Observational and Modeling Studies of Extreme Floods in Urban Environments

In this study, the impacts of urbanization on extreme rainfall and flooding are examined through a combination of intercomparison studies of rainfall and flooding from a diverse sample of urban watersheds in the US and through modeling studies of extreme rainfall and flooding. The study is organized around questions that address urbanization impacts on the climatology of extreme rainfall and questions that address urbanization impacts on flood response in urban watersheds. How does urbanization alter the spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall from flood-producing storm systems and what are the characteristic life cycles of storm systems that produce flash floods in urban regions? How does the pattern of urban development, along with the space-time structure of rainfall, determine the scale-dependent flood response of urban watersheds? Study regions include the Baltimore, Philadelphia, Indianapolis and St. Louis metropolitan regions.