WaterWare models: RRM Rainfall-Runoff Model

The RRM rainfall-runoff model is a dynamic, vertically distributed, horizontally lumped (sub)basin scale water budget model that operates at a daily or hourly timestep. It is designed for ungauged sub-catchments, estimating their outflow as a function of basin characteristics including, primarily, elevation distribution, land cover and land use, and rainfall and temperature as dynamic inputs. Its primary purpose is to provide input (time series of daily flow) to the WRM water resources model for sub-catchment start or input nodes.

The basic rainfall-runoff model, its concepts, input data, processes and various outputs are described in some detail in the on-line WaterWare Manuals.

Wherever observation data are available, an automatic calibration scheme based on patterns rather than the individual observation data and implemented as a nested Monte Carlo scheme with rule-based constraints is available. RRM scenarios can be defined interactively, or exported from the calibration tool.

Web Implementation

Selecting a scenario from the list leads to the main display page for scenarios:

Scenario Info

This is the central, top level page that leads to the main function groups:
1. edit scenario
2. view results
At the level of the scenario, the user can
• delete the scenario
• copy the scenario
• run the scenario
the latter options depends on the availability of a complete and error free scenario definition and is only applicable if no results are already availablew for the current scenario - a status bar provides this information, and the color of the respective buttons also indicate their applicability: grey signifies that the function is currently not available.

The page itself provides a summary of the scenario, including: name and description, owner/author, location and basin, start and end dates, creation and last modification, and an overview of the basic input data sets used:

• Basic basin data
• Land use distribution
• Elevation distribution
• GIS data
• Daily precipitation
• Daily temperature

Edit Scenario

The Scenario Editor lets the user define the scanario name and a short description, the location (case study) and the basin or catchment within the case study, and the start date (year and month) of the run. User/owner and the last modification date are also shown, but are read only, determined automatically.

The Scenario Editor offers three functional pages:

1. The top level (Scenario info) with the scenario header and the selection and display for the daily time series:
   • daily precipitation
   • daily temperature
   • oberserved flow (optional).
2. Model Parameters   for editing all basin and model parameters and (basin specific) constants;
3. Area/Elevation   which supports editing of the elevation distribution, used to adjust precipitation and temperature with the orography of the basin.

View Results

The results page (top level) shows the overall water budget, plus a time series of calculated runoff, optionally compared with observed flow data.

This page also contain a button to export the outflow time series to the time-series data base, so that it can be re-used as input for other models such as WRM.

The options for four additional pages with detailed, specific information, include:

1. details: this shows additional time series of daily data such as baseflow, surface runoff, soil moisture, evpotranspiration, groundwater recharge, snow and snow melt where applicable.
2. numerical: detailed alphanumerical output in text and tabular format.
3. monthly: tabular summary of monthly results and corresponding time series graphs.
4. statistics (not yet implemented, and contingent on the availbility of a matching observed flow time series) that compare the computed and observed flow in terms of the basic statistics and the correlation or goodness of fit of the model results.