassification, and parameter value selection for specific land cover classes at the local level are significant which could result in inaccurate estimates of inundation extent and duration. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Journal Title

Journal of Hydrology

Volume

452

Publication Date

1-1-2012

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

139

Last Page

149

WOS Identifier

WOS:000306777500013

ISSN

0022-1694

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