Determination of Watershed Features for Surface Runoff Models

Abstract

This paper presents a new algorithm to identify watershed features like channels, ridges, and overland flow planes from a digitized elevation‐location data of discrete points of a catchment. The lateral inflow to the channels are the outflow from the planes bordering the channels. The flow of water is shown to follow distinct paths across these planes and an algorithm is developed to find out the slope, width, average length, and number of the cascade of planes contributing to a particular channel segment. A model catchment is used to demonstrate the steps of the algorithm and a real catchment is also analyzed to demonstrate the application of the algorithms developed. The data generated can be easily stored to be used in numerically based surface runoff models.