Flooding a 

square domain with 
River2D
Refresh: the model theory

Shallow‐water equations:

 ud u 2 d uvd






 gd
 d


 S 0x

   gdS fx 
1


x

dTxx   1  dTxy
 y

 t x y  x 
 vd uvd v 2 d  d 

   
 gd   S0 y    gdS fy 
1


 
dTyx 
1 
 y

dTyy 
 t x y  y  x
 ud vd d
   0
 x y t

+ BC, IC

(refer to slides «2D modelling» of River Hydraulics for further details)

Refresh: what was done in River Hydraulics

Steady modelling only

Use of River2D (www.river2d.ualberta.ca), therefore
operational procedure involved:

• Creation of bed

• Creation of computational mesh

• Numerical simulation with appropriate BC & IC (false 

unsteady mode)

(refer to slides «introduction to river2d» of River Hydraulics for further details)

A simple exercise: data

Square domain with:
• width and height = 200 m
• slope Sx = 0.002, Sy = 0.005
• inflow area as a channel with width = 20 m
• outflow area along the bottom side
• roughness height k = 0.2 m
• flooding discharge Q = 10 m3/s (constant)
 A simple exercise: requests

• Create a suitable geometry and an associated .bed file;
• decide how to model inflow and outflow, possibly adapting 
the bed topography to the choice;
• create the computational mesh;
• assign appropriate boundary conditions;
• recognize which parameters must be set to perform a 
transient simulation and assign values;
• set appropriate output options to monitor the obtained 
solution and to get qualitative and quantitative information;
• characterize the propagation of the front;
• quantify expected depths and velocities;
• assess the result sensitivity to the identified parameters.
in ground water flow , conductivity and gredient are inversitly proportional
if we reduce the transmissiibility and we need less conductivity and biger gradient
rhe sorativity
the boundary condition doesnt change on the , becouse of the big slope and the boundary conditionneed to be recipected
A simple exercise: concept

Square domain with:
• width and height = 200 m
…Which BCs and ICs do we need?
• slope Sx = 0.002, Sy = 0.005
• inflow area as a channel with width = 20 m
• outflow area along the bottom side
• roughness height k = 0.2 m
• flooding discharge Q = 10 m3/s (constant)
A simple exercise: concept

Square domain with:
• width and height = 200 m
…Which BCs and ICs do we need?
• slope Sx = 0.002, Sy = 0.005
• inflow area as• a channel with width(corresponds
Inflow hydrograph = 20 m to two BCs)
• outflow area along the bottom side
• Outflow depth
• roughness height k = 0.2 m
• Initial condition in terms of inflow depth
• flooding discharge Q = 10 m3/s (constant)

Care!
A simple exercise: implementation

River2D works with:
• bed file (.bed) handling the geometry
• mesh file (.msh) with the computational mesh
• model file (.cdg) with the BC/IC and simulation results

• hydrograph file (.bcq)
• file with monitor points (.csv)
A simple exercise: bed creation

Possible sequence of operations:

• create the matrix of points;
• label boundary (ccw) and breaklines;
• local adaptation.

Try. If unsuccessful, refer to file «geometry_square.txt» that was created from «create_geo.m» 

and «geometry_square.xls»
A simple exercise: groundwater parameters
A simple exercise: monitor points and result visualization

Find a sample file for monitor points on the BeeP

A simple exercise: obstructions

After meeting requests for the former case, let us now assume that

this square is not a floodplain but a urban area; we need to add
obstructions.

It can be done from the bed editor, pay attention to be clock‐wise.

Same requests as for the previous case without obstructions.