Characterization of floods in the United States

Manabendra Saharia; Pierre-Emmanuel Kirstetter; Humberto Vergara; Jonathan J. Gourley; Yang Hong

doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2017.03.010

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Characterization of floods in the United States

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Characterization of floods in the United States

Manabendra Saharia, Pierre-Emmanuel Kirstetter, Humberto Vergara, Jonathan J. Gourley and Yang Hong

Journal of hydrology (Amsterdam), Vol.548, pp.524-535

05/01/2017

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2017.03.010

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Abstract

Floods have gained increasing global significance in the recent past due to their devastating nature and potential for causing significant economic and human losses. Until now, flood characterization studies in the United States have been limited due to the lack of a comprehensive database matching flood characteristics such as peak discharges and flood duration with geospatial and geomorphologic information. The availability of a representative and long archive of flooding events spanning 78 years over a variety of hydroclimatic regions results in a spatially and temporally comprehensive flood characterization over the continental U.S. This study, for the first time, employs a large-event database that is based on actual National Weather Service (NWS) definitions of floods instead of the frequently-adopted case study or frequentist approach, allowing us to base our findings on real definitions of floods. It examines flooding characteristics to identify how space and time scales of floods vary with climatic regimes and geomorphology. Flood events were characterized by linking flood response variables in gauged basins to spatially distributed variables describing climatology, geomorphology, and topography.. The primary findings of this study are that the magnitude of flooding is highest is regions such as West Coast and southeastern U.S. which experience the most extraordinary precipitation. The seasonality of flooding varies greatly from maxima during the cool season on the West Coast, warm season in the desert Southwest, and early spring in the Southeast. The fastest responding events tend to be in steep basins of the arid Southwest caused by intense monsoon thunderstorms and steep terrain. The envelope curves of unit peak discharge are consistent with those reported for Europe and worldwide. But significant seasonal variability was observed in floods of the U.S. compared to Europe that is attributed to the diversity of causative rainfall ranging from synoptic scales with orographic enhancements in the West Coast, monsoon thunderstorms in the desert Southwest, to land-falling tropical storms and localized, intense thunderstorms in the Southeast. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Engineering

Engineering, Civil

Geology

Geosciences, Multidisciplinary

Physical Sciences

Science & Technology

Technology

Water Resources

Details

Title: Subtitle: Characterization of floods in the United States
Creators: Manabendra Saharia - Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies
Pierre-Emmanuel Kirstetter - NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory
Humberto Vergara - University of Oklahoma
Jonathan J. Gourley - NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory
Yang Hong - University of Oklahoma
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Journal of hydrology (Amsterdam), Vol.548, pp.524-535
Publisher: Elsevier
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2017.03.010
ISSN: 0022-1694
eISSN: 1879-2707
Number of pages: 12
Grant note: 113-2; NA14OAR4830100 / Disaster Relief Appropriations Act
Language: English
Date published: 05/01/2017
Academic Unit: Civil and Environmental Engineering
Record Identifier: 9984446277502771

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