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56 students
HEC-HMS Exercises
Mastering HEC-HMS: Structured Video Exercises
Created byTim Nelson
Last updated 8/2025
English
What you'll learn
- Apply multiple precipitation methods, including gage weighting, inverse distance, interpolation, and gridded datasets.
- Import, process, and validate external datasets such as MRMS, PRISM, and NOAA Atlas 14 precipitation and temperature grids.
- Implement and compare different loss methods (Initial & Constant, Green-Ampt, Deficit and Constant, Linear Deficit) in watershed models.
- Build rainfall–runoff simulations using a variety of transform methods, including Clark, ModClark, and S-graph approaches.
- Route flows through river reaches with methods such as Lag, Muskingum, Muskingum-Cunge, Modified Puls, and Diffusion Wave.
- Configure baseflow and reservoir methods, including linear reservoir, recession, specified releases, rule-based releases, and storage-discharge curves.
- Calibrate and optimize hydrologic models using simplex optimization, parameter expression calculators, and regional estimation techniques.
- Integrate advanced components such as snowmelt, sediment transport, depth-area reduction, and terrain processing to build complete watershed studies.
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Course content
14 sections • 68 lectures • 23h 33m total length
Requirements
- This course is intended to be a companion course to accompany the HEC-HMS Lessons course. Rather than cover each topic one at a time, these exercises provide full working examples of building and running a working reservoir model, which will combine a number of the topics covered in the HEC-HMS Lessons videos.
Description
** All videos are downloadable **
Put your HEC-HMS knowledge into practice with this hands-on exercise series, designed to complement and extend the concepts introduced in the HEC-HMS Lessons course. In this companion course, you’ll move beyond individual methods and step-by-step tutorials to work through complete hydrologic modeling scenarios that integrate precipitation, losses, transforms, baseflow, routing, snowmelt, and reservoir elements into fully functioning watershed models. Each exercise emphasizes practical application—building, calibrating, and analyzing simulations that reflect real-world hydrologic systems and study workflows.
You’ll experiment with multiple precipitation methods including gage weighting, gridded data, inverse distance, and interpolation, as well as explore advanced tools for importing, normalizing, and validating MRMS, PRISM, and NOAA Atlas 14 datasets. Exercises also cover loss estimation methods from Initial and Constant to Green-Ampt and Deficit approaches, alongside parameter optimization using simplex, expression calculators, and regional estimation techniques. Transform and routing scenarios include Clark, ModClark, lag, Muskingum, Muskingum-Cunge, and diffusion wave methods, paired with baseflow, reservoir, and storage-discharge curve applications.
Beyond rainfall-runoff simulation, you’ll practice with snowmelt and sediment transport methods, apply depth-area reduction techniques, and use temporal patterns to build hypothetical storm events. The course also introduces terrain processing workflows in QGIS, parameter regionalization, and calibration at gage locations, helping you connect conceptual modeling to observed data. As with the lessons course, you’ll leverage HEC-HMS’s visualization and reporting tools to interpret results, but here the focus is on integration, problem-solving, and realistic applications across diverse watersheds and events.
By the end of the course, you’ll have completed a wide range of end-to-end HEC-HMS exercises and developed the confidence to apply your skills to consulting projects, watershed studies, flood risk assessments, and research applications. Completion of the HEC-HMS Lessons course is recommended, but not required, especially for users with prior exposure to hydrologic modeling.
Who this course is for:
- This course is ideal for beginners new to watershed modeling, professionals looking to build or expand their skills in HEC-HMS, and experienced users seeking a structured refresher on event-based and continuous simulation workflows. Whether you're a civil engineer, hydrologist, water resources planner, or stormwater manager, you’ll gain practical tools and techniques to support flood studies, urban drainage design, and watershed assessments.