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UCD Civil Engineering

CVEN40620: Water Resources Engineering 1 (Online) Dr. J O’Sullivan

Assignment No. 1 2019 – 2020 (Posted 2nd October 2019)

1. A continuously recording rain gauge produced the following data for a storm that lasted 120 minutes:

Time
5 10 20 30 35 45 60 80 100 120
(mins)
Cumulative
rainfall 2.5 7.5 21.6 35.1 45.2 60.3 71.5 80.7 92.3 100.5
(mm)

(a) Determine the maximum rainfall intensities for 5, 10, 20 and 60-minute durations.
(b) Use the following Intensity-Duration-Frequency curves to estimate the return periods for the
intensities computed in (a).

Rainfall Intensity- Duration – Frequency

Curves

2. A 95 km2 catchment has four rain gauge stations, A to D. The annual rainfall for the year 2002 at the
four stations together with their associated Thiessen polygon areas is given below. Also given in the
table are the February rainfall totals for A, B and D.
 Station A B C D
Annual rainfall (mm) 1830 1980 2150 1640
Thiessen polygon areas (km2) 20 35 28 12
February rainfall (mm) 122 105 ? 136

(a) Estimate the missing February data at Station C. Outline the assumptions which underpin your
analyses.
(b) Using the Thiessen polygon method, estimate the average February and annual rainfall in the
catchment for the year 2002.

3. Five stations provide rainfall estimates in the vicinity of Mullingar, Co. Westmeath. The grid
references of the stations are shown in the diagram below.

Station B (N494 580)

Station A (N396 544)

Station X (N445 510)

Station C (N458 503)
Station D (N420 486)

Recorded rainfalls at Stations A, B, C and D for a storm are 55.3 mm 62.1 mm, 49.8 mm and 51.6 mm
respectively. Compare the estimated rainfall at Station X for this storm using the arithmetic averaging
and inverse distance weighting methods.

Note:
The area of Ireland is divided into 25 squares, measuring 100 by 100 km, each identified by a single
letter. Within each square, eastings and northings from the origin (south west corner) of the square are
given numerically. It is common to indicate a location in each square using a six figure grid reference,
employing three digits in each ordinate to determine a 100 m square. Higher resolution locations can
be identified using 5 digits in each ordinate, determining a 1 m square.

4. Daily rainfall totals at Station 1for three consecutive days in February 2007 are shown in the table
below.

Station 11th February 2007 12th February 2007 13th February 2008
1 65.3 80.8 1.1

Hourly rainfall data at a nearby station (Station 2) is given in the following table for the period from the
10th February to the 12th February, 2007.
 Hours Station 2
10th Feb 2007 11th Feb 2007 12th Feb 2007
1 0 0 0
2 0 0 0
3 0 0 0
4 0 0 0
5 0 0 0
6 0 0 0
7 3 1.7 0
8 0 9 0
9 0 2.3 0.5
10 0.9 0 0.4
11 0 1.5 0.1
12 0 5.5 0
13 0 0 0
14 0 0 0
15 0 0 0
16 0 2.5 0.3
17 0.2 1.5 0.4
18 2.1 0.8 0.3
19 0.7 3.4 0
20 0.3 0.6 0
21 0.1 2.5 0
22 0.1 0 0
23 4.7 0 0
24 0 0 0

By analyzing mass curves of rainfall at Station 2, disaggregate the daily rainfall at Station 1into hourly
values.

5. Annual precipitation at rain gauge A and the average annual precipitation at twenty surrounding rain
gauges are given below:

Year Annual Rainfall (mm) Year Annual Rainfall (mm)

Gauge A 20 Station Average Gauge A 20 Station Average
1972 188 264 1954 223 360
1971 185 228 1953 173 234
1970 310 386 1952 282 333
1969 295 297 1951 218 236
1968 208 284 1950 246 251
1967 287 350 1949 284 284
1966 183 236 1948 493 361
1965 304 371 1947 320 282
1964 228 234 1946 274 252
1963 216 290 1945 322 274
1962 224 282 1944 437 302
1961 203 246 1943 389 350
1960 284 264 1942 305 228
1959 295 332 1941 320 312
1958 206 231 1940 328 284
1957 269 234 1939 308 315
1956 241 231 1938 302 280
1955 284 312 1937 414 343
(a) By examining the consistency of the data at A, confirm that a change in regime has occurred.
When did this change occur.
(b) Discuss possible reasons why the change occurred.
(c) Adjust the data and determine the difference this makes to the 36-year annual average rainfall at A.
(d) Compute the adjusted annual rainfalls at A for the affected period.