Washoe County Flood Forecasting System

As part of efforts to improve flood warning and mitigation in Washoe County, Nevada, Riverside Technology, inc. (RTi) implemented its RiverTrak® system, a real–time hydrologic forecasting application, at the Washoe County Department of Water Resources (DWR) office in Reno, and at the National Weather Service (NWS) Reno Weather Forecast Office (WFO). The RiverTrak® system uses real–time precipitation, temperature, and streamflow observations to produce streamflow forecasts at specified locations within a basin that typically are not addressed in larger scale institutional modeling. For the Washoe County system, forecasts are produced for four points located at United States Geological Survey (USGS) streamflow gages around Reno.

Precipitation and Streamflow plot output from RTi's RiverTrak® System

The main models used in the RiverTrak® system for the Washoe County implementation include the Sacramento Soil Moisture Accounting (SAC–SMA) model and the Snowpack model. Incorporation of the Snowpack model was important due to the heavy influence of snowmelt processes on runoff during the winter and spring seasons. Additional features include graphical user interfaces (GUI) to input Quantitative Precipitation Forecast (QPF) estimates and to update snow water equivalent (SWE) values. QPF inputs allow the user to visualize resulting streamflow hydrographs both with and without precipitation forecasts. SWE updating provides a means to use field–estimated values to adjust the Snowpack model states, thus improving model results. RTi continues to provide maintenance and support to Washoe County.

2290 East Prospect Road, Suite 1, Fort Collins, Colorado 80525  (970) 484–7573  (970) 484–7593 Fax www.riverside.com   info@riverside.com