Collaborative Research: Extreme Rainfall in Urban Environments

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In this study, the impacts of urbanization on extreme rainfall and flooding will be examined through a combination of intercomparison studies of rainfall and flooding from a diverse sample of urban watersheds in the US and through modeling studies of extreme rainfall and flooding. The principal question that will be addressed in this study is: How does urbanization alter the regional hydroclimatology of extreme rainfall and flooding? Research will be organized around questions that address urbanization impacts on the climatology of extreme rainfall and questions that address urbanization impacts on flood response in urban watersheds. Questions that focus on urbanization and extreme rainfall are the following: How does urbanization alter the spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall from flood-producing storm systems? What are the characteristic life cycles of storm systems that produce flash floods in urban regions? How do land - water boundaries and complex terrain interact with the urban environment to control the regional distribution of extreme rainfall? Questions that focus on urbanization and extreme flooding are the following: How does urbanization alter the population of storm systems that are responsible for extreme flooding? How does the pattern of urban development, along with the space-time structure of rainfall, determine the scale-dependent flood response of urban watersheds?Intellectual merit:The research is designed to provide a predictive understanding of the impacts of urbanization on extreme rainfall and flooding. Urban environments represent an especially interesting and important setting for examining spatial heterogeneities in hydrometeorological processes. Urban environments also present a challenging setting for characterizing regional climate change and the research will contribute to a broader understanding of nonstationarities in extreme rainfall and flooding.Broader impacts:This project, which is a collaborative effort of research groups from Princeton and Purdue, will train graduate students and provide the resources and infrastructure for undergraduate students to carry out independent research projects (through Senior Thesis, Junior Independent Project and summer internships). Furthermore, the research elements of the project will be integrated throughout the undergraduate curriculum in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton and at Environmental Science and Engineering as well as Meteorology and Applied Climate/Climate Change curriculum at Purdue, building on initiatives in the area of the "urban environment". Results obtained from this research will be of significant and immediate interest, not only to hydrologists, climate scientists and atmospheric scientists but also to a wide range of end users, including emergency management offices, urban planning programs and flood forecasting offices. The research will be translated into training material, which will be targeted for developing the education and workforce needs of sustainable science researchers and educators. Work with the Indiana State Climate Service Team and Purdue's Land Use Team to develop and disseminate training and outreach material will be carried out.