Modeling of IDF curves for stormwater design in Makkah Al Mukarramah region, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Abstract Reducing the negative impacts of flooding in Makkah AL Mukarramah region in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is of utmost importance. In the last decade, there are huge mega infrastructure projects in KSA in general and in Makkah AL Mukarramah region in particular. These projects require adequate stormwater drainage systems. Since, the availability of rainfall and runoff data are scarce, engineers and hydrologists rely on models developed in temperature regions that are not hydrologically similar from temperate regions. This leads to inaccurate designs of stormwater facilities. Therefore, deveoping in situ Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) curves is a must in this arid region. This paper aims at modeling IDF curves for Makkah Al-Mukarramah region. Maximum annual daily rainfall series of 80 storms (with sub-hourly and hourly data) from four stations are investigated through six different probability distributions. Consequently, rainfall depth-duration-frequency models and curves are derived. Results revealed that the Gumbel Type I is the optimal one. Thus, it is used to deduce the IDF curves and relations for each station and for the region as a whole. The R2 value for fitting power-lawfunction (i = a Db) to the data is very high for the IDF parameters. The R2 for the coefficient parameter, a, is between 0.9999 and 0.9988 while it ranges between 0.8754 and 0.8039 for exponent parameter, b. High correlation coefficient (more than 0.95) has been obtained. The resulting IDF models are strongly recommended for rigorous, effective and safe design of the stormwater systems in Makkah Al-Mukarramah region.