Search results for " Rainfall"
showing 10 items of 117 documents
Daily rainfall statistics in Sicily (1920-2000)
2012
Rainfall characteristics are crucial for vegetation patterns formation and evolution in Mediterranean ecosystems. Changes in rainfall frequency and intensity could cause vegetation water stress for some plant species and benefit, at the same time, other species, driving coexistence and competition dynamics. The changes in the precipitation characteristics are sometimes more important than the changes in the total amount of precipitation in determining the partitioning between green and blue water with several implications for both the vegetation communities health and water resource management. Decreasing rainfall is a clear signature of climate change in Mediterranean countries. Annual and…
Objective regional frequency analysis of extreme precipitation in Sicily, Italy
2015
The extreme events have large impacts on society and are likely to increase under climate change. For design and management decisions, particularly around hydraulic infrastructures, accurate estimates of precipitation magnitudes are needed at different durations. In this paper, the regional frequency analysis has been implemented and applied to precipitation data recorded in Sicily, Italy. Annual maximum series for rainfall durations of 1, 3, 6, 12 and 24 h provided by about 130 rain gauges were used. The Regional Frequency Analysis (RFA) has been used to identify the homogeneous regions using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) followed by a clustering analysis, through k-means, aimed to id…
Rainfall Induced Landslides in Puerto Rico
2010
Calibration of the SARI portable rainfall simulator for field and laboratory experiments
2019
The Simulator of Artificial RaInfall (SARI) rainfall simulator (RS) is a newly designed, constructed and calibrated, portable, two-nozzle RS with low water consumption, accurate measurement, easy m...
Design and operation of a small and portable rainfall simulator for rugged terrain
1997
A rainfall simulator designed to perform experiments in rugged terrain is presented. The portability of the apparatus allows the researcher to work in remote areas and on steep slopes. Rainfall intensity and distribution within the plot (0.24 m2) and drop-size were measured under different water pressure. For the best simulated rainfall distribution (1.55 kg cm2 of water pressure and 55 mm h−1 of rain intensity) the drop velocity and the kinetic energy were measured.
Multivariate nonparametric estimation of the Pickands dependence function using Bernstein polynomials
2017
Abstract Many applications in risk analysis require the estimation of the dependence among multivariate maxima, especially in environmental sciences. Such dependence can be described by the Pickands dependence function of the underlying extreme-value copula. Here, a nonparametric estimator is constructed as the sample equivalent of a multivariate extension of the madogram. Shape constraints on the family of Pickands dependence functions are taken into account by means of a representation in terms of Bernstein polynomials. The large-sample theory of the estimator is developed and its finite-sample performance is evaluated with a simulation study. The approach is illustrated with a dataset of…
A non-homogeneous Poisson based model for daily rainfall data
2007
In this paper we report some results of the application of a new stochastic model applied to rainfall daily data. The Poisson models, characterized only by the expected rate of events (impulse occurrences, that is the mean number of impulses per unit time) and the assigned probability distribution of the phenomenon magnitude, do not take into consideration the datum regarding the duration of the occurrences, that is fundamental from a hydrological point of view. In order to describe the phenomenon in a way more adherent to its physical nature, we propose a new model simple and manageable. This model takes into account another random variable, representing the duration of the rainfall due to…
A paradigm of extreme rainfall pluvial floods in complex urban areas: the flood event of 15 July 2020 in Palermo (Italy)
2021
Abstract. In the last few years, some regions of the Mediterranean area have witnessed a progressive increase in extreme events, such as urban and flash floods, as a response to the increasingly frequent and severe extreme rainfall events, which are often exacerbated by the ever-growing urbanization. In such a context, the urban drainage systems may not be sufficient to convey the rainwater, thus increasing the risk deriving from the occurrence of such events. This study focuses on a particularly intense urban flood that occurred in Palermo (Italy) on 15 July 2020; it represents a typical pluvial flood due to extreme rainfall on a complex urban area that many cities have experienced in rece…
Relationship Between Extreme Rainfall and Surface Temperature in Sicily (Italy)
2018
The study of the relationship between extreme rainfall events and surface temperature represents an important issue in hydrology and meteorology and it could be of capital importance for evaluating the effect of global warming on future precipitation. Various approaches have been tested across different parts of the world, and, in many cases, it has been observed an intensification of precipitation with increasing temperature consistently with the thermodynamic Clausius-Clapeyron relation (CC-rate of 6-7% °C-1), according to which a warmer atmosphere is capable of holding more moisture. Nevertheless, in different locations, the scaling rate between temperature and extreme precipitation has …