Evaluation of one-dimensional and two-dimensional hydraulic models for the generation of flood maps in a mountain river

Abstract

Introduction: The hydraulic modeling of a river is a valuable tool for forecasting its behavior for events such as floods. The city of Cuenca in Ecuador is crossed by four rivers. The Tarqui river is one of them, however, this river is considered vulnerable and with special interest in the Guzho sector area, since it presents large floods in the rainy season. This paper presents a comparative analysis of the hydraulic modeling of the Tarqui river, Guzho sector, carried out by the one-dimensional HEC-RAS and two-dimensional IBER models. Objective: Evaluating which of the models constitutes a better alternative for simulation is the objective pursued by this research. Methodology: The research design was quantitative and the evaluation of the models was based on a comparative analysis of the results of the elevations of the water level, velocities and flood areas. Results: The results show that the delimitation of flood zones is very similar in the two software; modeling in HEC-RAS is faster when entering data; IBER shows better quality in the flow images and in the river flood simulation. Conclusion: It is concluded that the IBER two-dimensional model represents a better alternative for modeling, since its water levels and the flooding area are greater than HEC-RAS, results that are considered reliable and that would allow to be on the side of safety in terms of flood management.