Study of Beijiang catchment flash-flood forecasting model

Abstract. Beijiang catchment is a small catchment in southern China locating in the centre of the storm areas of the Pearl River Basin. Flash flooding in Beijiang catchment is a frequently observed disaster that caused direct damages to human beings and their properties. Flood forecasting is the most effective method for mitigating flash floods, the goal of this paper is to develop the flash flood forecasting model for Beijiang catchment. The catchment property data, including DEM, land cover types and soil types, which will be used for model construction and parameter determination, are downloaded from the website freely. Based on the Liuxihe Model, a physically based distributed hydrological model, a model for flash flood forecasting of Beijiang catchment is set up. The model derives the model parameters from the terrain properties, and further optimized with the observed flooding process, which improves the model performance. The model is validated with a few observed floods occurred in recent years, and the results show that the model is reliable and is promising for flash flood forecasting.