On the Impact of Rainfall Spatial Variability, Geomorphology, and Climatology on Flash Floods

The effects of spatial variability rainfall, geomorphology, and climatology precipitation temperature on the hydrologic response remain poorly understood. This study characterizes catchment in terms a variable called flashiness, that describes severity flood as rate rise unit discharge. It overcomes limitations prior works based limited case studies or simulations by gathering information basins widely varying characteristics using high-resolution rainfall flooding event data set spanning 10 years over Continental United States. objective is to develop robust understanding how influences flash assess its contribution relative basin physiography climatology. explores first-order dependencies well these relationships investigates complex interactions multi-dimensional statistical modeling approach. results confirm organization par with geomorphology Basin dampens effect lower intensities, while higher overwhelms other factors primarily contributes flashiness. Dispersion respect flow path decreases severity. An improved sub-basin scale aids developing index identify mitigate situations identifying which could most benefit from distributed modeling.