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Estimation of flood hydrographs in the ungauged mountainous watershed with Gray synthetic unit hydrograph model

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Abstract

Estimating flood hydrographs in the ungauged mountainous watersheds is a challenging flood planning and management issue. It is necessary to evaluate the developed models’ performance for flood estimation in different conditions. The Gray synthetic unit hydrograph model is a developed model for estimating flood hydrographs in the ungauged mountainous watersheds with limited worldwide studies. In this study, the Gray synthetic unit hydrograph model for estimating flood hydrograph characteristics in Qareh-Sou mountainous watershed located in Kermanshah province in Iran has been investigated. Criteria for mean absolute error, mean bias error, coefficient of determination, and Kling-Gupta were estimated to evaluate the accuracy of simulation results. Based on the results, the mean values of the criteria expressed are 0.89, 0.54, 0.74, and 0.75, respectively, indicating that the Gray synthetic unit hydrograph model is quite accurate in estimating the characteristics of the flood hydrograph. The mean of percentage error in peak discharge and percentage error in volume is equal to 6.28 and 17.4, revealing that these simulations are suitable. In addition, the visual comparison of computational and observational hydrographs illustrates the remarkable accuracy of the Gray synthetic unit hydrograph model in estimating the shape of flood hydrographs in the studied events.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Water Engineering, University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran

    Erfan Bahrami

  2. Department of Water Engineering, Faculty of Water and Soil Engineering, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran

    Meysam Salarijazi

  3. Department of Agricultural and Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Shiva Nejatian

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  1. Erfan Bahrami
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  2. Meysam Salarijazi
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  3. Shiva Nejatian
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Correspondence to Meysam Salarijazi.

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Responsible Editor: Broder J. Merkel

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Bahrami, E., Salarijazi, M. & Nejatian, S. Estimation of flood hydrographs in the ungauged mountainous watershed with Gray synthetic unit hydrograph model. Arab J Geosci 15, 761 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-022-10029-1

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