Mathematical Formulations of NRCS Design Storms
This article has been corrected.
VIEW CORRECTIONPublication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 135, Issue 2
Abstract
Four standard design storms (called Types 1, 1A, 2, and 3) developed by the National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) are used widely throughout the United States for hydrological design of flood control structures and storm-water best management practices. The rainfall patterns are intended for use in catchments with areas of or less, and they are considered applicable to storms of any average recurrence interval. Presented as ratios of accumulated rainfall depth to the total rainfall depth at intervals, interpolation of the tabulated values usually is needed to obtain rainfall intensities at desired storm times. A mathematical formulation of rainfall intensity consisting of two exponential terms and a constant term is fit to each of the four distributions, and optimal values of the model coefficients are found. The formula reproduces closely all of the four NRCS design storms, and can be used to extract shorter duration subsets of the rainfall patterns in an uncomplicated way.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 135 • Issue 2 • April 2009
Pages: 241 - 247
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Jul 28, 2007
Accepted: Aug 18, 2008
Published online: Apr 1, 2009
Published in print: Apr 2009
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