Surface Rainfall-Runoff Analysis Using NRCS Curve Number and Semi-Distributed Model in Urban Watershed of Jeju Island, Korea

Abstract:

Rainfall-runoff modeling is a basic tool for assessing hydrological processes where natural features (geology and geography) play a pivotal role. Due to global warming, the trends of torrential rainfall and typhoon events have been found to increase spontaneously in Jeju Island of Korea. As such, the island has been shown distinctive hydrologic characteristics. The study therefore, attempts to analyze the diversified rainfall-runoff characteristics of Jeju Island during extreme hydrologic events. The study domain covers mostly the urban areas of island and the most prominent Hancheon Stream which restrains most of its overland runoff during rainfall. For watershed delineation, 30-m resolution’s digital elevation model (DEM) generated from contours and 50 years’ (1964-2013) historical rainfall data from the Korea meteorological administration (KMA) were used. Furthermore, geo-spatial data collected from the Korean society of agriculture engineers (KSAE) has been used for soil texture and land use classification. Some identical studies implied to predict semi-distributed (e.g. SWAT and WMS) watershed model runoff in the island. However, the significance of this study is that it considers a GIS semi-distributed model to imply NRCS curve number technique and predict accurate results for unique runoff characteristics, by considering high catchment slope. Rainfall data from 2009 to 2013 has been used as baseline information to estimate annual runoff variations, which has been used in the spatial and statistical analyses. The study infers that the simulated runoff percentages varied from 18% to 44%, accounting for the temporal fluctuations of rainfall.  Afterwards, to assess the ten year interval relationship between rainfall-runoff, the study uses historical rainfall data of Jeju-si meteorological station and four rainfall station. Lastly, the ongoing rainfall-runoff analysis will be concluded by comparing the runoff result with SWAT model result.

Keywords: NRCS curve number, Semi-distributed model, GIS, Jeju Island