Logo image
Insights into storm direction effect on flood response
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Insights into storm direction effect on flood response

Ganesh R Ghimire, Navid Jadidoleslam, Radoslaw Goska and Witold F Krajewski
Journal of hydrology (Amsterdam), Vol.600(1), 126683
09/2021
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2021.126683
url
https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1811374View
Open Access

Abstract

•The basin rotation method (BRM) can quantify the relationship between the rainstorm direction and the catchment hydrologic response at a much-reduced computational cost of meteorological simulations.•The hydrologic simulation experiment shows that the streamflow peak response is strongly dependent on the interaction of the peak of the rainstorm with the peak of the width function (WF) of the basin.•The results indicate significant differences in runoff volume and runoff peak and their interannual variability due to the rainstorm direction.•The results have important implications for flood frequency predictions, developing flood resilience, and watershed management strategies. In this study, we investigate the directional influence of storm movement on catchment flood peak response using the synthetic circular basin. Due to the complexity in defining storm movements that require meteorological modeling, we adopt a novel approach of combining the basin rotation method (BRM) with a circular basin construct. A systematic basin rotation approach provides a proxy for the storm direction relative to the river network topology to study its hydrologic response. Using Stage-IV rainfall with 4-km by 1-hour resolution for 16 years period from 2003 to 2018 in Iowa, U.S., we systematically analyze consequent flood peak response due to storm directions (basin rotations) using a distributed hydrologic model called the Hillslope-Link Model (HLM). HLM has demonstrated the ability to reproduce observed streamflow for real river basins studied in Iowa. The hydrologic simulation results show that the BRM can quantify the relationship between the rainstorm direction and catchment hydrologic response. Also, the maximum flood peak response is strongly dependent on the interaction of the peak of the rainstorm with the peak of the width function. The results indicate significant differences in runoff volume and runoff peak and their interannual variability due to rainstorm direction. The study has important implications for flood frequency predictions and developing flood resilience and watershed management strategies, particularly due to changing storm tracks under a warming climate.
Basin Rotation Method Directional Effect Flood Prediction Hillslope-Link Model Synthetic Basin

Details

Metrics

Logo image