Open AccessLaboratory simulation of the influence of building height and storm movement on the rainfall run‐off process in impervious areas
Author(s) -
Isidoro J.M.G.P.,
Lima J.L.M.P.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of flood risk management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.049
H-Index - 36
ISSN - 1753-318X
DOI - 10.1111/jfr3.12030
Subject(s) - impervious surface , storm , flash flood , environmental science , flood myth , wind speed , meteorology , hydrograph , hydrology (agriculture) , geology , geography , geotechnical engineering , ecology , biology , archaeology
Abstract Converting land into impervious urban areas leads to more frequent and intense flash floods. Moving storms over impervious areas have a considerable influence on the rainfall run‐off process. A physical model of an urban catchment that can simulate different building heights is used to study the changes in run‐off caused by wind‐driven moving storms. The laboratory experiments show that, for all the studied building heights, both wind and storm movement significantly influence the characteristics of the resulting hydrographs. These showed significant dependence on the storm movement and the existence of wind, but less on buildings height. Downstream‐moving storms have higher discharge peaks than static or upstream‐moving storms and are thus more likely to cause flash flood events. In the simulated storm scenarios, wind‐driven rainfall leads to lower peak discharges than no‐wind scenarios do, for all storm types.