Abstract
Flash floods cause great harm to people's life and property safety. Rainfall is one of the main causes of flash floods in small watersheds. The uncertainty of rainfall events results in inconsistency between the traditional single rainfall pattern and the actual rainfall process, which poses a great challenge for the early warning and forecasting of flash floods. This paper proposes a novel rainfall pattern based on total rainfall and peak rainfall intensity, i.e., the rainfall pattern of risk probability combination (RPRPC). To determine the joint distribution function with the best fitting effect, copula functions are introduced and optimized. On this basis, the HEC-HMS hydrological model is used to simulate the rainfall-runoff process, a trial algorithm is used to calculate the critical rainfall (CR), and an optimistic-general-pessimistic (O-G-P) early warning mode considering the decision maker's risk preference is proposed. The small watershed of Xinxian in Henan province, China, is taken as a case study for calculation. The results show that the RPRPC is feasible and closer to the actual rainfall process than the traditional rainfall pattern (TRP) and that the HEC-HMS model can be applied to small watersheds in hilly areas. Additionally, the influence of antecedent soil moisture condition (ASMC) and rainfall pattern on critical rainfall varies with the change of peak rainfall intensity and rainfall duration. Finally, the O-G-P early warning mode is effective and provides a valuable reference for the early warning and forecasting of flash floods in small watersheds in hilly areas.