Spatial and temporal variability of rainfall and their effects on hydrological response in urban areas - A review

Spatial and temporal variability of rainfall and their effects on hydrological response in urban areas - A review

Cristiano, E. (TU Delft Sanitary Engineering)
ten Veldhuis, Marie-claire (TU Delft Water Resources)
van de Giesen, N.C. (TU Delft Water Resources)

2017-07-28

In urban areas, hydrological processes are characterized by high variability in space and time, making them sensitive to small-scale temporal and spatial rainfall variability. In the last decades new instruments, techniques, and methods have been developed to capture rainfall and hydrological processes at high resolution. Weather radars have been introduced to estimate high spatial and temporal rainfall variability. At the same time, new models have been proposed to reproduce hydrological response, based on small-scale representation of urban catchment spatial variability. Despite these efforts, interactions between rainfall variability, catchment heterogeneity, and hydrological response remain poorly understood. This paper presents a review of our current understanding of hydrological processes in urban environments as reported in the literature, focusing on their spatial and temporal variability aspects. We review recent findings on the effects of rainfall variability on hydrological response and identify gaps where knowledge needs to be further developed to improve our understanding of and capability to predict urban hydrological response.

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:0f4a7363-fab3-4d1f-9f37-15aa1de9fec5

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-3859-2017

1027-5606

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 21 (7), 3859-3878

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2017 E. Cristiano, Marie-claire ten Veldhuis, N.C. van de Giesen