Range Of Rainfall Intensities Research Articles

Non-parametric fragility curves for probabilistic risk assessment of rainfall-triggered landslides

Fragility analysis of slopes under rainfall condition express the conditional probabilities of exceeding prescribed slope limit states under a range of rainfall intensities, which is the basic and pivotal procedure in rainfall-triggered landslide risk assessment. Classical fragility analysis methods of slopes always develop fragility curves with the assumption of lognormal distribution. The validation of assuming the shape of fragility curves as lognormal distribution remains a open question in practice. In addition, the existing fragility analysis of slopes under rainfall condition have not dealt with the effect of spatially-variable geo-material parameters. In the present study, a novel fragility analysis methodology is proposed for the construction of non-parametric fragility curves of slopes under rainfall condition, in which the spatially-variable soil properties are taken into account. The non-parametric fragility curves are developed by the calculated slope failure probabilities under various rainfall intensities on the basis of probability density evolution theory, without restricting fragility functions to some assumed distribution models. With the proposed method and a set of probabilistic slope rainfall seepage and stability analyses, non-parametric fragility curves, fragility surface using two rainfall intensity measures and time-dependent fragility curves of a slope subjected to various rainfall scenarios are obtained for rainfall-triggered landslides risk assessment.

Integrating the Spatial Configurations of Green and Gray Infrastructure in Urban Stormwater Networks

AbstractGreen infrastructure (GI) practices improve stormwater quality and reduce urban flooding, but as urban hydrology is highly controlled by its associated gray infrastructure (e.g., stormwater pipe network), GI's watershed‐scale performance depends on its siting within its associated watershed. Although many stormwater practitioners have begun considering GI's spatial configuration within a larger watershed, few approaches allow for flexible scenario exploration, which can untangle GI's interaction with gray infrastructure network and assess its effects on watershed hydrology. To address the gap in integrated gray‐green infrastructure planning, we used an exploratory model to examine gray‐green infrastructure performance using synthetic stormwater networks with varying degrees of flow path meandering, informed by analysis on stormwater networks from the Minneapolis‐St. Paul Metropolitan Area, MN, USA. Superimposed with different coverage and placements of GI (e.g., bioretention cells), these gray‐green stormwater networks are then subjected to different rainfall intensities within Environmental Protection Agency's Storm Water Management Model to simulate their hydrological benefits (e.g., peak flow reduction, flood reduction). Although only limited choices of green and gray infrastructure were explored, the results show that the gray infrastructure's spatial configuration can introduce tradeoffs between increased peak flow and increased flooding, and further interacts with GI coverage and placement to reduce peak flow and flooding at low rainfall intensity. However, as rainfall intensifies, GI ceases to reduce peak flow. For integrated gray‐green infrastructure planning, our results suggest that physical constraints of the stormwater networks and the range of rainfall intensities must be considered when implementing GI.

Dewatering requirements assessment for the Central Kalimantan NCP open pit gold mine

One of the most critical aspects of open pit mining is the dewatering and mine drainage systems. The NCP Open Pit Gold Mine is located in Central Kalimantan. This study area has a range of rainfall intensities and durations from moderate to heavy. Good dewatering is required to manage runoff water and reduce runoff from entering the pit and mine front loading. The study used daily rainfall intensity data from 1994 to 2018. Using the Mononobe Method, the hydrological data for this area were evaluated by determining the value of the rainfall intensity plan. According to the evaluation of rainfall data from 1994 to 2018, the research area saw a rainfall intensity of 86.23 mm/day over a two-year return period. The majority of water extracted from mines is from precipitation and runoff rather than groundwater. An open channel was made around the open pit, flowing water naturally into the sump to reduce water entering the mining area. The water was pumped into the settling pond with 520 m3/hour and 780 m3/hour capacity pumps.

Effects of Heavy Rainfall on Shallow Foundations in Bukit Timah Granite in Singapore

The increase in rainfall intensities due to climate change affect the entire globe. In particular, Singapore suffers from floods and rising of coastlines. Notably, in the Bukit Timah Region in Singapore, floods are getting more intense, and the region houses multitudes of low-rise constructions with shallow foundations. Damages ranging from physical, in terms of motor vehicle and property damages, to intangible losses such as major traffic delays in both private and public transit were caused by the floods. Few studies have been carried out in Singapore in terms of shallow foundations’ response to rainfall events. When rainfall infiltrates into the soil, the bearing capacity and soil stiffness are affected by the change in matric suction. Thus, the impact of heavy rainfall on shallow foundations in Bukit Timah Granite is investigated numerically using SIGMA/W. Fully coupled flow-deformation analysis with unsaturated soil characteristics, e.g., the Soil Water Characteristic Curve (SWCC) and unsaturated permeability functions, were conducted. A range of rainfall intensities, rainfall durations, and applied loadings were investigated to produce a load–settlement curve that was compared against a semi-empirical model to yield reasonable results. The studies showed that the change in matric suction is affected by the rainfall duration, rainfall intensity, initial groundwater conditions, and hydraulic properties of soil, which in turn affects the settlement response heavily. The bearing capacity is evaluated using graphical methods via the load–settlement response curves, and it was found that the reduction in matric suction heavily reduces the bearing capacity of the soil. Combined with the unsaturated residual soils and transient analyses, the discoveries give insight into the assessment of shallow foundations subjected to water infiltration.

Surface flow–interflow-coupled nitrogen loss in gray fluvo-aquic farmland soils in the Anhui Section of the Huaihe River Basin, China

To reveal the characteristics of nitrogen loss and their coupling relations in the process of surface flow and interflow under various rainfall intensities in gray fluvo-aquic soil areas, the coupling loss characteristics of total nitrogen (TN), nitrate nitrogen (NO3−-N), and ammonium nitrogen (NH4+-N) in the surface flow and interflow under three rainfall intensities (60, 80, and 110 mm·h−1) at a slope of 5° were studied using an artificial rainfall simulation. The results showed that (1) runoff yield and TN concentration were proportional to the rainfall intensity, with higher runoff concentrations of TN in the initial stage, and (2) surface flow yield, which was the main output mode of farmland runoff, was higher than interflow yield under a range of rainfall intensities. The average concentration of NO3−-N in surface flow decreased with increasing rainfall intensity, whereas the opposite was true in interflow. The main loss path of NO3−-N was interflow, whereas the main loss path of NH4+-N was the surface flow; NO3−-N was the main form of TN loss. The surface flow was the main loss path of soil nitrogen loss in farmland, and the runoff yield was an important factor in controlling nitrogen loss.

Assessment of OTT Pluvio2 Rain Intensity Measurements

AbstractThis study investigates the OTT Pluvio2 weighing precipitation gauge’s random and systematic error components as well as stabilization of the measurements on time-varying rainfall intensities (RI) under laboratory conditions. A highly precise programmable peristaltic pump that provided both constant and time-varying RI was utilized in the experiments. Abrupt, gradual step, and cyclic step changes in the RI values were evaluated. RI readings were taken in real time (RT) at different time resolutions (6–60 s) for the RI range of 6–70 mm h−1. Our analysis indicates that the lower threshold for the OTT Pluvio2’s real-time RI measurements should be redefined as 7 mm h−1 at a 1-min resolution. Tolerance intervals containing 95% of the repeated measurements with a probability of 0.95 are given. It is shown that the measurement variances are unequal over the range of RI and the measurement repeatability is not uniform. A statistically significant negative bias was observed for the RI values of 7 and 8 mm h−1, while there was not a statistically significant linearity problem. Through the use of statistical control limits, it is shown that means of the RI measurements stabilized on the actual RI value. A detailed investigation on RT bucket weight measurements revealed a time delay in bucket weight measurements, which causes notable errors in reported RI measurements under dynamic rainfall conditions. To demonstrate the potentiality of large errors in Pluvio2’s real-time RI measurements, a set of equations was developed that faithfully reproduced the Pluvio2’s internal (hidden) algorithm, and results from dynamic laboratory and in situ rainfall scenarios were simulated. The results of this investigation show the necessity of modifying the present Pluvio2 RI algorithm to enhance its performance and show the possibility of postprocessing the existing Pluvio2 RI datasets for improved measurement accuracies.

Development of a Rainfall and Runoff Simulator for Performing Hydrological and Geotechnical Tests

Laboratory apparatuses for the analysis of infiltration and runoff enable studies under controlled environments and at reduced costs. Unfortunately, the design and construction of such systems are complex and face difficulties associated with the scale factor. This paper presents the design, construction, and evaluation of a portable rainfall and runoff simulator. The apparatus allows the evaluation of unsaturated soils with and without vegetation cover, under a wide range of simulation scenarios. The apparatus also enables the control of the intensity, size, and uniformity of simulated raindrops for variable surface slope, specimen thickness, and length conditions. The monitoring of the volumetric water content and matric suction and a rigorous computation of water balance are ensured. The obtained results indicate that the automated rainfall generator produces raindrops with Christiansen uniformity coefficients higher than 70%, and with an adequate distribution of raindrop sizes under a range of rainfall intensities between 86.0 and 220.0 mm h−1. The ideal rainfall generator conditions were established for a relatively small area equal to or lower than 1.0 m2 and considering rainfall events with return periods of 10 to 100 years.

Application of an optical disdrometer to characterize simulated rainfall and measure drop-size distribution

ABSTRACTKnowledge of rainfall characteristics such as drop-size distribution is essential for the development of erosion-mitigation strategies and models. This research used an optical disdrometer to elucidate the relationships between raindrop-size distribution, median volume drop diameter (D50), kinetic energy and radar reflectivity (dBz) of simulated rainfall of different intensities. The D50 values were higher for the simulated rain than for natural rain at almost all rainfall intensities, perhaps due to variations in rainfall types and the turbulence in natural rain that breaks up large drops. The kinetic energy ranged from 26.67 to 5955.51 J m−2 h −1, while the median volume drop diameter (D50) was in the range 1.94–7.25 mm, for intensities between 1.5 and 202.6 mm h−1. The relationship between radar reflectivity (Z) and the intensity (R) of the simulated rain was best described by a power law function (Z = aRb), with a and b coefficients in the ranges 162–706 and 0.94–2.46, respectively, throughout the range of rainfall intensities (1.5–202.6 mm h−1).

Time of concentration for large catchment based on hydrodynamic modelling

Flood mitigation design requires accurate computation of discharge at any interest location to sustain the protection level. The design flood hydrograph generates from rainfall runoff model which used unit hydrograph method depends on the time of concentration (Tc) of the catchment. Common factors which influence Tc are the catchment properties including length, slope, soil properties and surface cover. However, when dealing with large catchment, more complex factors which also requires attention are the rainfall intensity, catchment wetness and initial water in the channel due to rain prior to the storm event. For large catchment, the travelling time which govern the Tc is more dominant in the channel rather than on the soil surface. Since water flowing in the river channel is unsteady and nonuniform, the use of Manning formula is inappropriate. This paper explains the application of hydrodynamic modelling approach to determine Tc for large catchment with long river channel. A hydrodynamic river model for Sg Relai, Kelantan with area of 460 km2 and covering 90 km distance was developed using InfoWorks ICM. Results shown that as the rain intensity increased, the travelling time will be shortened. The traveling time also reduce when initial water level in the channel increase which indicate that Tc will reduce if the catchment already received some rainfall prior to the storm event. Based on this analysis and results, the use of hydrodynamic model as part of the rainfall runoff model is significant for large catchment to handle complex factor such as wide range of rainfall intensity, spatial effect and catchment wetness.

Assessment of measurement errors and dynamic calibration methods for three different tipping bucket rain gauges

Three different models of tipping bucket rain gauges (TBRs), viz. HS-TB3 (Hydrological Services Pty Ltd.), ISCO-674 (Isco, Inc.) and TR-525 (Texas Electronics, Inc.), were calibrated in the lab to quantify measurement errors across a range of rainfall intensities (5mm·h−1 to 250mm·h−1) and three different volumetric settings. Instantaneous and cumulative values of simulated rainfall were recorded at 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20-min intervals. All three TBR models showed a substantial deviation (α=0.05) in measurements from actual rainfall depths, with increasing underestimation errors at greater rainfall intensities. Simple linear regression equations were developed for each TBR to correct the TBR readings based on measured intensities (R2>0.98). Additionally, two dynamic calibration techniques, viz. quadratic model (R2>0.7) and T vs. 1/Q model (R2=>0.98), were tested and found to be useful in situations when the volumetric settings of TBRs are unknown. The correction models were successfully applied to correct field-collected rainfall data from respective TBR models. The calibration parameters of correction models were found to be highly sensitive to changes in volumetric calibration of TBRs. Overall, the HS-TB3 model (with a better protected tipping bucket mechanism, and consistent measurement errors across a range of rainfall intensities) was found to be the most reliable and consistent for rainfall measurements, followed by the ISCO-674 (with susceptibility to clogging and relatively smaller measurement errors across a range of rainfall intensities) and the TR-525 (with high susceptibility to clogging and frequent changes in volumetric calibration, and highly intensity-dependent measurement errors). The study demonstrated that corrections based on dynamic and volumetric calibration can only help minimize—but not completely eliminate the measurement errors. The findings from this study will be useful for correcting field data from TBRs; and may have major implications to field- and watershed-scale hydrologic studies.

Boundary effects of rainfall-induced landslides

In the study of landslides, it is generally assumed that an impermeable boundary exists at a certain depth and failure occurs at this boundary. In reality this is not always the case and failures can occur at any depth. This paper aims to study the effect of boundary conditions on landslides, using a series of seepage and stability analyses performed over a range of rainfall intensities, and for different failure mechanisms, by studying the failure time and depths corresponding to fully drained, partially drained, and impermeable boundaries. It is shown that these conditions can significantly affect the occurrence and depth of rainfall-induced landslides.

Attenuation correction for a high-resolution polarimetric X-band weather radar

Abstract. In 2007, IRCTR (Delft University of Technology) installed a new polarimetric X-band LFMCW radar (IDRA) at the meteorological observation site of Cabauw, The Netherlands. It provides plan position indicators (PPI) at a fixed elevation with a high range resolution of either 3 m or 30 m at a maximum observation range of 1.5 km and 15 km, respectively. IDRA aims to monitor precipitation events for the long-term analysis of the hydrological cycle. Due to the specifications of IDRA, the spatial and temporal variability of a large range of rainfall intensities (from drizzle to heavy convective rain) can be studied. Even though the usual observation range of IDRA is limited to 15 km, attenuation due to precipitation can be large enough to seriously affect the measurements. In this contribution we evaluate the application of a combined method to correct for the specific and the differential attenuation, and in the same vein estimate the parameters of the raindrop-size distribution. The estimated attenuations are compared to a phase constraint attenuation correction method.

Effects of intra-storm variations in rainfall intensity on interrill runoff and erosion

Five simulated rainstorms, each with a different rainfall intensity pattern but all delivering the same total kinetic energy to the soil surface, were applied to three different soils in a laboratory flume. The storm patterns were: constant rainfall intensity, increasing intensity, decreasing intensity, increasing then decreasing intensity and decreasing then increasing intensity. The three soils were: a clay loam, a sandy loam and a sandy soil. No differences in total runoff were observed that were consistent across the three soil types. However, consistent differences were observed in the amount and size distribution of the eroded sediment. In particular, the constant-intensity storm yielded an average soil loss of 75% of the varying-intensity storms, and the eroded sediment from the constant-intensity storms had a lower clay content than that from the varying-intensity storms. In contrast to the differences in amount and size distribution of eroded sediment, splashed sediment exhibited much smaller differences. Interrill erosion rates are widely assumed to vary with rainfall intensity to the power 2, but this relationship has been obtained from experiments over a range of rainfall intensities, but in which rainfall intensity has been constant in each experiment. The experiments reported here, undertaken using variable rainfall intensity within each experiment, indicates an exponent of 2.55. The experiments demonstrate that the assumption that a given rainfall intensity falling on a given soil for a given amount of time will result in a given amount of runoff and erosion is unsound. They point to the need for a greater understanding of the processes of interrill sediment detachment and transport in order to model successfully erosion under temporally varying rainfall.

Hydraulic properties of rain impact surface seals on three clay soils—influence of raindrop impact frequency and rainfall intensity during steady state

This paper investigates the influence of rainfall intensity, and its components drop size and impact frequency, on steady state flow through sealed soils. Infiltration rates are often observed to increase with greater rainfall intensity. There appears to be no consensus in the literature on the reasons for this behaviour, making it difficult to incorporate in infiltration models. Seals were formed on 2 swelling Black Vertosols and a contrasting non-swelling Brown Sodosol, under simulated rainfall treatments with a range of rainfall intensities, drop sizes, and drop size distributions. For Vertosols, aggregate size composition of the seal, sub-seal moisture content, and suction were similar across rain treatments and between soils. Steady infiltration rate and conductivity increased 3-fold as rainfall intensity increased from 30 to 120 mm/h for Vertosols. The component of intensity responsible for this trend was isolated, with a strong positive linear relationship found between conductivity and raindrop impact frequency (R2 = 0.87). This trend was attributed to increased water entry by hydraulic penetration of drops through pores in the seal as the frequency of drop impacts increased, on more porous Vertosol seals. In contrast, rain intensity and drop impact frequency had little effect on steady infiltration rates and conductivity for the Sodosol. Abundant fine particles in the seal decreased porosity, apparently leaving few pores of large enough diameter to allow hydraulic penetration. While hydraulic penetration was suppressed, other seal properties for the Sodosol were influenced by rainfall characteristics. Larger, more energetic drops produced seals with lower moisture content and higher subseal suction than seals formed under other treatments. Results of this study indicate that water entry through sealed surfaces may consist of an actively driven component associated with hydraulic penetration of water through larger pores (jetting), as observed elsewhere in early stages of surface sealing. Water entry by this mechanism continues through to steady state on soils where significant numbers of larger pores remain open at the soil surface. This mechanism would act alone, or in addition to other mechanisms such as erosive stripping or microrilling of seals, to explain widely observed increases in infiltration rates with increasing rainfall intensity.

Investigating preferential flow in a large intact soil block under pasture

Abstract. A large soil block was constructed to determine the importance of preferential flow routes compared with matric flow pathways at a pasture site in mid‐Devon. The sandy loam soil was well structured and uniform. The soil block measured 5 m×3 m×1 m and was instrumented with an array of 54 tensiometers, TDR wave guides and suction samplers connected to an in situ chloride analysis system. Four steady state irrigation experiments were conducted with a range of rainfall intensities. During each experiment chloride and nitrate tracers were applied and the patterns of movement were observed. Although the application of tracer was uniform and the soil was relatively homogeneous, there was large variability across the block in terms of time taken to reach the peak concentration (TPC) and the peak concentration itself. About 44 samplers operated at the greatest intensities (10–2 mm h−1) and only 35 at the smallest (1 mm h−1). No relationship was found between TPC and depth. The fastest TPC and largest concentrations were associated with the greatest rainfall intensities. Relative importance of the individual water pathways was a function of soil heterogeneity: parts of the soil block were highly active with several pathways having short TPCs and conductivities in excess of 4 m day−1 whereas other areas had longer TPCs and conductivities of 1–2 m day−1. The pattern was also dynamic, with conductivities of the pathways changing through time, though most of the faster pathways maintained their greater conductivities for more than one year.