Revitalisation of the FSR/FEH rainfall-runoff method
This page describes the outputs from the research project (FD1913) 'Revitalisation of the FSR/FEH rainfall-runoff method' funded through the Joint Defra/Environment Agency Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management R&D Programme. The research was carried out by CEH during the period 2001-2005. One of the outputs is a supplementary report to the Flood Estimation Handbook.
A new lumped conceptual rainfall-runoff model, the Revitalised Flood Hydrograph (ReFH) model, has been developed for modelling flood events. The ReFH model is based on robust hydrological modelling techniques and is considered to be an improvement over the existing FSR/FEH model. It enables a more direct and transparent description of flood-generating mechanisms and introduces the concept of seasonal variation in soil moisture content, design rainfall and baseflow.
Using the ReFH model, design flood hydrographs can be generated for a specified initial soil moisture content and a design rainfall event of the required return period. Both soil moisture and rainfall are specified on a seasonal basis depending on the degree of urbanisation of the catchment under consideration (summer conditions for urbanised catchments and winter conditions for rural catchments).
To support the dissemination of the revitalised FSR/FEH rainfall-runoff method to the wider user community, the Environment Agency funded CEH to develop a series of software tools to assist in the generation of design hydrographs, analysis of observed events and reservoir routing studies. The project outputs include:
- Defra report — the final report from the FD1913 project, detailing the background and development of the revitalised FSR/FEH rainfall-runoff method, available from the Defra website: Enter "FD1913" in the box entitled 'Project search by', then select the Technical Report "Revitalisation of the FSR/FEH rainfall runoff method" [3033k].
- Spreadsheet implementation of the design method — available as a free download.
- ReFH software package — a comprehensive software package assisting in the estimation of ReFH parameters through analysis of observed event data, as well as design flood estimation and reservoir routing, is available from Wallingford HydroSolutions Ltd* (external link).
- Flood Estimation Handbook Supplementary Report — summarising the underlying research and providing user guidance to the revitalised FSR/FEH rainfall-runoff method report, available here as a free download — high resolution [5Mb] or low resolution [1.8Mb] in PDF format.
A ReFH User Forum was held at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology in Wallingford in October 2006 to discuss initial experiences of applying the revitalised FSR/FEH rainfall-runoff method. Over 60 delegates attended the meeting and information from the meeting is summarised here:
- Abstracts of the presentations [23.6kb]
- Summary of the discussion [32kb]
- Summary table of inter-relationships between projects for design flood analysis [84.8kb]
NB: The above PDF reports require Acrobat Reader.
*Sales and support of the Flood Estimation Handbook and related software are provided by Wallingford HydroSolutions. Links to buy these products will take you to an external website
