Spotlight

Read the complete article In a wind project, a flood footprint is the marking out of an area where a flood risk is present. A key objective is to estimate this risk, giving developers important information on how to arrange infrastructure to avoid it being endangered. The outline includes perennial rivers and streams, bodies of water and areas where intermittent streams pass through. To determine the flood footprint, you need to know the variables generated by the water runoff. Here, hydrologic and hydraulic analysis is necessary, which is supported by 2D hydraulic modeling.

There are a variety of programs available to generate these models, depending on the scope of the analysis. For the rainfall-runoff analysis of rural basins, SOWITEC group bases its approach on the Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS). This was developed by the US Army Corps of Engineers. For 2D hydraulic modeling, open access programs, such as IBER and HEC-RAS, are used. Processing vector data and raster files in a Geographic Information System (GIS) and importing them into the 2D modeling program obtains the hydraulic variables for the determination of the flood footprint.

Each project has a different degree of complexity in the Hydrologic-Hydraulic 2D analysis. The accuracy of the analysis depends on various factors, such has having a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) available. This DTM accurately represents the surface on the site where existing hydraulic infrastructure is placed and displays a correct representation of the site’s surge, the placement of existing hydraulic infrastructure and the correct calculation of floodplain regulation, which all enter the polygon and calibration of the site, from data measured in the field.