CONCLUSIONS


A diffusion hydrodynamic model is developed for use in civil engineering flood plain studies. The diffusion hydrodynamic model capabilities may provide the practicing engineer with a flood control modeling capability not previously available, and only at the price of a home computer. Although several applications are provided in this report, further research is required for the verification of predicted flooding depths, travel times, and other important hydraulic information.

For one-dimensional unsteady flow channel routing problems where back-water effects are negligible, the comparisons made between the diffusion and kinematic routing approximations have shown significant differences, which may be important to watershed models based on the kinematic routing technique. Because the diffusion (noninertia) routing technique is simple to implement, and includes additional terms for better hydraulic approximation, it is recommended that all kinematic-wave based hydrologic models be modernized by using the diffusion-routing technique. Especially for the backwater effects, ponding and flooding due to the deficiencies of the capacities of the flood control channels can now be modeled by the DHM simultaneously.

The current version of the diffusion hydrodynamic model has been successfully applied to a collection of one- and two-dimensional unsteady flows hydraulic problems including dam-breaks, and flood system deficiency studies. Consequently, the diffusion hydrodynamic model promises to result in a highly useful, accurate, and simple to use (although considerable topographic data may be needed depending on the size of the problem) computer model, which is of immediate use of practicing flood control engineers. Use of the diffusion hydrodynamic model in surface runoff problems will result in a highly



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