Kinematic Wave Routing and Computational Error

Abstract

The standard kinematic wave (KW) method used in many models of open channel flow routing of runoff hydrographs in watershed models is examined as to the significance of the computational errors due to numerical‐diffusion and the selection of computational effort. It is shown that a wide range of modeling results are possible from a KW model depending on the choice of computational reach length and time‐step size used in the KW approximation. In comparison, the simple convex hydrologic routing method demonstrates only a small fraction of the variation in results demonstrated by the KW model. It is recommended that use of the KW method for channel routing in watershed models be reconsidered.