Area Flood Model Delayed
Delhi News Bureau
May 13, 2009 07:49 am
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The Delaware River Basin Commission's flood-analysis model has been delayed because of its complexity and is now expected to be available sometime this summer.

The model is being developed by an interagency team led by the U.S. Geological Survey.

"The USGS and its two federal partners are adapting existing model applications to develop the flood analysis model for the DRBC," DRBC Executive Director Carol R. Collier said in a media release. "While all three agencies are well-versed in the use of these types of models, it is proving to be more time intensive than originally expected to represent multiple watersheds and reservoirs, each with unique characteristics, for a river system as large and diverse as the Delaware."

The USGS is the lead agency, working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Hydrologic Engineering Center and the National Weather Service. The components include rainfall runoff, localized hydrologic conditions and snow pack.

When completed, this tool will help evaluate the potential impacts that different storage levels at 15 major reservoirs would have had on flooding at forecast points located downstream for storms in September 2004, April 2005 and June 2006, the latter often known as the Flood of 2006.

Model results are expected to be among the many considerations that inform reservoir management and policy decisions focusing on competing water-storage demands in the basin.

According to the DRBC's website, the model is not intended to be run in a real-time mode for flood forecasting or to direct operational changes during flooding.

Work on the flood-analysis model began in August 2007. It was among the 45 recommendations identified by the Delaware River Basin Interstate Flood Mitigation Task Force.

More information can be found on the commission's website at www.drbc.net.