Routing

In the Routing method properties dialogue, routing of flow as well as water level calculations can be included.

Routing can be used to model the hydraulics of upstream tributaries and sec­ondary river branches, where the main concern is to route water to the main river system.

Routing is a simplified hydraulic calculation. Normally, simulation of hydro­graph mitigation along a branch is based on the shallow water equations, which require cross section information. However, routing doesn't require such cross sections. The concept of routing is basically transformation of a hydrograph, i.e. calculating the modified hydrograph (different peak value and adjusted shape) at a given location based on the hydrograph at the upstream point and simple parameters. Typically, routing may be used to represent a reach of a river, a reservoir or a structure.

Note that the following applies to routing branches:

·         Routing branches cannot be used to model a looped part of a river net­work.

·         Use of routing branches requires that all branches located upstream of a routing branch are also routing branches. Routing can however be com­bined with regular branches, if these are located downstream the routing branches.

·         Runoff from catchments can be included in a routing branch.

·         The routing method does not support the use of structures at routing branches.

·         The routing method does not account for backwater effects.

·         If no routing point is inserted in a routing branch, the outflow will equal the inflow.

To allow for the insertion of routing components into a branch, the branch type must be defined as "Routing", in the 'Branches' menu. Routing locations can be added or deleted using the Append '+' or Delete '-' buttons above the overview table located in the lower part of the window.