Basic Strategies to Perform Calibration of a Hydrologic Model (Win TR20) for Purposes of More Accurate Analysis Related to Planning/Design of NRCS Dams for Their Rehabilitation

The United States faces a growing number of aging flood control dams in need of rehabilitation. These dams have largely performed well upon reaching their design service life. Questions emerge as to their hydrologic design adequacy going forward into their next service life upon rehabilitation. Are the empirical values used within the hydrologic modeling of a dam accurate enough to commit funding towards their rehabilitation or risk lives and resources downstream of them? Calibration of the hydrologic model for the dam, using recording style rain and reservoir staff gages, becomes possible during the early stages of planning. Results obtained through this calibration effort may afford more confidence within the hydrologic models used for dam rehabilitation design. An example of hydrologic calibration and analysis of a sample dam will be demonstrated.