Conservative Design Rainfall Distribution
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 14, Issue 5
Abstract
To design urban storm water infrastructures, hydrologists apply the SCS Types I, II, and III rainfall distribution curves to simulate the design rainfall hyetographs by which storm runoff can be predicted accordingly. Although SCS rainfall curves are recommended by the Natural Resources Conservation Service and have been widely adopted for many cosmopolitan areas in the United States, it is not enough to understand how these curves compare with observed data. In this study, a hourly rainfall data recorded in Denver was analyzed and then compared with the SCS rainfall curves. It is concluded that these SCS Types I and II curves do not represent the statistical average values. Rather, they represent the worst time distribution to form a severe storm. Using the concept of enveloping curves, conservative rainfall distributions can be derived using a similar approach as revealed by the SCS curves. The approach suggested in this study requires much less rainfall data than the statistical average.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 14 • Issue 5 • May 2009
Pages: 528 - 530
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Apr 28, 2008
Accepted: Aug 3, 2008
Published online: Feb 19, 2009
Published in print: May 2009
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