HR: 08:25h
AN: H11G-02 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: The Effect of Uncertainty in Spatial Rainfall on Predictions of Storm Runoff
AU: * Woods, R A
EM: r.woods@niwa.co.nz
AF: NIWA, P.O. Box 8602, Christchurch, 8005 New Zealand
AB: Hydrological response is the result of numerous complex interactions among hydrological inputs (e.g., rain and radiation) and landscape properties (e.g., vegetation, topography, and soil properties) through a number of hydrological processes at the land surface. In many practical problems, the dominant controls on catchment response and on catchment-to-catchment variability are due to spatial rainfall variability. This variability is usually poorly quantified, leading to significant uncertainty in a key driver of hydrological models. I explore two approaches which have been used to explore the significance of rainfall variability to predicted storm runoff: (i) resolving spatial rainfall in detail by measurement and then synthetically discarding the spatial detail in inputs to catchments models; (ii) quantifying the variability statistically and examining its significance in an analytical framework. Results are illustrated using data from the MARVEX project.
DE: 1821 Floods
DE: 1854 Precipitation (3354)
DE: 1860 Runoff and streamflow
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting