FEH Method (FEH Rainfall Runoff Method)
• 24 Oct 2022
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# FEH Method (FEH Rainfall Runoff Method)

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The FEH Rainfall Runoff Method Boundary (FEHBDY) derives an inflow hydrograph from a catchment or sub-catchment. The hydrograph then becomes a boundary condition equivalent to a Flow Time Boundary. Alternatively, the rainfall component of the FEH Boundary can be used as a direct rainfall boundary (equivalent to a REBDY), when used in conjunction with a Lateral Inflow unit, by selecting the 'Hyetograph' Boundary Type Option.

## Theory and Guidance

### Introduction

The FEH Boundary is a rainfall-runoff model based on procedures described in the Flood Estimation Handbook (1999). It is essential that users of the FEH Boundary are fully conversant with the appropriate parts of the Flood Estimation Handbook - neither the software nor this documentation fully reproduce the guidance or definition of the methods presented in the Handbook. In particular, Volumes 1 and 4 of the Handbook include important guidance on the choice of methods for flood frequency estimates and on restrictions in the applicability of the methods. For example, design flow hydrographs produced by the FEH rainfall-runoff method can be highly inaccurate if parameter estimation is based solely on catchment descriptors.

For up-to-date information on the Flood Estimation Handbook please visit the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology website.

The FEH Boundary is designed to be flexible so that the components of the rainfall-runoff model (such as baseflow, percentage runoff, unit hydrograph) can either be estimated from the catchment descriptors or can be directly provided based on event data (usually the preferred option). In addition, the generated flow hydrographs can be scaled to match the flood peak obtained by the FEH statistical methods.

The rainfall-runoff model is based on unit hydrograph (UH) theory. For the required location, effective rainfall is transformed into a runoff hydrograph by convolution with the unit hydrograph. Please refer to Volume 4 of the FEH or standard hydrology texts for general details of unit hydrograph theory.

In the absence of flood event data, the parameters of the FEH rainfall-runoff model can be estimated from catchment descriptors. These catchment descriptors and the parameters of the rainfall frequency model can be obtained from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology website and/or the FEH CD-ROM (if appropriate). A facility exists within Flood Modeller to import all relevant catchment descriptors and rainfall parameters from the standard FEH CD-ROM CSV (comma separated variable) output file.

The hydrograph produced by the FEH Boundary can be checked prior to use by either clicking on the 'Calculated hydrograph' tab in the FEHBDY properties dialog in the Flood Modeller interface, or by running a 'Boundary mode' simulation. A summary of the input data and rainfall-runoff component values is written to an ASCII file with the extension '.zzb'. The hydrograph and mass balance is tabulated in an ASCII file with the extension 'zzh'. When a boundary mode run has been undertaken, the hydrographs at all hydrological boundaries can be viewed (and compared) using the Flood Modeller Interface time series feature.

You can generate a datafile with:

• only one FEHBDY node
• many FEHBDY nodes each representing versions of the same catchment (eg different return periods or model component options)
• many FEHBDY nodes each representing different sub-catchments, optionally linked to additional Flood Modeller units such as Muskingum-Cunge routing units, hydrodynamic river sections, reservoirs/ponds, structures, junctions etc.

The FEHBDY unit contains a number of options to control the method of calculation. Within the Flood Modeller ASCII data file, these options are referred to in the form xxFLAG (e.g. PRFLAG, UHFLAG etc). This format is also used below to describe the options (the Flood Modeller Interface does not require knowledge of these 'flags').

### Equations

The FEH Boundary calculates total runoff as a function of the following components:

P = precipitation; either calculated for a specific return period (ERFLAG = 'FEHER') or 'observed' (ERFLAG = 'OBSER'). This rainfall depth will use a rainfall profile either based on winter data (RPFLAG = 'WINRP'), summer data (RPFLAG = 'SUMRP'), or observed/derived values (RPFLAG = 'OBSRP').

UH = unit hydrograph; either calculated (UHFLAG = 'FSRUH') or observed/derived (UHFLAG = 'OBSUH')

PR = percentage runoff; either calculated (PRFLAG ='FEHPR') or observed/derived (PRFLAG = 'OBSPR')

BF = baseflow, either calculated (BFFLAG= 'F16BF') or observed/derived (BFFLAG='OBSBF')

Where the above components are 'calculated' then the following equations are used (new terms are either defined after introduction or are listed in the subsequent Data section).

#### Rainfall

If using the standard FEH rainfall profile (ERFLAG=FEHER):

The design rainfall depth is calculated from the depth-duration-frequency (DDF) relationships defined in FEH Volume 2 Section 2.3. The rainfall depth is multiplied by the areal reduction factor to produce areal rainfall.

#### Unit Hydrograph parameters

The unit hydrograph can either be derived from local data and specified as a time series of UH ordinates (usually preferred), or the standard FEH triangular UH can be used. Where the standard FEH UH is used (UHFLAG=FSRUH) then Tp can either be specified (TPFLAG=OBSTP) or calculated (TPFLAG = FEHTP) from:

where
= time to peak of the instantaneous unit hydrograph (hrs)
= time to peak of t-hour unit hydrograph (hrs) (generally referred to as Tp)
= peak flow of t-hour unit hydrograph (m3/s)
= data interval (hrs)
= time base of UH (hrs)
and DPSBAR, DPLBAR, PROPWET, URBEXT and CAREA are defined in the Data section and are usually obtained from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology website and/or the FEH CD-ROM (if appropriate).

#### Total Percentage Runoff

If using the FEH method and SPR to calculate percent runoff (PRFLAG = FEHPR):

, if
, otherwise.
where

, if    mm
, otherwise
= precipitation (mm)
= Dynamic Percentage Runoff
and SPR and CWI are as defined in the Data section, with SPR best obtained through analysis of local event data, but in the absence of records can be obtained from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology website and/or the FEH CD-ROM (if appropriate), and CWI may be entered directly (CWFLAG = 'OBSCW') or, for the design case, the program can calculate it from a digitised version of Figure 3.7 in FEH Volume 4.

#### Baseflow

If using the standard FSSR16/FEH calculation method for baseflow (BFFLAG = F16BF):

where
CAREA, CWI and SAAR are as defined in the Data section.

Note that several fields within the datafile are left blank (or contain zeros). This is to facilitate easier portability between the FSRBDY and FEHBDY units, i.e. fields describing FSRBDY parameters which are not used by FEHBDY or have no FEHBDY equivalent are ignored and therefore do not need to be overwritten when converting FSRBDY boundary units to FEHBDY boundaries.

#### Probable Maximum Flood (PMF)

The FEH Rainfall Runoff Method Boundary allows you to obtain a PMF (Probable Maximum Flood) estimation for the catchment using the FEH guidelines. This involves the introduction of the Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP) design storm hyetograph, including modifications to the CWI and snowmelt contributions, in addition to further modifications to other constituent factors, namely the unit hydrograph and percentage runoff. These modifications are relative to those for the T-year flood estimation. The design storm period remains unchanged. A choice of summer and winter PMPs are available. For further reading and a detailed description of the method, see the FEH Vol. IV, Chapter 4 and Hough and Hollis (2006).

Design PMP - EMP

Values for EMP2h and EMP24h, the all-year point estimated maximum precipitations (EMPs) of 2-hour and 24-hour duration for the catchment, must be supplied (in mm). Additionally, the 25-day EMP (EMP25d) is required for design storms of long duration (D > 19.1hrs). Examples of appropriate values can be found in the FEH Vol. IV, Figures 4.1-4.3.

The hyetograph is then derived from the supplied EMPs, the EM rainfall and seasonal variation factors as given in the FEH, and the areal reduction factor (ARF) at each time interval Dt, 3Dt, ... D.

For time intervals of more than 0.5hr, the ARF is calculated by Flood Modeller as a function of STAREA and STDUR from a digitised form of Figure 3.4 in the FEH Volume 4. For time intervals between 0.25hr and 0.5hr, the ARF is interpolated from values in this table. For time intervals of less than 15 minutes, the ARF is extrapolated from this table and may be inaccurate.

Design PMP - Snowmelt

For Winter PMPs, storm event and antecedent period snowmelt contributions may be added, which also may affect the CWI. Snowmelt is invoked by supplying positive values for the snowmelt rates (in mm/day). Alternatively, snowmelt rates can be calculated automatically as:

• Melt rate (storm) = 100-yr melt rate + melt rate due to storm rain energy
• Antecedent melt rate = 100-yr melt rate + melt rate due to antecedent rain energy

The 100-year melt rate and melt rate energy are determined based on the following:

100-yr melt rate = M100:M5 growth rate × 5-yr melt rate

Melt rate energy =
where
= rain depth (mm) and is that for either the storm event or antecedent period, as appropriate
= storm duration (for storm energy); = antecedent duration (= 2 × storm duration) for antecedent rain energy
= temperature above freezing (= temperature in ˚C)
and the 5-year melt rate and M100:M5 growth rate are obtained by a regression equation based on Northing and Altitude (ALTBAR), and using extreme value analysis based on the nearest available weather station, respectively.

When using snowmelt, a value for S100 (100-year snow depth water equivalent, in mm) must also be set. The snowmelt contribution to the precipitation at during each time interval Dt is therefore

Dt * melt rate

subject to enough snow from the total S100 being available.

For Summer PMPs, no snowmelt contribution will be added, irrespective of whether a snowmelt rate is supplied.

Design PMP - CWI

For the Catchment Wetness Index (CWI) for a PMP, the equation used is:

with the estimated antecedent rainfall given by

where
is the Areal Reduction Factor related to a time of duration
is the seasonal point Estimated Maximum Precipitation related to a time of duration

For a Winter PMP, if a snowmelt option is chosen, the CWI is the summation of the CWI due to antecedent rainfall and the CWI due to antecedent melt, and is further incremented by:

where
is the amount of snow melting over the antecedent period

If the amount of snow remaining from S100 after the contribution from the storm period has been removed is insufficient, then the necessary adjustments are made according to FEH Vol IV, Section 4.3.4.

The calculation for baseflow is dependent on CWI, therefore this value will also be different from that for the T-year flood estimation.

Frozen Ground SPR

The calculated percentage runoff method remains the same as that for the FEH T-year flood estimation FEH with the exception that a Winter PMF is assumed to contain the frozen ground adjustment that the SPR cannot be lower than 53%. If this frozen ground adjustment is not required for a Winter PMF, then the user should manually calculate a percentage runoff and select an Observed PR.

Unit hydrograph time-to-peak

The calculated time-to-peak of the PMF instantaneous unit hydrograph is adjusted by a factor of 0.67 from that of the standard FSR unit hydrograph, thus:

If an Observed time-to-peak is selected, it is assumed that this factor is contained within the value and no adjustment is made.

### General

The user is referred to the Flood Estimation Handbook, for full details of the derivation, application and limitations of the rainfall-runoff method.

The FEH recommends that where possible, certain of the rainfall-runoff model parameter values obtained from catchment descriptors are replaced with, or revised using, values from observed data. General recommendations on parameter estimation are:

• If suitable event data are available then the FEH recommends calculating Tpfrom such data, for example

where
is the time between the centroid of rainfall and centroid of hydrograph peak
• The data interval, t, should be small enough that the flood hydrograph is well defined. A data interval of 10%-20% of the Tp(0) is usually suitable. This should then be rounded off to a convenient value such as 0.25, 0.5, 1 or 2 hours.

It is usually important to find the critical values of parameters such as storm duration and storm profile which give the largest flood peak (or largest flood volume in some cases). The sensitivity of the model results to these parameters is described in the FEH and some conclusions are:

• For deriving design events the FEH recommends use of the 75% winter profile or 50% summer profiles. On predominantly rural catchments (URBEXT < 0.125) the 75% winter profile is recommended. On more urban catchments (0.125 ≤ URBEXT ≤ 0.5) the 50% summer profile is recommended. These two profiles are included as options in the FEHBDY unit and can be accessed by setting the options RPFLAG to 'WINRP' or 'SUMRP' respectively.
• Simulated peak flows can be sensitive to D, the storm duration. For the design case, the recommended storm duration for critical flood peak is:

With D taken as the nearest odd integer multiple of t. Note that with reservoired catchments or semi-distributed catchment modelling it will be necessary to consider a range of durations. The raw value of D, i.e. not adjusted for t, is output under "Critical Storm Duration" in the *.zzb (data summary) file after an unsteady or boundary mode simulation. NB The value of Tp used is the time to peak of the t-hour unit hydrograph.

In the FEH procedure the flow return period is not necessarily equal to the storm (rainfall) return period.

• In rural or only moderately urbanised catchments (URBEXT < 0.125) the FEH procedure provides a relationship between the storm and flow return periods (e.g. a 140-year storm return period is said to produce a 100-year return period flow).
• For urban catchments (0.125 ≤ URBEXT ≤ 0.5), the storm and flow return periods are assumed to be equal.

The FEHBDY unit will use this relationship to calculate storm return period if the storm return period in the datafile is set to zero. For highly urbanised catchments (URBEXT > 0.5), FEH procedures are not recommended, and, in such cases, a non-fatal warning message will be displayed.

The point rainfall calculation (ERFLAG='FEHER') is derived from a Depth-Duration-Frequency (DDF) model (FEH, Volume 2, Chapter 2). For a valid DDF model, the storm return period must be greater than one year, whereas one greater than 10000 years is not recommended. Furthermore, the parameters were based on observations of return periods of no greater than 1000 years. When importing the parameters for the DDF method from the FEH CD-ROM output, the values used are c,¼,f, rather than c(1km),¼,f(1km). The Flood Modeller implementation of the DDF model is based on a sliding duration rainfall (FEH Volume 2 Section 2.5), rather than a fixed duration.

For user-input unit hydrograph ordinates, the user may specify the units of these values from a selection of four commonly used units. These are any combination of 1cm or 1mm of effective rainfall depth covering either the whole catchment area or per 100km2. These units will also be used in the various unit hydrograph output options, either textually (*.zzb and *.zzh files) and graphically, via the user interface. The units specified also apply for output when deriving the unit hydrograph by the FEH (FSR) method.

Whilst the FEHBDY is essentially a UK-specific lumped single event rainfall-runoff model, the underlying unit hydrograph approach is applicable to other countries if the various components of the model are defined using local data.

## Data

Field in Data Entry Form

Description

Name in Datafile

ALTBAR

Mean catchment altitude (m). Only used in derivation of event and antecedent period snowmelt rates. Range 0.0 to 9968.0

ALTBAR

Antecedent Melt Rate

Rate of snowmelt (mm/day) during the antecedent period. Used in CWI calculations. This is converted to the appropriate units and added to the runoff hydrograph. The facility to include snowmelt is not part of the standard rainfall frequency method.

AMRATE

ARF

Areal reduction factor to relate point rainfall to areal rainfall. If set to zero then the areal reduction factor is calculated by Flood Modeller as a function of STAREA and STDUR from a digitised form of Figure 3.4 in the FEH Volume 4. If STAREA is set to zero then CAREA is used. Range 0.0 to 1.0

arf

Baseflow Value

User-defined baseflow (m3/s)

BF

Minimum flow

Adjusted baseflow (m3/s). Usually zero. Forces the resultant hydrograph to be not less than the specified flow. This may be required for program stability

Baseflow Calculation Method

Baseflow flag. FEH (bfflag='F16BF'): use FSSR16/FEH calculation method for baseflow, or Observed (bfflag='OBSBF'): use user-defined baseflow value.

BFFLAG

Simulation Type

Flow values to use during simulation, can be one of:

'base flow' (bfonly)

'peak flow' (pfonly)

'full hydrograph' (<blank>; default)

For example, if 'base flow' is selected then the baseflow contribution is used for the boundary flow value for the whole simulation.

bfonly

c

DDF model parameter c

c

CALCRATES

Override of snowmelt rates provided with calculated values. Override on (CALCRATES = 'CALCTRUE'): snowmelt rates during the storm event (SMRATE) and antecedent period (AMRATE) are recalculated from catchment parameters at simulation runtime. Override off (CALCRATES = 'CALCFALSE'): use user-input values. A blank value is equivalent to CALCFALSE.

CALCRATES

Tp Coefficient

Calibration factor for Tp (eg CALIB=1.1 increases Tp by 10%). Default value is 1.0

CALIB

Catchment Area

Contributing catchment area (km2)

CAREA

Catchment Wetness Index Flag

Catchment wetness index calculation flag. FEH (cwflag='FSRCW'): use user-input value. For a PMF calculation, selecting FEH uses the PMF CWI calculation (cwflag='PMFCW')

CWFLAG

Observed CWI

Catchment wetness index (mm)

CWI

Country Flag

Country location flag. GB for Great Britain or NI for Northern Ireland.

CYFLAG

Storm Duration

Storm duration (hrs)

D

d1

DDF model parameter d1

d1

d2

DDF model parameter d2

d2

d3

DDF model parameter d3

d3

DPLBAR

Mean drainage path length (km)

DPLBAR

DPSBAR

Mean drainage path slope (m/km)

DPSBAR

e

DDF model parameter e

e

Easting

Easting coordinate of catchment outflow (Only used in derivation of event and antecedent period snowmelt rates.)

easting

Em-2h

Estimated maximum 2-hour rainfall (mm). Used in PMP calculation only.

EMP2h

Em-24h

Estimated maximum 24-hour rainfall (mm). Used in PMP calculation only.

EMP24h

Em-25d

Estimated maximum 25-day rainfall (mm). Used in PMP calculation only.

EMP25d

Event Rainfall Flag

Event rainfall flag. FEH (erflag='FEHER'): use FEH method to calculate rainfall depth: PMF (erflag='PMFER'): use the FEH method to calculate a PMP depth or Observed(erflag='OBSER'): use user-input rainfall depth

ERFLAG

f

DDF model parameter

f

Use Equal Return Periods

When this field is set to (force= 'FORCE'), the program stops if Tf is not equal to Ts for the SUMMER rainfall profile option.

FORCE

Boundary Type Flag

Boundary mode flag: 'HYDROGRAPH' (the default if blank) denotes a generated hydrograph (i.e. the unit behaves as a QTBDY); 'HYETOGRAPH' indicates that it behaves as a REBDY-type unit, applying the Rainfall profile to a Rainfall-Only boundary (the latter must be used in conjunction with a lateral inflow node)

hymode

Node Label

Node label identifier

Label

Northing

Northing coordinate of catchment outflow (Only used in derivation of event and antecedent period snowmelt rates.)

northing

n/a

Number of rainfall profile values (maximum of 4600)

nrp

n/a

Number of unit hydrograph values (maximum of 400)

nuh

Rainfall depth

Event rainfall precipitation (mm)

P

PR

Percentage runoff (range 0 - 100)

PR

Runoff Flag

Percentage runoff calculation flag: FEH (prflag='FEHPR'): use FEH method and SPR to calculate percent runoff; or Observed (prflag='OBSPR'): use user-input PR value.

PRFLAG

Percentage Runoff Option

Option for variable or fixed percentage run-off. Keyword either 'FIXED' or 'VARIABLE'. If VARIABLE then the method used is to scale the specified PR value (or that calculated from a specified SPR) during the storm based on the method described in FEH Volume 4 Section A.5.2

PRVAR

PROPWET

Proportion of time catchment soil moisture deficit (SMD) was below 6mm during the period 1961-1990. (Range 0.0 - 1.0)

PROPWET

Storm Profile: Rainfall

rp

Storm Profile Flag

Rainfall profile option:

• observed - rpflag='OBSRP'
• 75% winter or Winter PMP -rpflag= 'WINRP'
• 50% summer or Summer PMP - rpflag = 'SUMRP'

75% winter and 50% summer profiles are taken from Figure 3.5 in FEH Volume 4

PMP profiles are used if a PMF event is selected, and are derived using Section 4.3.2 in FEH Volume 4

RPFLAG

Use refined rainfall profile

If checked (refine rp=1), uses a finer discretisation of the standard FSR/FEH rainfall profiles - can prevent 'blocky'rainfall profiles for long storm/short data interval events

refine_rp

SAAR

Standard annual average rainfall (mm)

SAAR

Hydrograph Scaling Method:Scale

Hydrograph scaling method: 'FULL' (scaling ='FULL'; default) scales the whole hydrograph; Quick Runoff (scaling='RUNOFF'): scaling only applies to the quick runoff component of the hydrograph.

Used in conjunction with SCFLAG and scfact.

SCALING

Method

Hydrograph scaling option. By a factor of ('scflag='SCALE' [default]) - applies the specified factor; To fit peak of (scflag='PEAK') - fits the hydrograph peak to the specified value.

SCFLAG

Hydrograph Scaling Option

If SCFLAG=PEAK then all hydrograph ordinates are scaled (by a constant value) to achieve a peak flow of scfact

If SCFLAG=SCALE then all hydrograph ordinates are multiplied by scfact (default is 1.0)

scfact

S100

100-year snow depth water equivalent (used in PMP calculations only)

S100

Snow Melt Rate (Storm)

Rate of snowmelt (mm/day) during the storm event period. This is converted to the appropriate units and added to the runoff hydrograph. The facility to include snowmelt is not part of the standard rainfall frequency method.

SNRATE

SPR

Standard percentage runoff (range 0 - 100)

SPR

Storm Area

Storm area (km2) when STAREA is entered as zero then STAREA is set to CAREA

STAREA

Storm Duration

Storm duration (hrs). Should be the nearest odd integer multiple of t

STDUR

Data Interval

Time interval used for rainfall profile and unit hydrograph (hrs)

t

Temperature

Average temperature (oC). Default value 10, minimum 0. Only used in derivation of event and antecedent period snowmelt rates.

TEMP

Time Delay

Optional delay time (hrs), e.g. if tdelay=2hrs then the hydrograph will start 2hrs after the start time of the simulation

tdelay

Rainfall Return Period

Storm return period (years). If set to 0.0 then calculated from Figure 3.2 of FEH Volume 4. Must be > 1 year

Ts

Flood Return Period

Flood return period (years)

Tf

Tp value

User-defined time to peak of t-hour unit hydrograph (hrs)

Tp

Tp Calculation Method

Unit hydrograph Tp flag. FEH (tpflag='FEH16P'): use FEH method to calculate unit hydrograph time-to-peak, or Observed (tpflag='OBSTP'): use user-defined value.

TPFLAG

Storm Return Period

Storm return period (years). If set to 0.0 then calculated from Figure 3.2 of FEH Volume 4. Must be > 1 year

Ts

UH Ordinate

Unit hydrograph ordinates with data interval t (see units)

uh

UH Time

unit hydrograph time (hrs)

TB Scale Factor

Unit hydrograph time base (TB) adjustment factor. New time base is uhbadj multiplied by the calculated TB value. The UH peak is adjusted accordingly to preserve its unit property.

n/a

Scaling factor for the unit hydrograph ordinates. Only used if the 'units' keyword is not recognised. If zero or blank then units of m3/s/mm are used. (Not accessible from the user interface.)

uhfctr

Unit Hydrograph Flag

Unit hydrograph flag. FEH (uhflag='FSRUH'): use standard FSR/FEH triangular hydrograph, or Observed (uhflag='OBSUH'): use user-defined unit hydrograph.

UHFLAG

Units

Units of the unit hydrograph ordinates. Keyword can be one of:

• 'cm100k': 1cm depth over 100km2 (units = m3/s/cm/100km2)
• 'cmarea': 1cm depth over catchment area (units = m3/s/cm)
• 'mm100k': 1mm depth over 100km2 (units = m3/s/mm/100km2)
• 'mmarea': 1mm depth over catchment area (units = m3/s/mm)
• The conventional units are m3/s /cm/100km2

units

URBEXT

Extent of urban/suburban land cover (range 0.0 - 1.0)

URBEXT

n/a

Elevation (m AD). Not used in FEHBDY computations

z

## Datafile Format

### General

Line 1 : Keyword 'FEHBDY' [comment]

Line 2 : Label

Line 3 : z, easting, northing

Line 4 : tdelay, t, bfonly, SCFLAG, scfact, hymode

Line 5 : CYFLAG

Line 6 : CAREA, <blank>, <blank>, <blank>, URBEXT, ALTBAR

Line 7 : STAREA, STDUR, <blank>, SNRATE, SN100, TEMP, AMRATE, CALCRATES

Line 8 : SAAR, <blank>, <blank>, <blank>, FORCE

Line 9 : ERFLAG

Line 10 : P (if ERFLAG = 'OBSER')

Line 10 : Tf, Ts, arf, c, d1, d2, d3, e, f (if ERFLAG = 'FEHER')

Line 10 : <blank>, <blank>, arf (if ERFLAG = 'PMFER')

Line 11 : CWFLAG

Line 12 : CWI (if CWFLAG = 'OBSCW')

Line 12 : <blank> (if CWFLAG = 'FSRCW' or 'PMFCW')

Line 13 : PRFLAG, PRVAR

Line 14 : PR (if PRFLAG = 'OBSPR')

Line 14 : SPR (if PRFLAG = 'FEHPR')

Line 15 : TPFLAG

Line 16 : CALIB, Tp (if TPFLAG = 'OBSTP')

Line 16 : CALIB, DPLBAR, DPSBAR, PROPWET (if TPFLAG = 'FEHTP')

Line 17 : BFFLAG

Line 18 : BFADJS, BF (if BFFLAG = 'OBSBF')

Line 18 : BFADJS (if BFFLAG = 'F16BF')

Line 19 : UHFLAG

Line 20 : 0, units, uhfctr (if UHFLAG = 'FSRUH')

Line 20 : nuh, units, uhfctr (if UHFLAG = 'OBSUH')

Line 21 to Line 20+nuh : uh (if UHFLAG = 'OBSUH')

Line 21+nuh : RPFLAG

Line 22+nuh : 0, em2h, em24h, em25d (if ERFLAG = 'PMFER')

Line 22+nuh : 0 (if RPFLAG = 'WINRP', ERFLAG¹ 'PMFER')

Line 22+nuh : 0 (if RPFLAG = 'SUMRP', ERFLAG¹ 'PMFER')

Line 22+nuh : nrp (if RPFLAG = 'OBSRP')

Line 23+nuh to Line 22+nuh+nrp : rp (if RPFLAG = 'OBSRP')

where items in square brackets are optional, and other parameters are as defined in the data section.

### Example

FEHBDY
M029
0.000    385115    242872
0.000     0.250          SCALEFACT      1.000HYDROGRAPH     1.000      FULL  OVERRIDE
GB
16.1700     0.000     0.000     0.000     0.005       400
0.000     5.250     0.000   168.471   200.000        10    96.011  CALCTRUE
1175.000     0.000     0.000     0.000
PMFER
0.000     0.000     0.000     0.000     0.000     0.000     0.000     0.000     0.000
FSRCW
0.000
FEHPR     FIXED
42.760
FEHTP
1.000     5.170   178.100     0.520
F16BF
0.000
FSRUH
0         mmarea
WINPMP             1
0   158.000   290.000   500.000

## References

Flood Estimation Handbook (1999)
Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford, Oxfordshire (formerly the Institute of Hydrology). December 1999ISBN 0 948540 94 X. Vol 1: Overview. Vol 2: Rainfall Frequency Estimation Vol 3: Statistical Procedures for Flood Frequency Estimation Vol 4: Restatement and Application of the Flood Studies Report Rainfall Runoff Method Vol 5: Catchment Descriptors Flood Estimation Handbook at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology website. An FEH CD-ROM is also available from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology containing data for flood frequency estimation covering the entire United Kingdom.
Hough, M. N. and Hollis, D (2006)
Rare snowmelt estimation in the United Kingdom, Meteorological Applications, Science and Technology for Weather and Climate, Volume 5, issue 2.