Impact of spatial and temporal resolution of rainfall inputs on urban hydrodynamic modelling outputs: A multi-catchment investigation

Susana Ochoa-Rodriguez; Li Pen Wang; Auguste Gires; Rui Daniel Pina; Ricardo Reinoso-Rondinel; Guendalina Bruni; Abdellah Ichiba; Santiago Gaitan; Elena Cristiano; Johan Van Assel; Stefan Kroll; Damian Murlà-Tuyls; Bruno Tisserand; Daniel Schertzer; Ioulia Tchiguirinskaia; Christian Onof; Patrick Willems; Marie Claire Ten Veldhuis

doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.05.035

Impact of spatial and temporal resolution of rainfall inputs on urban hydrodynamic modelling outputs: A multi-catchment investigation

Susana Ochoa-Rodriguez
, Li Pen Wang
, Auguste Gires
, Rui Daniel Pina
, Ricardo Reinoso-Rondinel
, Guendalina Bruni
, Abdellah Ichiba
, Santiago Gaitan
, Elena Cristiano
, Johan Van Assel
, Stefan Kroll
, Damian Murlà-Tuyls
, Bruno Tisserand
, Daniel Schertzer
, Ioulia Tchiguirinskaia
, Christian Onof
, Patrick Willems
, Marie Claire Ten Veldhuis

Imperial College London
KU Leuven
ENPC UPEC
Delft University of Technology
Delft University of Technology
Conseil Départemental du Val-de-Marne
Aquafin NV
Veolia Environnement Recherche et Innovation

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Urban catchments are typically characterised by high spatial variability and fast runoff processes resulting in short response times. Hydrological analysis of such catchments requires high resolution precipitation and catchment information to properly represent catchment response. This study investigated the impact of rainfall input resolution on the outputs of detailed hydrodynamic models of seven urban catchments in North-West Europe. The aim was to identify critical rainfall resolutions for urban catchments to properly characterise catchment response. Nine storm events measured by a dual-polarimetric X-band weather radar, located in the Cabauw Experimental Site for Atmospheric Research (CESAR) of the Netherlands, were selected for analysis. Based on the original radar estimates, at 100 m and 1 min resolutions, 15 different combinations of coarser spatial and temporal resolutions, up to 3000 m and 10 min, were generated. These estimates were then applied to the operational semi-distributed hydrodynamic models of the urban catchments, all of which have similar size (between 3 and 8 km²), but different morphological, hydrological and hydraulic characteristics. When doing so, methodologies for standardising model outputs and making results comparable were implemented. Results were analysed in the light of storm and catchment characteristics. Three main features were observed in the results: (1) the impact of rainfall input resolution decreases rapidly as catchment drainage area increases; (2) in general, variations in temporal resolution of rainfall inputs affect hydrodynamic modelling results more strongly than variations in spatial resolution; (3) there is a strong interaction between the spatial and temporal resolution of rainfall input estimates. Based upon these results, methods to quantify the impact of rainfall input resolution as a function of catchment size and spatial-temporal characteristics of storms are proposed and discussed.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	389-407
Number of pages	19
Journal	Journal of Hydrology
Volume	531
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.05.035
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2015
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

Hydrodynamic models
Radar rainfall
Spatial-temporal resolution
Urban drainage
Urban hydrology
X-band radar

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10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.05.035

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Ochoa-Rodriguez, S., Wang, L. P., Gires, A., Pina, R. D., Reinoso-Rondinel, R., Bruni, G., Ichiba, A., Gaitan, S., Cristiano, E., Van Assel, J., Kroll, S., Murlà-Tuyls, D., Tisserand, B., Schertzer, D., Tchiguirinskaia, I., Onof, C., Willems, P., & Ten Veldhuis, M. C. (2015). Impact of spatial and temporal resolution of rainfall inputs on urban hydrodynamic modelling outputs: A multi-catchment investigation. Journal of Hydrology, 531, 389-407. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.05.035

@article{44a09a53041e492385c00f48dc5bb324,

title = "Impact of spatial and temporal resolution of rainfall inputs on urban hydrodynamic modelling outputs: A multi-catchment investigation",

abstract = "Urban catchments are typically characterised by high spatial variability and fast runoff processes resulting in short response times. Hydrological analysis of such catchments requires high resolution precipitation and catchment information to properly represent catchment response. This study investigated the impact of rainfall input resolution on the outputs of detailed hydrodynamic models of seven urban catchments in North-West Europe. The aim was to identify critical rainfall resolutions for urban catchments to properly characterise catchment response. Nine storm events measured by a dual-polarimetric X-band weather radar, located in the Cabauw Experimental Site for Atmospheric Research (CESAR) of the Netherlands, were selected for analysis. Based on the original radar estimates, at 100 m and 1 min resolutions, 15 different combinations of coarser spatial and temporal resolutions, up to 3000 m and 10 min, were generated. These estimates were then applied to the operational semi-distributed hydrodynamic models of the urban catchments, all of which have similar size (between 3 and 8 km2), but different morphological, hydrological and hydraulic characteristics. When doing so, methodologies for standardising model outputs and making results comparable were implemented. Results were analysed in the light of storm and catchment characteristics. Three main features were observed in the results: (1) the impact of rainfall input resolution decreases rapidly as catchment drainage area increases; (2) in general, variations in temporal resolution of rainfall inputs affect hydrodynamic modelling results more strongly than variations in spatial resolution; (3) there is a strong interaction between the spatial and temporal resolution of rainfall input estimates. Based upon these results, methods to quantify the impact of rainfall input resolution as a function of catchment size and spatial-temporal characteristics of storms are proposed and discussed.",

keywords = "Hydrodynamic models, Radar rainfall, Spatial-temporal resolution, Urban drainage, Urban hydrology, X-band radar",

author = "Susana Ochoa-Rodriguez and Wang, \{Li Pen\} and Auguste Gires and Pina, \{Rui Daniel\} and Ricardo Reinoso-Rondinel and Guendalina Bruni and Abdellah Ichiba and Santiago Gaitan and Elena Cristiano and \{Van Assel\}, Johan and Stefan Kroll and Damian Murl{\`a}-Tuyls and Bruno Tisserand and Daniel Schertzer and Ioulia Tchiguirinskaia and Christian Onof and Patrick Willems and \{Ten Veldhuis\}, \{Marie Claire\}",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2015 The Authors.",

year = "2015",

month = dec,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.05.035",

language = "English",

volume = "531",

pages = "389--407",

journal = "Journal of Hydrology",

issn = "0022-1694",

publisher = "Elsevier B.V.",

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Ochoa-Rodriguez, S, Wang, LP, Gires, A, Pina, RD, Reinoso-Rondinel, R, Bruni, G, Ichiba, A, Gaitan, S, Cristiano, E, Van Assel, J, Kroll, S, Murlà-Tuyls, D, Tisserand, B, Schertzer, D, Tchiguirinskaia, I, Onof, C, Willems, P & Ten Veldhuis, MC 2015, 'Impact of spatial and temporal resolution of rainfall inputs on urban hydrodynamic modelling outputs: A multi-catchment investigation', Journal of Hydrology, vol. 531, pp. 389-407. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.05.035

TY - JOUR

T1 - Impact of spatial and temporal resolution of rainfall inputs on urban hydrodynamic modelling outputs

T2 - A multi-catchment investigation

AU - Ochoa-Rodriguez, Susana

AU - Wang, Li Pen

AU - Gires, Auguste

AU - Pina, Rui Daniel

AU - Reinoso-Rondinel, Ricardo

AU - Bruni, Guendalina

AU - Ichiba, Abdellah

AU - Gaitan, Santiago

AU - Cristiano, Elena

AU - Van Assel, Johan

AU - Kroll, Stefan

AU - Murlà-Tuyls, Damian

AU - Tisserand, Bruno

AU - Schertzer, Daniel

AU - Tchiguirinskaia, Ioulia

AU - Onof, Christian

AU - Willems, Patrick

AU - Ten Veldhuis, Marie Claire

PY - 2015/12/1

Y1 - 2015/12/1

N2 - Urban catchments are typically characterised by high spatial variability and fast runoff processes resulting in short response times. Hydrological analysis of such catchments requires high resolution precipitation and catchment information to properly represent catchment response. This study investigated the impact of rainfall input resolution on the outputs of detailed hydrodynamic models of seven urban catchments in North-West Europe. The aim was to identify critical rainfall resolutions for urban catchments to properly characterise catchment response. Nine storm events measured by a dual-polarimetric X-band weather radar, located in the Cabauw Experimental Site for Atmospheric Research (CESAR) of the Netherlands, were selected for analysis. Based on the original radar estimates, at 100 m and 1 min resolutions, 15 different combinations of coarser spatial and temporal resolutions, up to 3000 m and 10 min, were generated. These estimates were then applied to the operational semi-distributed hydrodynamic models of the urban catchments, all of which have similar size (between 3 and 8 km2), but different morphological, hydrological and hydraulic characteristics. When doing so, methodologies for standardising model outputs and making results comparable were implemented. Results were analysed in the light of storm and catchment characteristics. Three main features were observed in the results: (1) the impact of rainfall input resolution decreases rapidly as catchment drainage area increases; (2) in general, variations in temporal resolution of rainfall inputs affect hydrodynamic modelling results more strongly than variations in spatial resolution; (3) there is a strong interaction between the spatial and temporal resolution of rainfall input estimates. Based upon these results, methods to quantify the impact of rainfall input resolution as a function of catchment size and spatial-temporal characteristics of storms are proposed and discussed.

AB - Urban catchments are typically characterised by high spatial variability and fast runoff processes resulting in short response times. Hydrological analysis of such catchments requires high resolution precipitation and catchment information to properly represent catchment response. This study investigated the impact of rainfall input resolution on the outputs of detailed hydrodynamic models of seven urban catchments in North-West Europe. The aim was to identify critical rainfall resolutions for urban catchments to properly characterise catchment response. Nine storm events measured by a dual-polarimetric X-band weather radar, located in the Cabauw Experimental Site for Atmospheric Research (CESAR) of the Netherlands, were selected for analysis. Based on the original radar estimates, at 100 m and 1 min resolutions, 15 different combinations of coarser spatial and temporal resolutions, up to 3000 m and 10 min, were generated. These estimates were then applied to the operational semi-distributed hydrodynamic models of the urban catchments, all of which have similar size (between 3 and 8 km2), but different morphological, hydrological and hydraulic characteristics. When doing so, methodologies for standardising model outputs and making results comparable were implemented. Results were analysed in the light of storm and catchment characteristics. Three main features were observed in the results: (1) the impact of rainfall input resolution decreases rapidly as catchment drainage area increases; (2) in general, variations in temporal resolution of rainfall inputs affect hydrodynamic modelling results more strongly than variations in spatial resolution; (3) there is a strong interaction between the spatial and temporal resolution of rainfall input estimates. Based upon these results, methods to quantify the impact of rainfall input resolution as a function of catchment size and spatial-temporal characteristics of storms are proposed and discussed.

KW - Hydrodynamic models

KW - Radar rainfall

KW - Spatial-temporal resolution

KW - Urban drainage

KW - Urban hydrology

KW - X-band radar

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84943013746

U2 - 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.05.035

DO - 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.05.035

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84943013746

SN - 0022-1694

VL - 531

SP - 389

EP - 407

JO - Journal of Hydrology

JF - Journal of Hydrology

ER -

Impact of spatial and temporal resolution of rainfall inputs on urban hydrodynamic modelling outputs: A multi-catchment investigation

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Keywords

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