Sensitivity Analysis of Flood Routing Parameters with Dynamic Wave Model

Knowledge of the amount of flood occurrence has a significant impact on reducing human and financial damages caused by the flood. When a flood wave moves downstream a river, its characteristics such as the peak, the time to peak and the duration of the hydrograph will be modified by channel irregularities and roughness. In this study, the one dimensional Saint-Venant equations were simulated with Pressman method, an implicit finite difference scheme, by MATLAB software. Then, the sensitivity analysis of flood routing parameters was studied by using data from three catchments. Analytical investigation of the results indicated that the mean of the absolute value of the sensitivity index for the peak discharge and roughness coefficient parameters are more than other input parameters, and they are 59.33 and 29.95 percentage, respectively. Therefore, it can be said that the outputs of dynamic wave model are more sensitive than these parameters.