Retrospective Simulation of an Extreme Flood on the Oka River at the City of Ryazan and Impact Assessment of Urban and Transport Infrastructure

Numerical modeling of flow dynamics of rivers with comprehensive channel patterns and wide floodplains during high water stage is considered to be one of the most effective methods for implementing both research and civil-engineering projects. However, realistic results of simulations can be obtained only if the model has been calibrated and validated against field observations and remote sensing data. This approach is realized for a 2D hydrodynamic model of the Oka River at the city of Ryazan (central European Russia). The Oka has a meandering channel and a wide floodplain with a complicated distributary network. The feasibility of allocating new residential quarters and infrastructure facilities on artificial “islands” on the floodplain was studied using STREAM_2D software package. Because of a significant decrease in the maximum runoff of the Oka in the recent decades, the simulations were made for the extreme spring snowmelt flood of 1970 for various scenarios of floodplain development in the past, present, and future.

     

Assessing the Sensitivity of a Model of Runoff Formation in the Ussuri River Basin

A physically based model of runoff formation with daily resolution has been developed for the upper part of the Ussuri basin with an area of 24400 km² based on ECOMAG hydrological modeling platform. Two versions of the hydrological model have been studied: (1) a crude version with the spatial schematization of the drainage area and river network based on DEM 1 × 1 km with the use of soil and landscape maps at a scale of 1: 2500000 and (2) a detailed version with DEM 80 × 80 m and soil and landscape maps of the scale of 1: 100000. Each version of the model has been tested for two variants of meteorological inputs: (1) meteorological forcing data (temperature, air humidity, precipitation) at eight weather stations and (2) with the involvement of additional data on precipitation collected at 15 gages in the basin. The model has been calibrated and validated over a 34-year period (1979–2012) with the use of runoff data for the Ussuri R. and its tributaries. The results of numerical experiments for assessing the sensitivity of model hydrological response to the spatial resolution of land surface characteristics and the density of precipitation gaging stations are discussed.     

Analysis of the Impact of Hydrotechnical Construction on the Amur River near Blagoveshchensk and Heihe Cities Using a Two-Dimensional Hydrodynamic Model

Water flow and sediment transport under the effect of hydrotechnical constructions on the Amur River near Blagoveshchensk and Heihe cities was analyzed based on two-dimensional hydrodynamic modeling using STREAM_2D software (the authors V. Belikov et al., Russia). Three modeling scenarios were considered: without constructions, with the embankment of Blagoveshchensk, with the embankment of Blagoveshchensk and a system of dams near the Chinese island of Big Heihe. Modeling results have shown that the embankment has only a local effect on the part of the Amur R. upstream from confluence with the Zeya R. The construction of dams in the side channels near the island of Big Heihe can lead to significant flow redistribution, providing the flow concentration in the main river channel and reduction of the water flow, entering the island system. An increase in erosion in the main channel downstream of the confluence near the left bank and a simultaneous increase in accumulation near the right bank of the Amur R. below the island system can take place as the result of side channels shutting by dams from the right bank.