Flood-frequency relations for urban streams in metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia

Technical Report · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1983

OSTI ID:5224737

Inman, E J

A knowledge of the magnitude and frequency of floods is needed for the design of highway drainage structures, for establishing flood insurance rates, and for many other uses by urban planners and engineers. This report presents a method for estimating the magnitude and frequency of floods on small streams in the Atlanta, Georgia, metropolitan area. The Distributed Routing Rainfall-Runoff Model Version II and the US Geological Survey rainfall-runoff model were calibrated for 19 drainage basins in the Atlanta area ranging in size from 0.21 to 19.1 square miles and in impervious area from 19 to 42%. The models were used to synthesize long-term flood records for these basins. The 2- to 100-year floods were developed for each basin from these long-term flood peak records using the log-Pearson Type III distribution. Multiple-regression analysis was then used to define relations between the flood-frequency station data and certain physical basin characteristics, of which drainage area, channel slope, and measured total impervious area were found to be significant. By using these relations, with these basin characteristics, the magnitude and frequency of floods at ungaged basins can be estimated. 27 refs., 6 figs., 13 tabs.

• Research Organization: Geological Survey, Doraville, GA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5224737
• Report Number(s): USGS/WRI-83-4203; ON: TI85902097
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
580100* -- Geology & Hydrology-- (-1989)
DISASTERS
FEDERAL REGION IV
FLOODS
FORECASTING
GEORGIA
NORTH AMERICA
STREAMS
SURFACE WATERS
URBAN AREAS
USA