Effect of Wind on Precipitation Intercepted by Steep Mountain Slopes
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 5, Issue 4
Abstract
A simple and efficient formulation is developed to describe the effects of wind speed and direction on ground level precipitation intercepted by steep mountain slopes. A 3D rainfall field is reproduced from measurements of (vertical) precipitation intensity, wind speed, and wind direction. The Marshall-Palmer drop size distribution is used to express the volumetric precipitation water content as a function of measured precipitation intensity, and raindrops are assumed to move horizontally with the measured wind speed and direction. Land topography is described using digital elevation model data, and local contributions to ground level precipitation are calculated as the interception of the obtained 3D rainfall field by horizontal and vertical surfaces that constitute the elemental land surface systems. The developed formulation is tested at the Acquabona and Fiames mountain slopes, located in the Northern Italian Dolomites, near the town of Cortina d'Ampezzo, where debris flow phenomena often occur. Simulation results are corroborated, although in an indirect and approximate manner, by field estimates of debris flow volumes delivered by the considered mountain slopes in response to monitored storm events. Although more accurate and comprehensive validation is needed, the developed formulation appears to constitute a useful diagnostic tool for providing interpretation of storm-flow hydrographs delivered by steep mountain slopes in response to storm precipitations affected by wind.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
1.
Austin, P. M., and Houze, R. A. ( 1972). “Analysis of the structure of precipitation patterns in New England.” J. Appl. Meteorology, 11, 926–934.
2.
Bathurst, J. C. ( 1993). “Flow resistance through the channel network.” Channel network hydrology, K. Beven and M. J. Kirkby, eds., Wiley, New York, 69–98.
3.
Berti, M., Ghirotti, N., Simoni, A., Tecca, P. R., and Genevois, R. ( 1998). “Debris flow risk in the upper Boite valley: Field trip booklet.” Rep. for Second Debris Flow Risk Project, Dipartimento di Geologia, Paleontologia e Geofisica, Università degli Studi di Padova.
4.
Berti, M., and Simoni, A. ( 1997). “Acquabona debris-flow basin (Eastern Italian Alps): The 12th June 1997 event.” Dipartimento di Geologia, Paleontologia e Geofisica, Università degli Studi di Padova (on video tape).
5.
Bradley, S. G., Gray, W. R., Pigott, L. D., Seed, A. W., Stow, C. D., and Austin, G. L. ( 1997). “Rainfall redistribution over low hills due to flow perturbation.” J. Hydro., Amsterdam, 33–47.
6.
Emmett, W. W. ( 1978). “Overland flow.” Hillslope hydrology, M. J. Kirkby, ed., Wiley, New York, 145–176.
7.
Gupta, V. K., and Waymyre, E. C. ( 1979). “A stochastic kinematic study of subsynoptic space-time rainfall.” Water Resour. Res., 3(17), 637–644.
8.
Jones, D. M. A. ( 1992). “Raindrop spectra at the ground.” J. Appl. Meteorology, 31, 1219–1225.
9.
Joss, J., Thams, J. C., and Waldvogel, A. ( 1968). “The variation of raindrop size distribution at Locarno.” Proc., Int. Conf. on Cloud Phys., 369–373.
10.
Joss, J., and Waldvogel, A. ( 1969). “Raindrop size distribution and sampling size errors.” J. Atmospheric Sci., 26, 566–569.
11.
Krajewski, W. F., Lakshmi, V., Georgakakos, K. P., and Jain, S. C. ( 1991). “A Monte Carlo study of rainfall sampling effect on a distributed catchment model.” Water Resour. Res., 27(1), 119–128.
12.
Larson, L. W., and Peck, E. L. ( 1974). “Accuracy of precipitation measurements for hydrologic modeling.” Water Resour. Res., 10(4), 857–863.
13.
Laws, J. O., and Parsons, D. A. ( 1943). “The relation of raindrop size to intensity.” Eos Trans. Am. Geophys. Union, 24, 452–458.
14.
Lenard, P. ( 1904). “Uber regen.” Meteorological Zeitschrift, 21, 249–260 (in German).
15.
Marshall, J. S., and Palmer, M. W. ( 1948). “The distribution of raindrops with size.” J. Meteorology, 5, 165–166.
16.
Nespor, V. ( 1997). “Investigation of wind-induced error of rain and snow measurements using a three-dimensional numerical simulation.” Rep. 63, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich.
17.
Ogden, F. L., and Julien, P. Y. ( 1993). “Runoff sensitivity to temporal and spatial rainfall variability at runoff plane and small basin scales.” Water Resour. Res., 29(8), 2589–2597.
18.
Orlandini, S. (1999). “Two-layer model of near-surface soil drying for time-continuous hydrologic simulations.”J. Hydrologic Engrg., ASCE, 4(2), 91–99.
19.
Orlandini, S., Mancini, M., Paniconi, C., and Rosso, R. ( 1996). “Local contributions to infiltration excess runoff for a conceptual catchment scale model.” Water Resour. Res., 32(7), 2003–2012.
20.
Orlandini, S., Perotti, A., Sfondrini, G., and Bianchi, A. ( 1999). “On the storm flow response of upland Alpine catchments.” Hydrological Processes, 13(4), 549–562.
21.
Orlandini, S., and Rosso, R. ( 1998). “Parameterization of stream channel geometry in the distributed modeling of catchment dynamics.” Water Resour. Res., 34(8), 1971–1985.
22.
Pruppacher, H. R., and Klett, J. D. ( 1978). Microphysics of clouds and precipitation, Reidel, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
23.
Rogers, R. R., and Yau, M. K. ( 1989). A short course in cloud physics, Pergamon, Oxford, U.K.
24.
Sekhorn, R. S., and Srivastava, R. C. ( 1971). “Doppler radar observations of drop-size distributions in a thunderstorm.” J. Atmospheric Sci., 28, 983–994.
25.
Troutman, B. M. ( 1983). “Runoff prediction errors and bias in parameter estimation induced by spatial variability of precipitation.” Water Resour. Res., 19(3), 791–810.
26.
Ulbrich, C. W. ( 1983). “Natural variations in the analytical form of the raindrop size distribution.” J. Climate Appl. Meteorology, 22, 1764–1775.
27.
Waldvogel, A. ( 1978). “The N0 jump in raindrop spectra.” J. Atmospheric Sci., 31, 1067–1078.
28.
Whoolhiser, D. A., and Goodrich, D. C. ( 1988). “Effect of storm rainfall intensity patterns on surface runoff.” J. Hydro., Amsterdam, 102, 335–354.
29.
Wilson, C. B., Valdes, J. B., and Rodriguez-Iturbe, I. ( 1979). “On the influence of spatial distribution of rainfall on storm runoff.” Water Resour. Res., 15(2), 321–328.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
History
Received: Oct 5, 1998
Published online: Oct 1, 2000
Published in print: Oct 2000
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.