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Hec-ras based hydrodynamic model in prediction of stages of lower tapi river

Article in ISH Journal of Hydraulic Engineering · June 2012

DOI: 10.1080/09715010.2011.10515050

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HEC-RAS BASED HYDRODYNAMIC MODEL IN

PREDICTION OF STAGES OF LOWER TAPI RIVER
a b c
P. V. Timbadiya M.ISH , P. L. Patel M.ISH & P. D. Porey F.ISH
a
Department of Civil Engineering , S.V. National Institute of Technology , Surat ,
395007 E-mail:
b
Department of Civil Engineering , S.V. National Institute of Technology , Surat ,
395007 E-mail:
c
S.V. National Institute of Technology , Surat , 395007 E-mail:
Published online: 07 Jun 2012.

To cite this article: P. V. Timbadiya M.ISH , P. L. Patel M.ISH & P. D. Porey F.ISH (2011) HEC-RAS BASED HYDRODYNAMIC
MODEL IN PREDICTION OF STAGES OF LOWER TAPI RIVER, ISH Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, 17:2, 110-117, DOI:
10.1080/09715010.2011.10515050

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 (11 0) Vol. 17 (2)

THE INDIAN SOCIETY FOR HYDRAULICS

JOURNAL OF HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING

HEC-RAS BASED HYDRODYNAMIC MODEL IN PREDICTION

OF STAGES OF LOWER TAPI RIVER
by
P. V. Timbadiya1, M.ISH, P. L. PateP, M.ISH and P. D. Porey3 F.ISH
ABSTRACT
Hydrodynamic model of the lower Tapi river from Ukai dam to Surat city has been developed using well
known unsteady open channel flow code HEC-RAS using field surveyed geometric data of the stream with
appropriate upstream and downstream boundary conditions. The flood flows of years 1998, 2003 and 2006
have been simulated in the said model. The observed and simulated flood and stage hydrographs are compared
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at different stations on the river. The performance statistics reveal that simulated flood flows are in close
agreement with observed flows. The model can be used for the flood forecasting in lower Tapi river downstream
ofUkai dam.
KEYWORDS : Hydrodynamic model, Unsteady, Simulation, Flood and stage hydrograph, Validation, HEC-
RAS.

INTRODUCTION
The industrial city, Surat, is located on tail portion of lower Tapi river, which is the second largest west
flowing river in Indian Peninsula. Flood, during year 2006, alone caused major devastation to the Surat city
and a loss to the tune of more than Rs. 21000 crore was reported (Thak:ar, 2007). Heavy rainfall in the
upstream of Ukai dam, is the main cause of floods in the lower Tapi river. There are three main control
structures, namely, Ukai dam, Kak:rapar weir and Singanpur weir, on lower Tapi river. The length of the reach
from Ukai dam to Surat city is approximately 110 km on which only four stream gauging stations are available.
Hydrodynamic model, which can simulate the river stages and flow hydrographs at various locations in the
said river, is needed for flood forecasting, its management and adoption for future flood protection works.
Presently, no such hydrodynamic model of the lower Tapi river, exits for prediction of stages at the Surat city
for different releases from Ukai reservoir. An attempt has been made, to simulate the different past floods
using HEC-RAS hydrodynamic model for lower Tapi river taking flood hydrograph at Ukai dam and stage
hydrograph at Surat city (Hope bridge station) as upstream and downstream boundary conditions respectively.
The aforementioned hydrodynamic model could be useful in computation of flood situation in lower Tapi basin
including the Surat city.

MODEL DESCRIPTION
The HEC-RAS model is based on Saint-Venant equations (Eqs. (1) and (2)) formulated primarily for
unsteady gradually varied flow in the natural channels (Chow et al., 1988; HEC, 2002) .

(1)

1. Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, S.V. National Institute of Technology-Surat-395007.

E-Mail : pvtimbadiya@ced.svnit.ac.in
2. Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, S.V. National Institute of Technology-Surat-395007.
E-Mail : plpatel@ced.svnit.ac.in
3. President ISH, Director, S.V. National Institute of Technology-Surat-395007.
E-Mail : director@svnit.ac.in
Note: Written discussion of this paper will be open until 31st December 2011

ISH JOURNAL OF HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING, VOL. 17, NO.2, 2011

 Vol. 17 (2) HEC-RAS BASED HYDRODYNAMIC MODEL IN PREDICTION (111)
OF STAGES OF LOWER TAP! RIVER

aQ+ a( Q2 I A) +gA -+g

- aH A( S0-- S f -
)- 0 (2)
at ax ax
where A = cross-sectional area normal to the flow; Q = discharge; q = lateral inflow/outflow in/from the
channel; g =acceleration due to gravity; H =elevation of the water surface above a specified datum; So= bed
slope; S1 = longitudinal boundary friction slope; t = temporal coordinate and x = longitudinal coordinate.
Equations (1) and (2) are solved using the well known four-point implicit box finite difference scheme. This
numerical scheme has been shown to be completely non-dissipative but marginally stable when run in a semi-
implicit form, which corresponds to weighting factor ( 8) equal to 0.6 for unsteady flow simulation (HEC,
2002).

HEC-RAS takes, by default, weighting factor ( 8) equals to 1 and allows the users to specify any value
between 0.6 to 1. The box finite difference scheme has limitation due to its inability to handle transitions
between subcritical and supercritical flow, as a different solution algorithm is required for these flow conditions.
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It has been made possible to overcome aforesaid limitation in the present study by using HEC-RAS and
employing a mixed-flow routine to patch solution in sub reaches (HEC, 2002).
STUDY REACH
The Tapi river originates from Multai (Betul district) in Madhya Pradesh (M.P.) at an elevation of 752 m
having length of 724 km and falls into the Arabian Sea at little beyond Surat city. The total drainage area of the
Tapi is 65145 km2 out of which 9804 km2, 51504 km2 and 3838 km2 respectively lie in Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra and Gujarat states. The Tapi basin has elongated shape with maximum length 687 km from east
to west and maximum width of 210 km from north to south, see Fig. 1. Surat city is located at the delta region
of Tapi river. The Tapi basin is divided in three sub-basins namely, upper Tapi basin (up to Hathnur), middle
Tapi basin (Hathnur to Gighade) and lower Tapi basin (Gidhade to the outfall in the Arabian Sea) (Jain et al.,
2007).

74' E 76' E 78' E

21'N

20'N
0 50000 m
'-----'

FIG. 1 TOPOGRAPHICAL FEATURES OF TAPI BASIN

GEOMETRIC AND HYDROLOGIC DATA

The data required for simulation of flow in HEC-RAS are channel geometry, upstream and downstream
boundary conditions and channel resistance in form of Manning's n.
Geometric data of lower Tapi river was collected from the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) as contour
map in Auto CAD ( .dwg file) format. The cross-sectional data of the river under consideration were extracted
from the map. The study reach is about 103.5 km long and has mild slope throughout the length. The effect of
meandering has been neglected as there is no reasonable curvature seen in study reach by providing expansion
and contraction coefficient as 0.3 and 0.1 respectively. In all, 135 cross-sections were extracted for the analysis
in the reach under study. Flood hydrograph at Ukai dam and stage hydrograph at Hope Bridge (in Surat city)
were considered as upstream and downstream boundary conditions. The Manning's roughness coefficient 'n'

ISH JOURNAL OF HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING, VOL. 17, NO.2, 2011

 (112) HEC-RAS BASED HYDRODYNAMIC MODEL IN PREDICTION Vol. 17 (2)
OF STAGES OF LOWER TAP! R1VER

has been taken as 0.035 for analysis (Chow, 1959). Detail configuration of Singanpur weir was collected from
SMC while configuration of Kakrapar weir was obtained from Surat Irrigation Circle (SIC), Govt. of Gujarat.
The Kakrapar weir and Singanpur weir, with crest width 2.4 m and 10 m respectively, having ogee and broad
crested shapes, the discharge coefficients have been calculated as 1.88 and 1.67 for the respective weirs
(Subramanya, 1998).
The CWC (Central Water Commission) has three gauging stations on the lower Tapi river, namely, Ukai,
Ghala and Hope bridge. Hourly water level for all gauge stations along with hourly discharge at Ghala station
for monsoon period (June to October of a particular year) was collected from the CWC, Surat for years 1990
to 2008.
Surat Irrigation Circle provided hourly data of outflow from Ukai Dam, Kakrapar weir as well as hourly
stages at Ukai Dam, Kakrapar weir and Hope Bridge (Surat city) in written manual format for year 1998,
2003 and 2006.
SIMULATION PARAMETERS
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During the computations, the numerical parameters such as time step and weighting factor ( 8) are involved
and taken as 10 minutes and 0.6 respectively.
Simulation of Stages using HEC-RAS
HEC-RAS is used to simulate the stages for flood flow during years 1998, 2003 and 2006 among which
1998 and 2006 were the most flood years. The extreme events of the said year are simulated using the
aforementioned model. The simulated stage hydrographs were compared with observed stage hydrograph at
Kakrapar weir and Ghala station for duration mentioned in Table 1.

TABLE-1
DATA USED FOR SIMULATION OF PAST FLOODS IN LOWER TAPI RIVER
Sr. Flow Simulation Output storage Computation Gauge station
No. year duration interval (Total time step used for validation
number of Time steps)
1 1998 Sep-15,12:00 to 1 hour (229) 10min Kakrapar and Ghala
Sep-25, 24:00
2 2003 Aug-25, 1:00 to 1 hour(264) 10min Kakrapar and Ghala
Sep-4, 24:00
3 2006 Aug-3, 12:00 to 1 hour(481) 10min Kakrapar
Aug-23, 24:00
Table 2 presents percentage error in computation of maximum flood levels, using Eq. (3) (Hick and Peacock,
2005).
m simulated flood level- observed flood level JOO
-;o error= x (3)
observed flood level

TABLE-2
PERCENTAGE ERROR IN COMPUTATION OF FLOOD LEVEL IN LOWER TAPI RIVER

~ r
1998
Kakrapar
0.862
Ghala
3.109
2003 0.078 14.030
2006 0.646 12.080

Further, Table 3 presents a further comparative statistics for the various years flood levels in validation, in

ISH JOURNAL OF HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING, VOL. 17, NO.2, 2011

 Vol. 17 (2) HEC-RAS BASED HYDRODYNAMIC MODEL IN PREDICTION (113)
OF STAGES OF LOWER TAP! RIVER

terms of root-mean-square error (RMSE) [Eq. (4)], the mean absolute difference [Eq. (5)] and mean difference
[Eq. (6)] (Shatnawi and Goodall, 2010).

RMSE= (4)
n
where Wo = observed water level in meter, w. = simulated water level using developed model and n= total no.
of reference data points.
n
LI(W0 -W5 ~
Mean Absoluted Difference= -'-i_ _ __ (5)
n
n
L(W0 -W5 )
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Mean Difference=..:..i_ _ __ (6)

n

TABLE-3
PERFORMANCE OF HEC-RAS MODEL IN COMPUTATION OF
PEAK FLOOD LEVELS FOR LOWER TAPI RIVER

~
Kakrapar Ghala
RMSE Avg. absolute Avg. RMSE Avg. absolute Avg.
(m) Difference(m) difference (m) Difference(m) difference
1998 0.2509 0.2191 -0.1457 1.3222 1.1066 -0.7911
2003 0.1078 0.1021 0.0951 0.7908 0.7216 -0.6148
2006 0.8220 0.6261 0.6261 1.6513 1.2708 -0.8534

55 --Observed water level

_....__ Simulated water level
54

-... 53

-!J
Q)
52

...
~
51

50

49
0 100 200
Tirre (hour)

FIG. 2 OBSERVED AND SIMULATED FLOOD LEVELS AT KAKRAPAR (YEAR 1998)

ISH JOURNAL OF HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING, VOL. 17, NO.2, 2011

 (114) HEC-RAS BASED HYDRODYNAMIC MODEL IN PREDICTION Vol. 17 (2)
OF STAGES OF LOWER TAPI RNER

Tables 2, 3 and Figs. 2, 4 and 6 show that simulated stages from the model are in close agreement with
observed water levels for the years 1998, 2003 and 2006 at Kakrapar weir gauging station. However, the
performance of the model is not as good at Ghala station (See Tables 2, 3 and Figs. 3, 5 and 7) for the floods
of all years which may be ascribed to the fact that flow in the plain area (Ghala Station) may not be concentrated
in the channel and flow becomes two dimensional due to its spilling in the flood plain area. Further, the
difference of occurrence of simulated and observed flood peaks at Kakrapar weir have been found to be 1 hour,
0 hour and 0 hour for floods of years 1998, 2003 and 2006 respectively. On the other hand, the same values for
Ghala station have been found to be 1 hour, 1 hour and 2 hour for floods of years 1998, 2003 and 2006
respectively. The simulated and observed peak discharges for the worst flood for year 2006 were found to be
25781 m 3/s and 25706 m 3/s respectively.

25 --Observed water level

__.__ Simulated water level
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-....
20

-~ 15

10

5+-------~------~-r--------~------~--------~
0 100 200
Tirre (hour)
FIG. 3 OBSERVED AND SIMULATED FLOOD LEVELS AT GHALA (YEAR 1998)

51 - - Observed water level

~ Sirrulated water level

50

49+-------~------~----~~----~------~------~
0 100 200 300
Tirre (hrur)
FIG. 4 OBSERVED AND SIMULATED FLOOD LEVELS AT KAKRAPAR (YEAR 2003)

ISH JOURNAL OF HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING, VOL. 17, NO.2, 2011

 Vo1.17 (2) HEC-RAS BASED HYDRODYNAMIC MODEL IN PREDICTION (115)
OF STAGES OF LOWER TAP! RIVER

11 - - Observed water level

- - - Sirrulated water level

10
"C'
~
-J
E
9

.9:!
'-

~ 8
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7+-----~~-----T------~------r-----~------~
0 100 200 300
Tirre (hrur)

FIG. 5 OBSERVED AND SIMULATED FLOOD LEVELS AT GHALA (YEAR 2003)

57 - - Observed water level

- - - Sirrulated water level
56

-~
'-
55

54

-
J
E

Q,)
53

'- 52

~ 51

50

49
0 100 200 300 400 500
Tirre (hrur)

FIG. 6 OBSERVED AND SIMULATED FLOOD LEVELS AT KAKRAPAR (YEAR 2006)

ISH JOURNAL OF HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING, VOL. 17, NO.2, 2011

 (116) HEC-RAS BASED HYDRODYNAMIC MODEL IN PREDICTION Vol. 17 (2)
OF STAGES OF LOWER TAP! RIVER

30 - - Observed water level

---- Sirrulated water level
25

20

15

10
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5+----r--~----~--~--~----~--~--~----~~
0 100 200 300 400 500
Time (hrur)

FIG. 7 OBSERVED AND SIMULATED FLOOD LEVELS AT GHALA (YEAR 2006)

CONCLUSIONS
Simulation of unsteady flow of Tapi river between Ukai dam to Hope bridge (Surat city) has been carried
out using HEC-RAS with weighting factor ( 8) as 0.6 and Manning's roughness coefficient 0.035 (Chow,
1959).
Simulated stage hydrographs produced by HEC-RAS model are in close agreement with the observed flood
levels for year 1998 at Kakrapar and Ghala stations. The simulated flood levels for year 2003 at Kakrapar is
in excellent agreement with observed flood, while percentage error in flood level prediction at Ghala station is
more than 10%. Also, the worst flood for year 2006 at Karkrapar was simulated and the values are in close
agreement with observed values at the same station. In all the cases, the trends of simulated floods were found
to be similar with observed floods. The model could not predict the flood stages well in the plain area (Ghala
station) due to its inability to simulate two dimensional flow situations.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are thankful to All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), New Delhi for financial
support to carry out present investigation under the Nationally Coordinated Project (NCP) on "Development
of Water Resources and Flood Management Centre at SVNIT-Surat". Authors are also grateful to Central
Water Commission, Surat Irrigation Circle (Govt. of Gujarat) and Surat Municipal Corporation for provisioning
of data under said scheme.

REFERENCES
Chow, V. T. (1959). Open Channel Hydraulics. McGraw-Hill, New-York.
Chow, V. T., Maidment, D. R. and Mays, L. W. (1988). Applied Hydrology. McGraw-Hill, New York.
Hicks, F. E. and Peacock, T. (2005). Suitability ofHEC-RASfor Flood Forecasting. Canadian Water Resources
Journal, CWRA, Vol. 30(2), pp. 159-174.
Jain, S. K., Agarwal, P. K. and Singh, V. P. (2007). Hydrology and Water Resources of India. Springer
Netherlands, Part-3, Vol. 57, pp. 561-565.

ISH JOURNAL OF HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING, VOL. 17, NO.2, 2011

 Vo1.17 (2) HEC-RAS BASED HYDRODYNAMIC MODEL IN PREDICTION (117)
OF STAGES OF LOWER TAPI RIVER

Shatwani, F. M. and Goodall, J. L. (2010). Comparison of Flood Top Width Predictions using Surveyed and
LiDAR-Derived Channel Geometries. Journal of Hydrologic Engineering, ASCE Vol. 15,No. 2, pp. 97-
106.
Subramanya, K. (1998). Flow in Open Channels. Tata Mc-Graw-Hill Publishing Company Limited, New
Delhi.
Thakar, G. (Executive Secretary) (2007). People's Committee on Gujarat Floods 2006: A Report. Unique
Offset, Ahmedabad, July 2007.
Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC) (2002). HEC-RAS, River Analysis System. Hydraulic Reference Manual,
HEC, http://www.hec.usace.army.mil/software/hec-ras/documents/HEC-RAS_4.0_Reference_Manual.pdf
(Nov. 5, 2008).
NOTATIONS
A = cross-sectional area perpendicular to the flow
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g = acceleration due gravity

H = elevation of the water surface above a specified datum
n = total no. of reference data points
Q = discharge
q = ateral inflow/outflow in the channel
st = longitudinal friction slope
s 0 = bed slope
t = temporal coordinate
w 0 = observed water level in meter
w s = simulated water level using developed model
X = longitudinal coordinate
e = weighting factor

ISH JOURNAL OF HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING, VOL. 17, NO.2, 2011

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