Effects of Within-Storm Variability on Allochthonous Flash Flooding: A Synthetic Study

Abstract

Rainfall is a spatiotemporally variated process and one of the key elements to accurately capture both catchment runoff response and floodplain extents. Flash floods are the result of intense rainfall, typically associated to highly variable rain in both space and time, such as convective storms. In this work, the extent within-storm variability affects runoff and flooding is explored. The Kan catchment (Tehran, Iran) is used as base topography for the simulations. The allochthonous nature of floods in the catchment and how they interact with the effects of storm variability are further investigated. For this, 300 synthetic rainfall signals with different hyetograph variabilities are generated and imposed on a 1D/2D hydrodynamic model. Additionally, a set of simulations with different levels of spatial variability are performed. The results suggest that temporal and spatial variability affect the runoff response in different degrees. Peak discharge and hydrograph shapes, as well as flooded areas, are affected. The effect of storm temporal variability is shown to be significantly higher than storm spatial variability and storm properties such as return period, duration, and volume. Further on the influence of storm spatiotemporal variability on stream discharge and flood response is seen to be strongly dependent on the location within the drainage network at which it is assessed.