Characterization of standardized heavy rainfall profiles for Barcelona city: clustering, rain amounts and intensity peaks

Standardized heavy rainfall profiles may contribute to a best knowledge concerning flash floods, ground erosion and runoff. Taking advantage of the rain rate gauges network of Barcelona city and applying a short integration time of 5 min, the heavy rainfall records with amounts above 25 mm and longe...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Theoretical and applied climatology 2020-10, Vol.142 (1-2), p.255-268
Main Authors: Lana, X., Rodríguez-Solà, R., Martínez, M. D., Casas-Castillo, M. C., Serra, C., Burgueño, A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Aquatic Pollution
Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution
Atmospheric Sciences
Climatology
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Original Paper
Rain and rainfall
Sewer systems
Waste Water Technology
Water Management
Water Pollution Control
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Standardized heavy rainfall profiles may contribute to a best knowledge concerning flash floods, ground erosion and runoff. Taking advantage of the rain rate gauges network of Barcelona city and applying a short integration time of 5 min, the heavy rainfall records with amounts above 25 mm and longer than 60 min have been selected along 15 years, being detected 499 records corresponding to 67 episodes. The amount distribution of these records are analysed at time deciles. By grouping these standardized rainfall profiles according to their similarity by means of the average linkage clustering algorithm, 10 clusters are derived, each one of them characterized by different time evolution of rainfall. The representative standardized rainfall profiles for every one of the clusters, together with maximum 5-min rain amounts and rainfall amounts characterizing them, permit to distinguish rainfall patterns. In addition, the extreme heavy rainfalls which may lead to flash floods are identified, as also their respective synoptic situations. In short, this analysis offers a description of heavy rainfall patterns in Barcelona city, complementing previous papers on the normalized intensity curves and 5-min intensity return periods. These heavy rainfall analyses would be very useful when designing drainage and sewerage systems in urban areas as Barcelona, where flash floods may be expected due to episodes of notable rainfall amount and intensity. The imperviousness density of the soil and an appropriate sewerage structure should be adapted to mitigate the effects of these copious and intense episodes.
ISSN:0177-798X
1434-4483
DOI:10.1007/s00704-020-03315-z