Errors in Stormwater Modeling—A Quantitative Assessment

Abstract

Inaccuracies in stormwater modeling can be caused by a number of factors such as errors in input data, model simplifications, parameter uncertainties, and numerical problems. This paper compares several simple, commonly used approaches to the most advanced method currently available. The advanced method develops a rainfall/runoff model which features rainfall with high spatial resolution and time‐varying loss rates, and computes surface hydrographs for every subcatchment and fully dynamic conduit routing. Twenty‐seven rainfall events, obtained from high resolution radar measurements, are applied to a hypothetical 729 ha (1,800 acres) catchment.