Impact of Spatial Distribution Methods for Rainfall on Flash Floods Modelling Using a Hydrodynamic Model

ABSTRACT In small mountain catchments, the spatial and temporal resolution of rainfall can vary significantly across the catchment. However, rainfall gauging stations can be sparse in these regions, and collected data may not reflect the real rainfall distribution across the catchment. When modellin...

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Main Authors: Nan Sun, Wei Huang, Maggie Creed, Xihuan Sun
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2025-03-01
Series:Journal of Flood Risk Management
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.70010
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author Nan Sun
Wei Huang
Maggie Creed
Xihuan Sun
author_facet Nan Sun
Wei Huang
Maggie Creed
Xihuan Sun
author_sort Nan Sun
collection DOAJ
description ABSTRACT In small mountain catchments, the spatial and temporal resolution of rainfall can vary significantly across the catchment. However, rainfall gauging stations can be sparse in these regions, and collected data may not reflect the real rainfall distribution across the catchment. When modelling flash floods, finding a suitable approach to estimate the actual rainfall distribution is nontrivial. In this study, the effectiveness of different methods for obtaining a spatial and temporal rainfall distribution for use in numerical modelling of flash floods was investigated using a full two‐dimensional depth‐averaged shallow‐water hydrodynamic model. It was demonstrated that the Thiessen polygon method and the inverse distance weighted interpolation method (IDW), with appropriate empirical coefficients, produce results in agreement with observed stage and discharge hydrographs. We show that the uniform distribution method cannot be used to represent realistic spatial and temporal variability of rainfall for flash flood events in small mountain catchments. By combining available data with the common IDW method, missing rainfall timeseries data in a small catchment can be estimated, even for short‐duration time scales, such as a single flash flood event.
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institution Kabale University
issn 1753-318X
language English
publishDate 2025-03-01
publisher Wiley
record_format Article
series Journal of Flood Risk Management
spelling doaj-art-83c50bed0cb2431581f9b32fe3ca57a62025-08-20T03:44:06ZengWileyJournal of Flood Risk Management1753-318X2025-03-01181n/an/a10.1111/jfr3.70010Impact of Spatial Distribution Methods for Rainfall on Flash Floods Modelling Using a Hydrodynamic ModelNan Sun0Wei Huang1Maggie Creed2Xihuan Sun3Taiyuan University of Technology Taiyuan ChinaChangjiang River Scientific Research Institute Wuhan ChinaJames Watt School of Engineering University of Glasgow Glasgow UKTaiyuan University of Technology Taiyuan ChinaABSTRACT In small mountain catchments, the spatial and temporal resolution of rainfall can vary significantly across the catchment. However, rainfall gauging stations can be sparse in these regions, and collected data may not reflect the real rainfall distribution across the catchment. When modelling flash floods, finding a suitable approach to estimate the actual rainfall distribution is nontrivial. In this study, the effectiveness of different methods for obtaining a spatial and temporal rainfall distribution for use in numerical modelling of flash floods was investigated using a full two‐dimensional depth‐averaged shallow‐water hydrodynamic model. It was demonstrated that the Thiessen polygon method and the inverse distance weighted interpolation method (IDW), with appropriate empirical coefficients, produce results in agreement with observed stage and discharge hydrographs. We show that the uniform distribution method cannot be used to represent realistic spatial and temporal variability of rainfall for flash flood events in small mountain catchments. By combining available data with the common IDW method, missing rainfall timeseries data in a small catchment can be estimated, even for short‐duration time scales, such as a single flash flood event.https://doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.70010estimation of missing rainfall datafull hydrodynamic modelrainfall distribution methodsrainfall‐triggered flash floods
spellingShingle Nan Sun
Wei Huang
Maggie Creed
Xihuan Sun
Impact of Spatial Distribution Methods for Rainfall on Flash Floods Modelling Using a Hydrodynamic Model
Journal of Flood Risk Management
estimation of missing rainfall data
full hydrodynamic model
rainfall distribution methods
rainfall‐triggered flash floods
title Impact of Spatial Distribution Methods for Rainfall on Flash Floods Modelling Using a Hydrodynamic Model
title_full Impact of Spatial Distribution Methods for Rainfall on Flash Floods Modelling Using a Hydrodynamic Model
title_fullStr Impact of Spatial Distribution Methods for Rainfall on Flash Floods Modelling Using a Hydrodynamic Model
title_full_unstemmed Impact of Spatial Distribution Methods for Rainfall on Flash Floods Modelling Using a Hydrodynamic Model
title_short Impact of Spatial Distribution Methods for Rainfall on Flash Floods Modelling Using a Hydrodynamic Model
title_sort impact of spatial distribution methods for rainfall on flash floods modelling using a hydrodynamic model
topic estimation of missing rainfall data
full hydrodynamic model
rainfall distribution methods
rainfall‐triggered flash floods
url https://doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.70010
work_keys_str_mv AT nansun impactofspatialdistributionmethodsforrainfallonflashfloodsmodellingusingahydrodynamicmodel
AT weihuang impactofspatialdistributionmethodsforrainfallonflashfloodsmodellingusingahydrodynamicmodel
AT maggiecreed impactofspatialdistributionmethodsforrainfallonflashfloodsmodellingusingahydrodynamicmodel
AT xihuansun impactofspatialdistributionmethodsforrainfallonflashfloodsmodellingusingahydrodynamicmodel