Using Muskingum to Calculate River Kaduna Flood Outflow (Published)
Flood is now a global nuisance that need a solution in order to save the lives and properties of communities living in flood prone areas. Communities living near River Kaduna, in northern Nigeria, have experienced almost yearly occurrence of flood in their areas. Lives and properties worth millions have been lost in recent years, which mean that there is urgent need for some mitigation measures to be taken, to avoid further catastrophe. For this reason, research work was carried out in order to see how the flood in the river can be routed, so as to give the people certain period of time to evacuate some of their properties and run into safety. The routing of the flood was carried out using Muskingum, and an equation was developed to calculate outflow in the river. A routing period of 6 hours was obtained. The model equation was used to calculate some outflows and the values obtained were compared with the measured values in m3/sec. as follows: after 6 hours, measured value is 1028.9 while calculated value is 1036.2, after 12 hours, measured value is 1172.14 while calculated value is 1182.2, after 18 hours, the measured value is 1424.5 while calculated value is 1424.8, after 24 hours, measured value is 1582.5, while calculated value is 1592.0, after 30 hours, measured value is 1586.5, while calculated value is 1593.8, after 36 hours, measured value is 1480.45, while calculated value is 1480.9, after 42 hours, measured value is 1345.0 while calculated value is 1341.5 and after 48 hours, measured value is 1216.0, while calculated value is 1209.6. This concludes that the model equation is effective and can be successfully used to calculate flood outflow, especially if the values are missing.
Keywords: Muskingum, calculated value, flood outflow, model equation, river Kaduna