Monday, 21 January 2008
Hydrometeorological Analysis of Flooding Events in San Antonio, TX
Exhibit Hall B (Ernest N. Morial Convention Center)
The United States suffers an annual average of 100 deaths and over $2 billion in damage from flood events. South Central Texas is particularly vulnerable to floods due to: (1) proximity to a moist air source (the Gulf of Mexico); (2) the Balcones Escarpment, which concentrates rainfall runoff; (3) a tendency for synoptic scale features to become cut-off and stall over the area; and (4) decaying tropical cyclones stalling over the area. The San Antonio Metropolitan Area is the 7th largest city in the nation, one of the most flash-flood prone regions in North America, and has experienced a number of flooding events in the last decade (1998, 2002, 2004, and 2007). Research is being conducted to (1) characterize the meteorological conditions that lead to these events; (2) verify and adjust radar-rainfall estimates from WSR-88D radars located at New Braunfels and Laughlin AFB, TX, using surface recorded rainfall accumulations; and (3) apply the rainfall and watershed characteristics data to recreate the runoff events using a two-dimensional, physically-based, distributed-parameter hydrologic model. Analysis of the some of these events will be presented.
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