Comparison of field application of Muskingum-Cunge based schemes in rivers

Muskingum-Cunge is one of the widely employed methods for flood routing. Direct calibration of the model based on previous flood events is not required and the routing parameters in this method are determined according to physical characteristics and hydraulic conditions of the stream. During the last decade, different modifications were proposed for the method to increase its accuracy. In this paper Muskingum-Cunge method and its different modifications have been presented and the applicability and the precision of the proposed schemes were determined. To study the applicability of constant and variable parameter Muskingum-Cunge method in field conditions, some observed flood events of Karoon River have been routed with these methods. Inflow hydrographs were routed by the mentioned method and the results were compared with that of the observed values of the downstream end of the reach. The results were also compared with the outputs obtained by routing the same hydrographs by HEC-RAS hydrodynamic model. The results of this study demonstrated successful performance of the simplified routing methods and showed that in circumstances where the availability of intensive data required by hydrodynamic model are limited, relying on such simplified method would provide satisfactory results. Based on comparison among the results of the employed method with that of the hydrodynamic one, the most suitable method for the studied condition is determined.