Synthesized flood frequency for small urban streams in Tennessee

Technical Report · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1984

OSTI ID:5602573

Robbins, C H

Engineers involved in bridge, culvert, and highway design often need to know the magnitude and frequency of flood discharge from small streams where the drainage basin is urbanized. A total of 22 rainfall-runoff sites located in basins with drainage areas of 0.21 to 24.3 square miles in size and in municipalities with populations between 5000 and 100,000 were used to derive regionalized flood-frequency equations. Impervious area, measured from recent aerial photographs, ranged between 4.7% and 74% of the basin. The equations were derived by multiple regression analyses of synthetic flood-frequency estimates, derived from a rainfall-runoff modeling procedure, versus physical basin characteristics and a precipitation factor. These equations can be used to estimate the magnitude of future floods with recurrence intervals of 2 to 100 years on ungaged urbanized streams in Tennessee. One equation for each recurrence interval applies statewide. Flood-frequency estimates for stations used in the analyses and example computations demonstrating application of the regression equations to urban streams in Tennessee are given in the report. 16 refs., 14 figs., 3 tabs.

• Research Organization: Geological Survey, Nashville, TN (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5602573
• Report Number(s): USGS/WRI-84-4182; ON: TI85901578
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
580100* -- Geology & Hydrology-- (-1989)
DISASTERS
FLOODS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MATHEMATICS
REGRESSION ANALYSIS
STATISTICS
STREAMS
SURFACE WATERS
URBAN AREAS