River floods (maximum annual flow or peak over threshold) can be caused by various different mechanisms that trigger flood response, e.g. (i) very high precipitation rates can lead to Horton overland flow, (ii) large precipitation events can saturate the soils and cause Dunne overland flow or fill and spill triggered flow response, (iii) evaporation may strongly control the seasonality if this process, and (iv) in snowy regions snowmelt and rain on snow events are often an important factor.
Although I would expect regional differences in the processes that cause floods in the U.S. I can't find any studies that highlight these differences covering large parts of the U.S.; Studies are either local, or focus on meteorological conditions rather than the associated hydrological processes.
Are there any papers that can support understanding the regional differences in hydrological processes controlling flood response?
There are some studies that have looked at flooding trends across the US. See these papers:
Hirsch, R.M. and Ryberg, K.R., 2012. Has the magnitude of floods across the USA changed with global CO2 levels? Hydrolological Sciences Journal, 57 (1), 1–9.
Groisman, P. Y., R. W. Knight, and T. R. Karl (2001) Heavy precipitation and high streamflow in the contiguous United States: Trends in the twentieth century, Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 82, 219–246, doi:10.1175/1520-477(2001)0822.3.CO;2
Douglas, E. M., R. M. Vogel, and C.N. Kroll (2000), Trends in floods and low flows in the United States: impact of spatial correlation, J. of Hydrology, 240, 90-105, doi:10.1016/S0022-1694(00)00336-X
Vogel, R. M., C. Yaindl and M. Walter (2011) Nonstationarity: Flood magnification and recurrence reduction factors in the United States. Journal of the American Water Resources Association 47: 464–474.
There are also many regional flood trend studies in the US, some covering large areas like the eastern or central US, etc. I believe there is also flood trend information in the most recent US Climate Change Assessment, which is available on-line. Finally, I recently reviewed a paper on flood trend patterns across the US, so I know there is work in progress that may be published in the near future.
I hope this information helps.
There are some studies that have looked at flooding trends across the US. See these papers:
Hirsch, R.M. and Ryberg, K.R., 2012. Has the magnitude of floods across the USA changed with global CO2 levels? Hydrolological Sciences Journal, 57 (1), 1–9.
Groisman, P. Y., R. W. Knight, and T. R. Karl (2001) Heavy precipitation and high streamflow in the contiguous United States: Trends in the twentieth century, Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 82, 219–246, doi:10.1175/1520-477(2001)0822.3.CO;2
Douglas, E. M., R. M. Vogel, and C.N. Kroll (2000), Trends in floods and low flows in the United States: impact of spatial correlation, J. of Hydrology, 240, 90-105, doi:10.1016/S0022-1694(00)00336-X
Vogel, R. M., C. Yaindl and M. Walter (2011) Nonstationarity: Flood magnification and recurrence reduction factors in the United States. Journal of the American Water Resources Association 47: 464–474.
There are also many regional flood trend studies in the US, some covering large areas like the eastern or central US, etc. I believe there is also flood trend information in the most recent US Climate Change Assessment, which is available on-line. Finally, I recently reviewed a paper on flood trend patterns across the US, so I know there is work in progress that may be published in the near future.
I hope this information helps.
Wouter,
One of my labmates (Rebecca Marjerison) just finished her PhD focusing on these sorts of questions (e.g. saturation excess vs infiltration excess runoff generation) with a focus on flash floods across the Northeast US and the watershed factors driving these events. She's still working on getting her papers out, but here's a recent conference abstract and her contact info if you want to get in touch with her directly.
a recent conference abstract: https://ams.confex.com/ams/93Annual/webprogram/Paper221711.html
her contact info: http://soilandwater.bee.cornell.edu/People/rebecca_marjerison.htm
I suggest you this recent pub on Nature Climate Change:
http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v5/n3/full/nclimate2516.html
Hope it helps,
L
NOAA's storm event's database (here: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/ftp.jsp) catalogs US floods by type. It takes a lot(!) of cleaning, but it would be possible to disaggregate the types of flooding nationally. Most events are identified at the "national weather service zone" level, and sometimes by county.
My colleague and I cleaned the database for national cyclone, drought, and all-type floods for all counties and if you're interested in seeing some of the preliminary results (the paper is in submission) I'd be happy to share/show.
Dear Wouter, although the following investigation was not carried out in the USA, it might show you some hints to pursue your research. It might prove to be an important question to state: where is the flooding water coming from?
Alconada-Magliano MM, JR Fagundo-Castillo, JJ Carrillo-Rivera, PG Hernández. 2011. “Origin of flooding water through hydrogeochemical identification, the Buenos Aires plain, Argentina”. Environmental Earth Sciences Journal. Vol 64:1 pp 51-71. DOI:10.1007/s12665-010-0817-7; ISSN:1866-6280
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Geoscience
- Hydrology