Probable maximum flooding using quantitative weather radar

Austin, BN

Abstract

Reservoir spillways are designed to pass extreme flood events without significant damage. For Category A dams in the UK (whereby a breach will endanger lives in a community), designs are based on the Probable Maximum Flood (PMF) arising from the critical duration Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP). This may occur in the winter, coupled with snowmelt, or in the summer when more heat for convection is available. This thesis details an analysis of 20 extreme rainfall events which occurred in the UK in the past 15 years and were observed by radar. Storm efficiencies have been determined in a Lagrangian frame of reference for these events and used as input into a storm model to determine the corresponding PMP. Results show that while the peak rainfall rates are somewhat less with the storm model than suggested by the NERC FSR (current UK guidelines), the overall volume of rainfall is slightly greater resulting in differences in the maximum storage requirement of the reservoir.

Citation

Austin, B. Probable maximum flooding using quantitative weather radar. (Thesis). University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Jul 14, 2017
• Publisher URL: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.262671
• Related Public URLs: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.262671
• Award Date: Feb 1, 1995