A Staged Approach to Application of Rainfall Data to Urban Runoff Calculations

Abstract

The paper presents a coherent approach to application of rain data from long rain records. It is a staged approach based on the principle that a spectrum of methods should be made available to the practitioner, from the simplest calculation by hand to the most advanced application of historical rain events as input to the most complicated computer programmes. The simplest method is the traditional use of i-d-f-curves and the rational method. From that basis there are stages of increasing sophistication up to Utopian use of all the best means. The choice of method depends on the level of ambition and the accuracy of the basic input data for the catchment in question.