scholarly journals Reassessing flood frequency For the Sussex Ouse, Lewes: the Inclusion of historical Flood Information since AD 1650

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (6) ◽  
pp. 7615-7646 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Macdonald ◽  
T. R. Kjeldsen ◽  
I. Prosdocimi ◽  
H. Sangster
Keyword(s):  
Sensitivity Analysis ◽  
Frequency Analysis ◽  
Flood Frequency ◽  
Flood Frequency Analysis ◽  
Flood Events ◽  
Combined Analysis ◽  
Historical Information ◽  
Site Analysis ◽  
Flood Level ◽  
Severe Flooding

Abstract. The application of historical flood information as a tool for augmenting instrumental flood data is increasingly recognised as a valuable tool; most previous studies have focused on large catchments with historic settlements, this paper applies the approach to the smaller lowland system of the Sussex Ouse in Southeast England. The reassessment of flood risk on the Sussex Ouse is pertinent in light of severe flooding in October 2000 and heightened concerns of a perceived increase in flooding nationally. Systematic flood level readings from 1960 and accounts detailing past flood events within the catchment are compiled back to c.1750. This extended flood record provides an opportunity to reassess estimates of flood frequency over a timescale not normally possible within flood frequency analysis. This paper re-evaluates flood frequency at Lewes on the Sussex Ouse downstream of the confluence of the Sussex Ouse and River Uck. The paper considers the strengths and weaknesses in estimates resulting from contrasting methods of analysis and their corresponding data: (i) single site analysis of gauged annual maxima; (ii) combined analysis of systematic annual maxima augmented with historical peaks of estimated magnitude; (iii) combined analysis of systematic annual maxima augmented with historical peaks of estimated magnitude exceeding a known threshold, and (iv) sensitivity analysis including only the very largest historical flood events. Use of the historical information was found to yield much tighter confidence intervals of risk estimates, with uncertainty reduced by up to 40% for the 100 yr return frequency event when historical information was added to the gauged data.

scholarly journals Reassessing flood frequency for the Sussex Ouse, Lewes: the inclusion of historical flood information since AD 1650

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 2817-2828 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Macdonald ◽  
T. R. Kjeldsen ◽  
I. Prosdocimi ◽  
H. Sangster
Keyword(s):  
Sensitivity Analysis ◽  
Frequency Analysis ◽  
Flood Frequency ◽  
Flood Frequency Analysis ◽  
Flood Events ◽  
Combined Analysis ◽  
Historical Information ◽  
Site Analysis ◽  
Flood Level ◽  
Severe Flooding

Abstract. The application of historical flood information as a tool for augmenting instrumental flood data is increasingly recognised as a valuable tool. Most previous studies have focused on large catchments with historic settlements, this paper applies the approach to the smaller lowland system of the Sussex Ouse in southeast England. The reassessment of flood risk on the Sussex Ouse is pertinent in light of the severe flooding in October 2000 and heightened concerns of a perceived increase in flooding nationally. Systematic flood level readings from 1960 and accounts detailing past flood events within the catchment are compiled back to ca. 1750. This extended flood record provides an opportunity to reassess estimates of flood frequency over a timescale not normally possible within flood frequency analysis. This paper re-evaluates flood frequency at Lewes on the Sussex Ouse downstream of the confluence of the Sussex Ouse and River Uck. The paper considers the strengths and weaknesses in estimates resulting from contrasting methods of analysis and their corresponding data: (i) single site analysis of gauged annual maxima; (ii) combined analysis of systematic annual maxima augmented with historical peaks of estimated magnitude; (iii) combined analysis of systematic annual maxima augmented with historical peaks of estimated magnitude exceeding a known threshold, and (iv) sensitivity analysis including only the very largest historical flood events. Use of the historical information was found to yield much tighter confidence intervals of risk estimates, with uncertainty reduced by up to 40% for the 100-year return frequency event when historical information was added to the gauged data.

scholarly journals Modeling the spatial dependence of floods using the Fisher copula

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuela I. Brunner ◽  
Reinhard Furrer ◽  
Anne-Catherine Favre
Keyword(s):  
Frequency Analysis ◽  
Spatial Dependence ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Flood Frequency ◽  
Flood Frequency Analysis ◽  
Flood Event ◽  
Dependence Structure ◽  
Suitable Model ◽  
Flood Events ◽  
Extreme Flood

Abstract. Floods often affect not only a single location, but also a whole region. Flood frequency analysis should therefore be undertaken at a regional scale which requires the considerations of the dependence of events at different locations. This dependence is often neglected even though its consideration is essential to derive reliable flood estimates. A model used in regional multivariate frequency analysis should ideally consider the dependence of events at multiple sites which might show dependence in the lower and/or upper tail of the distribution. We here seek to propose a simple model that on the one hand considers this dependence with respect to the network structure of the region and on the other hand allows for the simulation of stochastic event sets at both gauged and ungauged locations. The new Fisher copula model is used for representing the spatial dependence of flood events in the nested Thur catchment in Switzerland. Flood event samples generated for the gauged stations using the Fisher copula are compared to samples generated by other dependence models allowing for modeling of multivariate data including elliptical copulas, R-vine copulas, and max-stable models. The comparison of the dependence structures of the generated samples shows that the Fisher copula is a suitable model for capturing the spatial dependence in the data. We therefore use the copula in a way such that it can be used in an interpolation context to simulate event sets comprising gauged and ungauged locations. The spatial event sets generated using the Fisher copula well capture the general dependence structure in the data and the upper tail dependence, which is of particular interest when looking at extreme flood events and when extrapolating to higher return periods. The Fisher copula was for a medium-sized catchment found to be a suitable model for the stochastic simulation of flood event sets at multiple gauged and ungauged locations.

scholarly journals Modeling the spatial dependence of floods using the Fisher copula

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuela I. Brunner ◽  
Reinhard Furrer ◽  
Anne-Catherine Favre
Keyword(s):  
Frequency Analysis ◽  
Spatial Dependence ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Flood Frequency ◽  
Flood Frequency Analysis ◽  
Flood Event ◽  
Dependence Structure ◽  
Suitable Model ◽  
Flood Events ◽  
Extreme Flood

Abstract. Floods do often not only affect a single location but a whole region. Flood frequency analysis should therefore be undertaken at a regional scale which requires the considerations of the dependence of events at different locations. This dependence is often neglected even though its consideration is essential to derive reliable flood estimates. A model used in regional multivariate frequency analysis should ideally consider the dependence of events at multiple sites which might show dependence in the lower and/or upper tail of the distribution. We here seek at proposing a simple model that on the one hand considers this dependence with respect to the network structure of the region and on the other hand, allows for the simulation of stochastic event sets at both gauged and ungauged locations. The new Fisher copula model is used for representing the spatial dependence of flood events in the nested Thur catchment in Switzerland. Flood event samples generated for the gauged stations using the Fisher copula are compared to samples generated by other dependence models allowing for modeling multivariate data including elliptical copulas, R-vine copulas, and max-stable models. The comparison of the dependence structures of the generated samples shows that the Fisher copula is a suitable model for capturing the spatial dependence in the data. We therefore use the copula in a way such that it can be used in an interpolation context to simulate event sets comprising gauged and ungauged locations. The spatial event sets generated using the Fisher copula well capture the general dependence structure in the data and the upper tail dependence, which is of particular interest when looking at extreme flood events and when extrapolating to higher return periods. The Fisher copula is therefore a suitable model for the stochastic simulation of flood event sets at multiple gauged and ungauged locations.

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