Professor and Chair University of the District of Columbia
Stormwater management infrastructures (i.e., storm sewer systems, SWM Ponds and LID systems) have been planned, designed and constructed to control stormwater quantity and quality from the urbanization. The design of these infrastructures assumes climate stationarity and utilization of local precipitation record and its characteristics (e.g., intensity, duration and frequency). It has been recognized that climate is changing along with changing pattern on the storm characteristics which might have significant impacts on our existing and future drainage and stormwater management infrastructures, specifically public safety. This requires different approach to design of stormwater related infrastructure and how the key input, precipitation, is utilized in the design. The emphasis has been placed on the statistical analysis of storm events for the entire United States. Storm event analysis were conducted based on the inter event time definition (IETD) from the long-term hourly rainfall record. The long-term rainfall record is discretized into independent storm events by defining an IETD and each storm event is characterized by four event characteristics (e.g., rainfall event volume, duration, intensity, interevent time). The long-term rainfall records for more than 130 stations have been utilized to develop the Storm Event Volume Atlas for the entire country. The storm event volumes are critical for the design of efficient Low Impact Developments. Such information is very critical for our water resources professionals, engineers and local regulatory authorities in evaluating the existing urban drainage infrastructures and future hydrologic analysis and stormwater management.
