Hydrologic and hydraulic modelling integrated with GIS: A study of the Acaraú River Basin – CE

Abstract

The paper presents a case study integrating hydrologic models, hydraulic models and a geographic information system (GIS) to delineate flooded areas in the medium-sized Acaraú River Basin in Ceará State, Brazil. The computational tools used were HECHMS for hydrologic modelling, HEC-RAS for hydraulic modelling and HEC-GeoRAS for the GIS. The results showed that a substantial portion of the riverine populations of the cities of Sobral, Santana do Acaraú and Groairas were affected by floods. Overall, the flood model satisfactorily represents the affected areas and shows the locations with the greatest flooding.