Abstract
Most flood risk studies quantify flood likelihood and damage as functions of depth. The length of time that a flood remains above a stage (duration) is also necessary to quantify infrastructure vulnerability. The proposed approach adds a second dimension, time, into flood risk studies by developing a joint distribution of flood stage and event duration. Bivariate flood frequency model metrics are developed; the metrics are illustrated using data from four gauged sites, two riverine and two tidal. It is concluded that a general joint distribution model is applicable to both riverine and tidal sites. A minimum time between events (interevent time) determines the assignment of sequential periods to a single event or multiple events; this measure is shown to affect the statistics of the tidal sites, but not the riverine sites. The flood stage-duration-frequency curves developed in this study demonstrate a new approach that allows stakeholders to consider the coupling between depth and duration, and thereby develop preparedness and response plans that address temporal aspects such as time out of service in addition to depth-dependent damages.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water), through Grant No. 120809. The authors thank two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions.
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Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 22 • Issue 11 • November 2017
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 31, 2016
Accepted: May 3, 2017
Published online: Sep 13, 2017
Published in print: Nov 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Feb 13, 2018
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