scholarly journals How does a rubber plantation affect the spatial variability and temporal stability of throughfall?

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiaqing Liu ◽  
Wenjie Liu ◽  
Weixia Li ◽  
Huanhuan Zeng

Abstract In Xishuangbanna, southwest China, the large-scale monoculture rubber plantation replaced the primary tropical forest, which changed the regional hydrology processes and biogeochemical cycles. As throughfall was an important component of the forest ecosystem water input, we researched the spatial variability and temporal stability of throughfall in the rubber plantation. We recorded 30 rainfall events by using 90 rain gauges during 2015–2016. We found a highly significant linear relationship between rainfall and throughfall, and a strong power correlation between the peak 30 min rainfall intensity and throughfall. The coefficient of variation for throughfall was significant and negatively correlated with rainfall and rainfall intensity. We also observed that throughfall had a strong spatial autocorrelation that would decrease during heavy rainfall events. The results indicate that the leaf area index did not have a significant relationship with throughfall. However, the lateral translocation of the throughfall in the canopy significantly affected the spatial distribution of the throughfall. Generally, the lower throughfall positions were close to the nearest rubber trunk, and the higher throughfall positions were mostly below the slope. This study contributes to the knowledge of the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of throughfall and helps elucidate the interception processes in the rubber plantation.

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1122
Author(s):  
Monica Ionita ◽  
Viorica Nagavciuc

The role of the large-scale atmospheric circulation in producing heavy rainfall events and floods in the eastern part of Europe, with a special focus on the Siret and Prut catchment areas (Romania), is analyzed in this study. Moreover, a detailed analysis of the socio-economic impacts of the most extreme flood events (e.g., July 2008, June–July 2010, and June 2020) is given. Analysis of the largest flood events indicates that the flood peaks have been preceded up to 6 days in advance by intrusions of high Potential Vorticity (PV) anomalies toward the southeastern part of Europe, persistent cut-off lows over the analyzed region, and increased water vapor transport over the catchment areas of Siret and Prut Rivers. The vertically integrated water vapor transport prior to the flood peak exceeds 300 kg m−1 s−1, leading to heavy rainfall events. We also show that the implementation of the Flood Management Plan in Romania had positive results during the 2020 flood event compared with the other flood events, when the authorities took several precaution measurements that mitigated in a better way the socio-economic impact and risks of the flood event. The results presented in this study offer new insights regarding the importance of large-scale atmospheric circulation and water vapor transport as drivers of extreme flooding in the eastern part of Europe and could lead to a better flood forecast and flood risk management.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenmin Zhang ◽  
Martin Brandt ◽  
Xiaoye Tong ◽  
Qingjiu Tian ◽  
Rasmus Fensholt

Abstract. Climate change in drylands has caused alterations in the seasonal distribution of rainfall including increased heavy rainfall events, longer dry spells, and a shifted timing of the wet season. Yet, the aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) in drylands is usually explained by annual rainfall sums, disregarding the influence of the seasonal distribution of rainfall. This study tests the importance of seasonal rainfall metrics (onset and cessation of the wet season, number of rainy days, rainfall intensity, number of consecutive dry days and heavy rainfall events) on growing season ANPP. We focus on the Sahel and north-Sudanian region (100–800 mm year−1) and apply daily satellite based rainfall estimates (RFE-2.0) and growing season integrated NDVI (MODIS) as a proxy for ANNP over the study period 2001–2015. Growing season ANPP in the arid zone (100–300 mm year−1) was found to be rather insensitive to variations in the seasonal rainfall metrics, whereas vegetation in the semi-arid zone (300–700 mm year−1) was significantly impacted by most metrics, especially by the number of rainy days and timing (start and cessation) of the wet season. We analyzed critical breakpoints for all metrics, showing that growing season ANPP is particularly negatively impacted after > 10 consecutive dry days and that a rainfall intensity of 7 mm day−1 is detected for optimum growing season ANPP. We conclude that number of rainy days and the timing of the wet season are seasonal rainfall metrics being decisive for favorable vegetation growth in semi-arid Sahel which needs to be considered when modelling primary productivity from rainfall in the dryland's of Sahel and elsewhere.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 2399-2408 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Vessia ◽  
M. Parise ◽  
M. T. Brunetti ◽  
S. Peruccacci ◽  
M. Rossi ◽  
...  

Abstract. Over the last 40 years, many contributions have identified empirical rainfall thresholds (e.g. rainfall intensity (I) vs. rainfall duration (D), cumulated rainfall vs. rainfall duration (ED), cumulated rainfall vs. rainfall intensity (EI)) for the possible initiation of shallow landslides, based on local and global inventories. Although different methods to trace the threshold curves have been proposed and discussed in literature, a systematic study to develop an automated procedure to select the rainfall event responsible for the landslide occurrence has only rarely been addressed. Objective criteria for estimating the rainfall responsible for the landslide occurrence play a prominent role on the threshold values. In this paper, two criteria for the identification of the effective rainfall events are presented. The first criterion is based on the analysis of the time series of rainfall mean intensity values over 1 month preceding the landslide occurrence. The second criterion is based on the analysis of the trend in the time function of the cumulated mean intensity series calculated from the rainfall records measured through rain gauges. The two criteria have been implemented in an automated procedure that is written in the R language. A sample of 100 shallow landslides collected in Italy from 2002 to 2012 was used to calibrate the procedure. The cumulated event rainfall (E) and duration (D) of rainfall events that triggered the documented landslides are calculated through the new procedure and are fitted with power law in the D, E diagram. The results are discussed by comparing the D, E pairs calculated by the automated procedure and the ones by the expert method.


1997 ◽  
Vol 36 (8-9) ◽  
pp. 7-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Fankhauser

Tipping bucket rain gauges (TBR) have become the most common device for measuring rainfall intensity in urban hydrology. Due to the measurement principle, the time resolution depends on rainfall intensity and bucket size. The present study investigated the influence of calibration uncertainties and bucket size on the accuracy of rainfall measurement and runoff simulation. Synthetic rainfall events with a time resolution of 6 seconds were generated from measured data. These rainfall series were taken as input to a model that simulated a TBR. Different TBR data series were produced by changing calibration parameters and bucket size of the simulated rain gauge. These data series together with the original rainfall events were used as input to a rainfall-runoff model. Computed runoff and overflow volume from a CSO weir were compared. The differences in rainfall depth, intensity peak and computed runoff due to the depth resolution of the TBR were smaller than expected. A depth resolution of the TBR of 0.2 - 0.3 mm per tip seems to fulfil the requirements in urban hydrology. Errors resulting from depth resolution are small compared to those of calibration (especially false rainfall depth per tip), site exposure, the influence of wind or disregarded areal rainfall distribution.


2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Vasiljevic ◽  
E. McBean ◽  
B. Gharabaghi

The intensities of short-duration rainfall events are fundamental inputs to the design of stormwater management infrastructure. However, since stormwater infrastructure must function as designed for many decades, if there are long-term trends in rainfall intensities, design storms need to be modified. Evidence demonstrates, using data from 13 rain gauges in Ontario, that storm intensities relevant to urban stormwater (5 year) appear to have changed over the last 30 years. The results show, for example, statistical significance at 80% confidence that the 5-year storm has increased, and 85% that the 2-year storm has increased, for the 1 h storm in Waterloo, using partial duration series (PDS) data. The PDS data indicate intensities are increasing at a rate of 1–3% per year. Results show, for example, that a 5-year recurrence storm for PDS for the period 1970–1984 is now very close in magnitude to a 2-year recurrence storm for the period 1985–2003 for Waterloo, Ontario. The implications for a case study demonstrate that 5 out of 12 storm sewer pipes in a subdivision would need to be increased in diameter to obtain the same level of stormwater performance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 148 (10) ◽  
pp. 4117-4141
Author(s):  
Feng Hsiao ◽  
Yi-Leng Chen ◽  
David Eugene Hitzl

AbstractShort-lived afternoon heavy rainfall events may form over central Oahu during seasonal transition periods (June and October) under favorable large-scale settings. These include a deep moist layer with relatively high precipitable water (>40 mm), blocking pattern in midlatitudes with a northeast–southwest moist tongue from low latitudes ahead of an upper-level trough, absence of a trade wind inversion, and weak (<3 m s−1) low-level winds. Our high-resolution (1.5 km) model results show that immediately before the storm initiation, daytime land surface heating deepens the mixed layer over central Oahu and the top of the mixed layer reaches the lifting condensation level. Meanwhile, the development of onshore/sea-breeze flows, driven by land–sea thermal contrast, brings in moist maritime air over the island interior. Finally, convergence of onshore flows over central Oahu provides the localized lifting required for the release of instability. Based on synoptic and observational analyses, nowcasting with a lead time of 2–3 h ahead of this type of event is possible. In the absence of orographic effects after removing model topography, processes that lead to heavy rainfall are largely unchanged, and subsequent development of heavy showers over central Oahu are still simulated. However, when surface heat and moisture fluxes are turned off, convective cells are not simulated in the area. These results indicate that daytime heating is crucial for the development of this type of heavy rainfall event under favorable large-scale settings.


Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aldo Greco ◽  
Davide Luciano De Luca ◽  
Elenio Avolio

An in-depth analysis of historical heavy rainfall fields clearly constitutes an important aspect in many related topics: as examples, mesoscale models for early warning systems and the definition of design event scenarios can be improved, with the consequent upgrading in the prediction of induced phenomena (mainly floods and landslides) into specific areas of interest. With this goal, in this work the authors focused on Calabria region (southern Italy) and classified the main precipitation systems through the analysis of selected heavy rainfall events from high resolution rain gauge network time series. Moreover, the authors investigated the relationships among the selected events and the main synoptic atmospheric patterns derived by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA5 Reanalysis dataset, in order to assess the possible large-scale scenarios which can induce heavy rainfall events in the study area. The obtained results highlighted: (i) the importance of areal reduction factors, rainfall intensities and amounts in order to discriminate the investigated precipitations systems for the study area; (ii) the crucial role played by the position of the averaged low-pressure areas over the Mediterranean for the synoptic systems, and by low-level temperature for the convective systems.


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