By Dr.
Shakil Ahmad
Introduction & Importance of HEC-HMS
Installation of HEC-HMS
HEC-HMS Model Components
Graphical User Interface (GUI)
Developing a HEC-HMS Project
Create a New Project
Input Data Preparation
Create a Basin Model
Create a Meteorological Data
Define Control Specifications
Create and Compute a Simulation Run
View Model Results
Example for HEC-HMS Project
HEC-HMS Projects Home Assignment
Simulation of Precipitation-Runoff Processes of a Watershed
Simulation of Channel & Reservoir Routing
By Dr. Shakil Ahmad
Main Web Page:
[Link]
Download:
[Link]
Documentation:
Quick Start Guide
User's Manual
Applications Guide
Technical Reference Manual
[Link]
By Dr. Shakil Ahmad
HEC-HMS simulates the precipitation-runoff processes
Applicable in a wide range of geographic areas, includes large river
basin water supply & flood hydrology, and small urban or natural
watershed runoff
Hydrographs produced by HEC-HMS program are used for studies of:
Water availability
Urban drainage
Flow forecasting
Future urbanization impact
Reservoir spillway design
Flood damage reduction
Floodplain regulation
Systems operation
By Dr. Shakil Ahmad
Now, lets build a simple HEC-HMS model to see how this system works.
Choose File/New
Type in a Name and Description for the Project, select a file location, and select
a Unit System for the project as US Customary Units (the default is SI units)
Hit Create to create this Project File.
By Dr. Shakil Ahmad
HEC-HMS contains a series of Components, and in this project, lets start with the
Basin Model Manager
We need to create a New basin model, for which the default name is Basin 1.
You should enter a short description of this basin, and select Create.
and close the Basin Model Manager window.
By Dr. Shakil Ahmad
Now, when you look back at your HEC-HMS main interface, you’ll see that the
Test project now has an entry for Basin Models and if you expand that, you’ll see
Basin 1 appears. If you click on Basin 1, you’ll see lots of things open up on your
screen:
In particular, there are on the top line, a series of Basin Elements
By Dr. Shakil Ahmad
And if you mouse over them, you’ll see what kind of element each one is. Lets
select the Subbasin Creation Tool
If you click within the Basin Model window, you’ll be able to create a new
Subbasin:
By Dr. Shakil Ahmad
And if you expand your Basin 1 model icon, you’ll find you’ve now got some
options to define the properties of your Subbasin.
By Dr. Shakil Ahmad
Lets make the area of Basin 1 to be 20 square miles, and select the SCS Curve
Number and User-Specified Unit Hydrograph as the Loss Method and Transform
Method options. Select None as the Baseflow Method
Lets choose a curve number of CN = 60
By Dr. Shakil Ahmad
The curve number method was developed by the USDA Natural Resources
Conservation Service, which was formerly called the Soil Conservation Service
(SCS) — the number is still popularly known as a "SCS runoff curve number”
The runoff curve number (also called a curve number or simply CN) is an
empirical parameter widely & efficiently used in hydrology for predicting
approximate direct runoff or infiltration from rainfall excess in a particular area
The runoff curve number is based on the area's hydrologic soil group, land use,
treatment and hydrologic condition.
The runoff equation is , where
Q is runoff
P is rainfall
S is the potential maximum soil moisture retention after runoff begins
Ia is the initial abstraction or amount of water before runoff, such as infiltration or
rainfall interception by vegetation; & it is generally assumed that Ia=0.2S
CN has a range from 30 to 100; lower numbers indicate low runoff potential while
larger numbers are for increasing runoff potential. The lower the curve number,
the more permeable the soil is.
By Dr. Shakil Ahmad
Ok, now lets specify User-Specified Unit Hydrograph of Basin 1.
Select Components/Pair Data Manager data type Unit Hydrograph Curves
and Create a new Unit Hydrograph Curve called UHG 1 for our model
By Dr. Shakil Ahmad
Now, when you return to the main HEC-HMS screen, you’ll see a UHG 1
component appear:
We are going to specify Unit Hydrograph manually associated with the Basin 1
By Dr. Shakil Ahmad
Specify the Unit Hydrograph ordinates manually associated with the Basin 1:
Now we are going to specify Unit Hydrograph associated with the Basin 1:
Use File/Save to save the properties of the Basin Model
By Dr. Shakil Ahmad
Now lets put some precipitation our model.
Select Components/Meteorologic Model Manager
And create a new Test Precipitation called Met 1 for our model
By Dr. Shakil Ahmad
Now, when you return to the main HEC-HMS screen, you’ll see a Met 1
component appear:
We are going to use the Specified Hyetograph method and put some rainfall in
associated with a gage. But, first, lets used the Basins tab to let the
Meteorologic Model know that we are applying this meteorology to the
Subbasins in this model:
By Dr. Shakil Ahmad
Ok, now lets specify our Hyetograph at a gage. We’ll create an artificial one since
we don’t yet have actual gage rainfall to work with.
In the components, select Time Series Manager
Select Precipitation Gages and Create a new precipitation gage called Gage 1 for
our model
By Dr. Shakil Ahmad
Choose Incremental Inches for the Precipitation & 15 Minutes as Time Interval
By Dr. Shakil Ahmad
Once you save those choices, you’ll be able to edit the Time Window
And lets add the precipitation in the Table view. Note that you cannot enter
anything into the first time interval 00:00
By Dr. Shakil Ahmad
Now, lets go back to Meteorologic Model & link Specified Hyetograph to Gage 1
Use File/Save to save the properties of the Meteorologic Model
By Dr. Shakil Ahmad
The last thing that we need to specify is the Control Specifications Component
and set up a Control 1 Specifications
By Dr. Shakil Ahmad
And lets enter the specifications as shown below
This defines the time period of the simulation and the time interval within that at
which computations will be performed.
By Dr. Shakil Ahmad
Ok, after this rather laborious process of specifying all the input information, we
are now ready to do a simulation run. Choose Compute/Create Simulation Run
Choose the default name Run 1
By Dr. Shakil Ahmad
Select test basin,
Test Precipitation
and Control specifications
And now you hit Finish and you’re ready to go
By Dr. Shakil Ahmad
Select Compute Run [Run 1]
And everything computes.
Ignore the warnings about:
missing precipitation values and Unit hydrograph "UHG 1" volume does not match
unit volume for subbasin "Subbasin-1".
By Dr. Shakil Ahmad
Now, go to the Basin Model display, right click on Subbasin-1 and select View
Results [Run 1] Graph
By Dr. Shakil Ahmad
Select View Results [Run 1] Summary Table
Determine the total precipitation, losses, & amount of excess rainfall.
By Dr. Shakil Ahmad
Select View Results [Run 1] Time-Series Table