Abstract
Flash floods rank high in the list of major hazards in the Mediterranean environment. Early warnings in highly developed areas are the only non-structural remedial measures suitable to reduce the risk level, if properly diffused with enough lead time and acceptable reliability.
Quantitative Precipitation Forecasting (QPF) is the crucial issue for Mediterranean basins where the social organization response time to undertake suitable precautionary actions is larger than the watershed response time. The deterministic approach to QPF suitable for early warning, with time scales of a few hours and space scale of hundred kilometers, still requires major research efforts in the field of mesoscale meteorologic models.
The objective of this lecture is to present recent development of methodologies for meteorologic data interpretation, validation and integration. Multisensor data sources are tested and used. Polar and geosynchronous satellite, meteorological radar and telemetering raingauge networks are the sources of data that are used to estimate rainfall intensity and storm areal coverage at different temporal and space scales. By tracking satellite images a prediction of storm position, intensity and coverage can be derived and, therefore, rainfall and flood forecasts can be obtained with an associated probability level of occurrence. Application of the techniques described in this work is expected to provide some useful perspectives in the field of real time rainfall measurement and forecast and, linked to a rainfall-runoff model, in the field of early warning of flood hazards.
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© 1994 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Lanza, L., La Barbera, P., Siccardi, F. (1994). Early warnings and quantitative precipitation forecasting. In: Rossi, G., Harmancioğlu, N., Yevjevich, V. (eds) Coping with Floods. NATO ASI Series, vol 257. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1098-3_24
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1098-3_24
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