Computer Model for Flood Management Released

Computer Model for Flood Management Released

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS); Linsley, Kraeger Associates; Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Office of Water Resources; and the County of Du Page, Department of Environmental Concerns have completed a report documenting the methods, assumptions, and input required by the Full EQuations (FEQ) Model.FEQ is a complex computer program that simulates the movement of a flood through large streams and tributaries, including bridges, culverts, dams and spillways, flow over embankments, pumps, and other hydraulic structures and devices.Thus, application of FEQ is well suited for flood-plain delineation for zoning, municipal planning, flood-insurance determination, the operation of flood-control reservoirs, and planning of flood-management structures.

Charles Melching, USGS hydraulic engineer and coauthor of the report, said "The Full Equations model has been adopted by Du Page County for all flood-plain delineation and management work.The Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Office of Water Resources (IDNR/OWR) has been successful in applying this model to plan flood-control improvements on the Fox River in northeastern Illinois and to guide operation of the flood-control gates on Stratton Dam on the Fox River during floods.This documentation report will make it easier for consultants, developers, and government agencies to do flood-plain analyses in Du Page County and engineers in Illinois and around the country to improve flood-control and operations, such as that on the Fox River.The documentation report also will help make more detailed hydraulic analysis of flood-related problems more common and, thus, reduce future flood damages and other problems." Further, Melching said " The Full Equations model also may be applied for other problems where flow and depth variations with time are important, such as tidally affected rivers, operation of irrigation and power canals, and dam-break analyses."

The report titled "Full Equations (FEQ) Model for the Solution of the Full, Dynamic Equations of Motion for One-Dimensional Unsteady Flow in Open Channels and Through Control Structures," by Delbert D. Franz and Charles S. Melching, has been released as U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 96-4240.Copies of the report are available for inspection at the U.S. Geological Survey, 221 North Broadway Avenue, Urbana, Illinois, 61801.Paper and microfiche copies can be purchased at cost from the U.S. Geological Survey-Branch of Information Services, Box 25286, Federal Center, Denver Colorado 80225-0046 (telephone: (303) 202-4700). Orders must include check or money order payable to U.S. Department of Interior-U.S. Geological Survey and must specify report number WRIR 96-4240. The FEQ model and example inputs and outputs may be obtained by electronic retrieval from the World Wide Web (WWW) at http://water.usgs.gov/software/feq.html and by anonymous File Transfer Protocol (FTP) from water.usgs.gov in the pub/software/surface_water/feq directory.