Terraced paddy field rainfall-runoff mechanism and simulation using a revised tank model

Abstract

Terraced paddy fields play important roles in water and soil conservation because their water storage effect reduces and delays flood peaks. This study applies the terraced paddy field rainfall-runoff mechanism to the tank model. Though the traditional four-section tank model can easily simulate rainfall-runoff in a terraced paddy field, it has many parameters that are difficult to calibrate. To address the shortcomings of the traditional four-section tank model, this study develops a revised tank model to simulate rainfall-runoff. This study selects a terraced paddy field located in Hsuing-Pu village in Hsiuing-Chu County as the experimental field. The field under investigation was equipped with automatic monitoring stations, water-stage, and rain gauges. These stations collected data on rainfall and water flow to simulate the rainfall-runoff model in that region. To simulate the runoff behavior of the experimental terraced paddy field, two rainfall events were selected from the gathered data and five normal evaluation indexes based on static and hydrological theory were applied to calculate the results of simulation simultaneously. The revised tank model performed better than expected, and precisely predicted the variations and trends in flow charge. Comparison with representation indexes proved that the revised tank model is an appropriate and valuable tool for rainfall-runoff simulation. © 2010 The Author(s).