Rainfall input requirements for hydrological calculations

Abstract

Rainfall is the most important input for many hydrological and hydraulic design calculations. Ideally, long historical rainfall series should be used and a statistical analysis should be performed on the hydraulic results afterwards. In combination with the detailed models that are commonly used nowadays, this leads to huge calculation times. This research was set up in order to verify which kind of simplifications can be made with respect to the rainfall input. One must find an optimum between accuracy of the modelling results and calculation effort. This optimum can be different for different applications. The different types of rainfall simplifications which are considered here are composite design storms, short selected rainfall series and modified single storm events. In many cases the optimum is more likely a simplified model in combination with continuous long term simulations. Well-calibrated (physically based) simplified models can reach almost the same accuracy as the corresponding detailed models within a fraction of the calculation time. Furthermore, these simplified models are very useful in order to select or compose the proper rainfall input for detailed modelling.