Towards a roadmap for use of radar rainfall data in urban drainage

Einfalt, Thomas; Arnbjerg‐Nielsen, Karsten; Golz, Claudia; Jensen, N. E.; Quirmbach, Markus; Vaes, Guido; Vieux, Baxter E.

doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2004.08.004

Cited by 100 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Including all radar images in the estimation would 20 result in smooth parameters which do not reflect the dynamic and critical spatial-temporal 21 features of the storm events, hence the analysis was conducted over the peak period only. It 22 is worth noting that some of the storm events under consideration comprised more than one 23 peak; when this was the case, each of the peaks was analysed separately and the peak with the most stringent characteristics and resolution requirements was adopted as representative 1 of the storm event. The specific steps that were followed to obtain these parameters are the following: 14…”

Section: Spatial and Temporal Characterisation Of Storm Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of spatial and temporal resolution of rainfall inputs on urban hydrodynamic modelling outputs: A multi-catchment investigation

Ochoa-Rodríguez

Wang

Gires

et al. 2015

Journal of Hydrology

254

226

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International audienceUrban catchments are typically characterised by high spatial variability and fast runoff processes resulting in short response times. Hydrological analysis of such catchments requires high resolution precipitation and catchment information to properly represent catchment response. This study investigated the impact of rainfall input resolution on the outputs of detailed hydrodynamic models of seven urban catchments in North-West Europe. The aim was to identify critical rainfall resolutions for urban catchments to properly characterise catchment response. Nine storm events measured by a dual-polarimetric X-band weather radar, located in the Cabauw Experimental Site for Atmospheric Research (CESAR) of the Netherlands, were selected for analysis. Based on the original radar estimates, at 100m and 1min resolutions, 15 different combinations of coarser spatial and temporal resolutions, up to 3000m and 10min, were generated. These estimates were then applied to the operational semi-distributed hydrodynamic models of the urban catchments, all of which have similar size (between 3 and 8km2), but different morphological, hydrological and hydraulic characteristics. When doing so, methodologies for standardising model outputs and making results comparable were implemented. Results were analysed in the light of storm and catchment characteristics. Three main features were observed in the results: (1) the impact of rainfall input resolution decreases rapidly as catchment drainage area increases; (2) in general, variations in temporal resolution of rainfall inputs affect hydrodynamic modelling results more strongly than variations in spatial resolution; (3) there is a strong interaction between the spatial and temporal resolution of rainfall input estimates. Based upon these results, methods to quantify the impact of rainfall input resolution as a function of catchment size and spatial-temporal characteristics of storms are proposed and discussed. © 2015 The Authors

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Section: Spatial and Temporal Characterisation Of Storm Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of spatial and temporal resolution of rainfall inputs on urban hydrodynamic modelling outputs: A multi-catchment investigation

Ochoa-Rodríguez

Wang

Gires

et al. 2015

Journal of Hydrology

254

226

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“…Previous studies have shown that urban catchments, characterised by a fast hydrological response due to both low interception and infiltration, are highly sensitive to small-scale spatial and temporal variability of the precipitation field (Bell and Moore, 2000;Einfalt et al, 2004;Gires et al, 2013) In the past, a lot of studies have addressed requirements and approaches for flood modelling (Schmitt et al, 2004;Balmforth and Dibben, 2006;Parker et al, 2011;Pathirana et al, 2011;Priest et al, 2011;Neal et al, 2012;Ozdemir et al, 2013). More recently, studies have shown the impact of rainfall variability on hydrodynamic models outputs (Gires et al, 2012;Liguori et al, 2012;Vieux and Imgarten, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the sensitivity of urban hydrodynamic modelling to rainfall spatial and temporal resolution

Bruni

Reinoso

Giesen

et al. 2015

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

120

109

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Abstract. Cities are increasingly vulnerable to floods generated by intense rainfall, because of urbanisation of floodprone areas and ongoing urban densification. Accurate information of convective storm characteristics at high spatial and temporal resolution is a crucial input for urban hydrological models to be able to simulate fast runoff processes and enhance flood prediction in cities. In this paper, a detailed study of the sensitivity of urban hydrodynamic response to high resolution radar rainfall was conducted. Rainfall rates derived from X-band dual polarimetric weather radar were used as input into a detailed hydrodynamic sewer model for an urban catchment in the city of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The aim was to characterise how the effect of space and time aggregation on rainfall structure affects hydrodynamic modelling of urban catchments, for resolutions ranging from 100 to 2000 m and from 1 to 10 min. Dimensionless parameters were derived to compare results between different storm conditions and to describe the effect of rainfall spatial resolution in relation to storm characteristics and hydrodynamic model properties: rainfall sampling number (rainfall resolution vs. storm size), catchment sampling number (rainfall resolution vs. catchment size), runoff and sewer sampling number (rainfall resolution vs. runoff and sewer model resolution respectively).Results show that for rainfall resolution lower than half the catchment size, rainfall volumes mean and standard deviations decrease as a result of smoothing of rainfall gradients. Moreover, deviations in maximum water depths, from 10 to 30 % depending on the storm, occurred for rainfall resolution close to storm size, as a result of rainfall aggregation. Model results also showed that modelled runoff peaks are more sensitive to rainfall resolution than maximum insewer water depths as flow routing has a damping effect on in-sewer water level variations. Temporal resolution aggregation of rainfall inputs led to increase in de-correlation lengths and resulted in time shift in modelled flow peaks by several minutes. Sensitivity to temporal resolution of rainfall inputs was low compared to spatial resolution, for the storms analysed in this study.

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“…Previously, 5‐min temporal resolution radar precipitation has been found to represent spatial variability of rainfall well in small, urban catchments, compared with high‐density gauge networks (Berne et al, ; Thorndahl et al, ). Although radar estimates of total precipitation can be variable, the use of radar at a minimum of 5‐min temporal resolution can provide good precipitation estimates for urban hydrology applications (Einfalt et al, ; Rico‐Ramirez, Liguori, & Schellart, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prediction of river temperature surges is dependent on precipitation method

Croghan

Loon

Sadler

et al. 2018

Hydrological Processes

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Urban river systems are particularly sensitive to precipitation‐driven water temperature surges and fluctuations. These result from rapid heat transfer from low‐specific heat capacity surfaces to precipitation, which can cause thermally polluted surface run‐off to enter urban streams. This can lead to additional ecological stress on these already precarious ecosystems. Although precipitation is a first‐order driver of hydrological response, water temperature studies rarely characterize rain event dynamics and typically rely on single gauge data that yield only partial estimates of catchment precipitation. This paper examines three precipitation measuring methods (a statutory automatic weather station, citizen science gauges, and radar estimates) and investigates relationships between estimated rainfall inputs and subhourly surges and diurnal fluctuations in urban river water temperature. Water temperatures were monitored at 12 sites in summer 2016 in the River Rea, in Birmingham, UK. Generalized additive models were used to model the relationship between subhourly water temperature surges and precipitation intensity and subsequently the relationship between daily precipitation totals and standardized mean water temperature. The different precipitation measurement sources give highly variable precipitation estimates that relate differently to water temperature fluctuations. The radar catchment‐averaged method produced the best model fit (generalized cross‐validation score [GCV] = 0.30) and was the only model to show a significant relationship between water temperature surges and precipitation intensity (P < 0.001, R2 = 0.69). With respect to daily metrics, catchment‐averaged precipitation estimates from citizen science data yielded the best model fit (GCV score = 0.20). All precipitation measurement and calculation methods successfully modelled the relationship between standardized mean water temperature and daily precipitation (P < 0.001). This research highlights the potential for the use of alternative precipitation datasets to enhance understanding of event‐based variability in water quality studies. We conclude by recommending the use of spatially distributed precipitation data operating at high spatial (<1 km2) and temporal (<15 min) resolutions to improve the analysis of event‐based water temperature and water quality studies.

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Towards a roadmap for use of radar rainfall data in urban drainage

Cited by 100 publications

References 32 publications

Impact of spatial and temporal resolution of rainfall inputs on urban hydrodynamic modelling outputs: A multi-catchment investigation

Impact of spatial and temporal resolution of rainfall inputs on urban hydrodynamic modelling outputs: A multi-catchment investigation

On the sensitivity of urban hydrodynamic modelling to rainfall spatial and temporal resolution

Prediction of river temperature surges is dependent on precipitation method

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