Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1990. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-44). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2004. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 91-95). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S. - Hydrology and Water Resources)--University of Arizona, 1984. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 143-146).

This study represents an attempt to model the disaggregation of daily rainfall at a point into individual storms for the summer rainy season in southeast Arizona. The purpose of the model is to simulate the number of storms per day and the amount, duration and time of occurrence of each event while maintaining daily statistics. Various storm ratios are introduced to describe the disaggregation of a daily amount into individual storm amounts. Marginal distributions are fit to the storm ratios and event starting times. On multiple-event days, starting times are obtained through the use of order statistics. Conditional distributions are fit to the number of storms per day, given a daily amount, and the duration of each event, given a storm amount. The simulated data compare favorably with the observed data. Statistical tests indicate that the model adequately transforms daily rainfall into a sequence of individual storms.

Ph.D. (Geography) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Increased urbanization causes pervious greenfields to be converted to impervious areas increasing stormwater runoff. Most of the urban floods occur because existing drainage systems are unable to handle peak flows during rainfall events. During a storm event, flood runoff will carry contaminants to receiving waters such as rivers and creeks. Engineers and scientists have combined their knowledge to introduce innovative thinking to manage the quality of urban runoff and harvest stormwater for productive purposes. The introduction of pervious pavements addresses all the principles in Water Sensitive Urban Design. A pervious pavement is a load bearing pavement structure that is permeable to water. The pervious layer sits on the top of a reservoir storage layer. Pervious pavements reduce the flood peak as well as improve the quality of stormwater at source before it is transported to receiving waters or reused productively. To be accepted as a viable solution, understanding of the influence of design parameters on the infiltration rate (both from the bedding and the sub-base) as well as strength of the pavement requires to be established. The design of a particular pavement will need to be customized for different properties of sub layer materials present in different sites. In addition, the designs will have to meet local government stormwater discharge standards. The design of drainage systems underneath pervious pavements will need to be based on the permeability of the whole pervious system. The objectives of the research project are to: • Understand the factors influencing infiltration capacities and percolation rates through the pervious surface as well as the whole pavement structure including the bedding and the sub-base using a laboratory experimental setup. • Obtain relationships between rainfall intensity, infiltration rate and runoff quantity based on the sub-grade material using a computational model to assist the design of pervious pavements. A laboratory scale pavement was constructed to develop relationships between the surface runoff and the infiltration volume from a pervious pavement with an Eco-Pavement surface. 2 to 5mm crushed gravel and 5 to 20mm open graded gravel were chosen as the bedding and sub-base material. Initial tests such as dry and wet density, crushing values, hydraulic conductivity, California Bearing Ratio tests for aggregate material were conducted before designing and constructing the pavement model. A rainfall simulator with evenly spaced 24 sprays was set up above the pervious pavement surface. The thesis presents design aspects of the laboratory scale pavement and the tests carried out in designing the pavement and the experimental procedure. The Green and Ampt model parameters to calculate infiltration were obtained from the laboratory test results from aggregate properties. Runoff results obtained from rainfall simulator tests were compared with the Green and Ampt infiltration model results to demonstrate that the Green and Ampt parameters could be successfully calculated from aggregate properties. The final infiltration rate and the cumulative infiltration volume of water were independent of the rainfall intensity once the surface is saturated. The model parameters were shown to be insensitive to the final infiltration capacity and to the total amount of infiltrated water. The Green and Ampt infiltration parameters are the most important parameters in designing pervious pavements using the PCSWMMPP model. The PCSWMMPP model is a Canadian model built specially for designing pervious pavements. This is independent of the type of sub-grade (sand or clay) determining whether the water is diverted to the urban drainage system (clay sub-grade) or deep percolation into the groundwater system (sand sub-grade). The percolation parameter in Darcy's law is important only if the infiltrated water recharges the groundwater. However, this parameter is also insensitive to the final discharge through the subgrade to the groundwater. The study concludes by presenting the design characteristics influencing runoff from a pervious pavement depending on the rainfall intensity, pavement structure and sub-grade material and a step-by step actions to follow in the design.

The suitability of using rain-flow reconstructions as an alternative to an original loading spectrum for component fatigue life testing is investigated. A modified helicopter maneuver history is used for the rain-flow cycle counting and history regenerations. Experimental testing on a notched test specimen over a wide range of loads produces similar lives for the original history and the reconstructions. The test lives also agree with a simplified local strain analysis performed on the specimen utilizing the rain-flow cycle count. The rain-flow reconstruction technique is shown to be a viable test spectrum alternative to storing the complete original load history, especially in saving computer storage space and processing time. A description of the regeneration method, the simplified life prediction analysis, and the experimental methods are included in the investigation. / Master of Science

Accuracy in estimation of precipitation can be achieved by utilizing the combination of spatial radar reflectivity data (Z) and the high resolution temporal rain gage based rainfall data (R). The study proposes the use of optimization models for optimizing the Z-R coefficients and exponents for different storm types and seasons. Precipitation data based on reflectivity, collected from National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) and rain gage data from Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) over same temporal resolutions were analyzed using the Rain-Radar- Retrieval (R3) system developed as a part of the study. Optimization formulations are proposed to obtain optimal coefficients and exponents in the Z-R relationships for different seasons and objective selection of storm-type specific Z-R relationships. Different approaches in selection of rain gage stations and selection of events for optimization are proposed using gradient based solver and genetic algorithms. / Kandarp Pattani. / Thesis (M.S.C.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.\

In response to increased greenhouse gases and global temperatures, changes to the hydrologic cycle are projected to occur and new precipitation characteristics are expected to emerge. The study of these characteristics is facilitated by common indices to measure precipitation and temperature developed by the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI). These indices can be used to describe the likely consequences of climate change such as increased daily precipitation intensity (SDII) and heavier rainfall events (R95p). This study calculates a subset of these indices from observed and modelled precipitation data in Portland, Oregon. Five rainfall gages from a high resolution rain gage network and projections from three downscaled global climate models including CanESM2, CESM1, CNRM-CM5 are used to calculate precipitation indices. Mann-Kendall's tau is used to detect monotonic trends in indices. The observational record is compared with models for the historic period (1977-2005) and these past trends are compared with projected future trends (2006-2100). The influence of study unit on trend detection is analyzed by computing trends at the annual and monthly scale. Study unit is shown to be important for trend detection. When the annual study unit is used, projected future trends towards increased precipitation intensity and event volumes are not observed in the historic data. However, when analyzed with a monthly study unit, trends towards increased precipitation intensity and event volumes are observed in the historic data. These trends are shown to be important for Portland area flooding, as precipitation indices are shown to significantly correlate with 40 maximum peak flow events that occurred during the period of study.

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