A Study of Soil Moisture Retention Relation using Weather Radar Image Data

Potential maximum soil moisture retention (S) is a dominant parameter in the Soil Conservation Service (SCS; now called the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)) runoff Curve Number (CN) method commonly used in hydrologic modeling for event-based flood forecasting (SCS, 1985). Physically, S represents the depth [L] soil could store water through infiltration. The depth of soil moisture retention will vary depending on infiltration from previous rainfall events; an adjustment is usually made using a factor for Antecedent Moisture Conditions (AMCs). Application of the method for continuous simulation of multiple storms has typically involved updating the AMC and S. However, these studies have focused on a time step where S is allowed to vary at daily or longer time scales. While useful for hydrologic events that span multiple days, this temporal resolution is too coarse for short-term applications such as flash flood events. In this study, an approach for deriving a time-variable potential maximum soil moisture retention curve (S-curve) at hourly time-scales is presented. The methodology is applied to the Napa River basin, California. Rainfall events from 2011 to 2012 are used for estimating the event-based S. As a result, we derive an S-curve which is classified into three sections depending on the recovery rate of S for soil moisture conditions ranging from 1) dry, 2) transitional from dry to wet, and 3) wet. The first section is described as gradually increasing recovering S (0.97 mm/hr or 23.28 mm/day), the second section is described as steeply recovering S (2.11 mm/hr or 50.64 mm/day) and the third section is described as gradually decreasing recovery (0.34 mm/hr or 8.16 mm/day). Using the S-curve, we can estimate the hourly change of soil moisture content according to the time duration after rainfall cessation, which is then used to estimate direct runoff for a continuous simulation for flood forecasting.