Controls of flash flood peak discharge in Mediterranean basins and the special role of runoff-contributing areas

Rinat, Yair; Marra, Francesco; Zoccatelli, Davide; Morin, Efrat

doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.08.055

Cited by 19 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 102 publications

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“…11, show that a portion of the here analysed HPEs are prone to produce floods in smaller catchments and in the desert regions, while others could generate floods in larger catchments and in the Mediterranean climate region. Specifically, the convective part of the rainstorm is known to generate the highest-magnitude floods, even at the Mediterranean climate areas (e.g., Rinat et al, 2018;Tarolli et al, 2012). The short spatiotemporal autocorrelation distances observed for the convective rain fields highlight once again the spottiness of rainfall of HPEs in the EM region (Sharon, 1972) and was well-simulated by the WRF model (Fig.…”

Section: Multiple Duration Hpes and Their Relation To Flash Floodsmentioning

confidence: 66%

“…This archive was previously used for a series of studies focusing on high intensity precipitation, such as precipitation frequency analysis Marra and Morin, 2015), floods (Rinat et al, 2018;Zoccatelli et al, 2019), and characterisation of convective rain cells (Belachsen et al, 2017;Peleg et al, 2018). Few issues potentially affecting the QPE should be mentioned.…”

Section: Weather Radar Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Characterising patterns of heavy precipitation events in the eastern Mediterranean using a weather radar and convection-permitting WRF simulations

Armon

Marra

Enzel

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Abstract. Heavy precipitation events (HPEs) can lead to natural hazards (floods, debris flows) and contribute to water resources. Rainfall patterns govern HPEs effects. Thus, a correct characterisation and prediction of rainfall patterns is crucial for coping with HPEs. Information from rain gauges is generally limited due to the sparseness of the networks, especially in presence of sharp climatic gradients. Forecasting HPEs depends on the ability of weather models to generate credible rainfall patterns. This paper characterises rainfall patterns during HPEs based on high-resolution weather radar data and evaluates the performance of a high-resolution, convection-permitting, Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model in simulating these patterns. We identified 41 HPEs in the eastern Mediterranean from a 24-year radar record using local thresholds based on quantiles for different durations, and we ran model simulations of these events. For most durations, HPEs near the coastline are characterised by the highest rain intensities, however, for short durations, the highest rain intensities characterise the inland desert. During the rainy season, the centre-of-mass of the rain field progresses from the sea inland. Rainfall during HPEs is highly localised both in space (

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Section: Multiple Duration Hpes and Their Relation To Flash Floodsmentioning

confidence: 66%

Section: Weather Radar Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterising patterns of heavy precipitation events in the eastern Mediterranean using a weather radar and convection-permitting WRF simulations

Armon

Marra

Enzel

et al. 2019

Preprint

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“…Flow chart of the GB‐HYDRA model (Rinat et al. , ) procedure used in this research. [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linking frequency of rainstorms, runoff generation and sediment transport across hyperarid talus‐pediment slopes

Shmilovitz

Morin

Rinat

et al. 2020

Earth Surf Processes Landf

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Documenting hillslope response to hydroclimatic forcing is crucial to our understanding of landscape evolution. The evolution of talus‐pediment sequences (talus flatirons) in arid areas was often linked to climatic cycles, although the physical processes that may account for such a link remain obscure. Our approach is to integrate field measurements, remote sensing of rainfall and modeling to link between storm frequency, runoff, erosion and sediment transport. We present a quantitative hydrometeorological analysis of rainstorms, their geomorphic impact and their potential role in the evolution of hyperarid talus‐pediment slopes in the Negev desert, Israel. Rainstorm properties were defined based on intensity–duration–frequency curves and using a rainfall simulator, artificial rainstorms were executed in the field. Then, the obtained measured experimental results were up‐scaled to the entire slope length using a fully distributed hydrological model. In addition, natural storms and their hydro‐geomorphic impacts were monitored using X‐band radar and time‐lapse cameras. These integrated analyses constrain the rainfall threshold for local runoff generation at rain intensity of 14 to 22 mm h‐1 for a duration of five minutes and provide a high‐resolution characterization of small‐scale runoff‐generating rain cells. The current frequency of such runoff‐producing rainstorms is ~1–3 per year. However, extending this local value into the full extent of hillslope runoff indicates that it occurs only under rainstorms with ≥ 100‐years return interval, or 1% annual exceedance probability. Sheetwash efficiency rises with downslope distance; beyond a threshold distance of ~100 m, runoff during rainstorms with such annual exceedance probability are capable of transporting surface clasts. The erosion efficiency of these discrete rare events highlights their potential importance in shaping the landscape of arid regions. Our results support the hypothesis that a shift in the properties and frequency of extreme events can trigger significant geomorphic transitions in areas that remained hyperarid during the entire Quaternary. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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“…peak. Rinat et al, (2018) suggests that this is true for moderate storms, while during intense storms most of the basin is saturated and runoff peak is correlated to rainfall intensity. In Desert and Mixed basins the high correlation with rain properties, and in particular storm core, suggests that representing the most intense fraction of rainfall is key to correctly represent flood peak, as shown by (Belachsen et al, 2017;Morin and Yakir, 2014).…”

Section: Main Factors Related With Peak Discharge and Runoff Generationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…abandoned terraces. The landscape is dominated by cultivations and areas covered by dwarf-shrub steppe (Rinat et al, 2018). With few exceptions, streams are mostly ephemeral.…”

Section: Geomorphology Of the Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contrasting rainfall-runoff characteristics of floods in Desert and Mediterranean basins

Zoccatelli¹,

Marra²,

Armon³

et al. 2018

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Abstract. Catchment scale hydrological studies on drylands are lacking because of the scarcity of consistent data: observations are often available at the plot scale, but their relevance for the catchment scale remains unclear. A database of 24 years of stream gauge discharge and homogeneous high-resolution radar data over the eastern Mediterranean allows to describe the properties of moderate floods over catchments spanning from Desert to Mediterranean climates. Comparing two climatic regions, Desert and Mediterranean, we are able to better identify specific rainfall-runoff properties. Despite the large differences in rainfall forcing between the two regions, the resulting unit peak discharges and runoff coefficients are comparable. In Mediterranean areas rain depth and antecedent conditions are the most important properties to shape flood response. In Deserts, instead, storm core properties display a strong correlation with unit peak discharge and, to a less extent, with runoff coefficient. In this region, an inverse correlation with mean catchment annual precipitation suggests also a strong influence of local surface properties. Preliminary analyses suggest that floods in catchments with wet headwater and dry lower section are more similar to desert catchments, with a strong influence of storm core properties on runoff generation.

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Controls of flash flood peak discharge in Mediterranean basins and the special role of runoff-contributing areas

Cited by 19 publications

References 102 publications

Characterising patterns of heavy precipitation events in the eastern Mediterranean using a weather radar and convection-permitting WRF simulations

Characterising patterns of heavy precipitation events in the eastern Mediterranean using a weather radar and convection-permitting WRF simulations

Linking frequency of rainstorms, runoff generation and sediment transport across hyperarid talus‐pediment slopes

Contrasting rainfall-runoff characteristics of floods in Desert and Mediterranean basins

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