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Rainfall thresholds for flood triggering. The case of Marathonas in Greece

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Abstract

Basins across Mediterranean coast are often subject to rapid inundation phenomena caused by intense rainfall events. In this flash flooding regime, common practices for risk mitigation involve hydraulic modeling, geomorphic, and hydrologic analysis. However, apart from examining the intrinsic characteristics of a basin, realistic flood hazard assessment requires good understanding of the role of climatic forcing. In this work, peak rainfall intensities, total storm accumulation, average intensity, and antecedent moisture conditions of the 52 most important storms in record, during the period from 1993 to 2008, in northeast Attica, in Greece, are examined to investigate whether there is a correlation between specific rainfall conditions and flood triggering in the area. For this purpose, precipitation data from a network of five rain gauges installed across the study area were collected and analyzed. Storms totals, average intensity, antecedent moisture conditions, and peak intensities variations were calculated and compared with local flooding history. Results showed that among these rainfall measures, only peak storm intensity presents a significant correlation with flood triggering, and a rainfall threshold above which flooding becomes highly probable can be defined.

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Acknowledgments

The author expresses his gratitude to the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), National Observatory of Athens (NOA), Athens Water Supply and Sewerage Company (EYDAP SA), and to Hellenic National Meteorological Service (HNMS) that provided the data used in this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Geology and Geoenvironment, School of Sciences, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Panepistimioupoli, 157 84, Athens, Greece

    Michalis Diakakis

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  1. Michalis Diakakis
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Correspondence to Michalis Diakakis.

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Diakakis, M. Rainfall thresholds for flood triggering. The case of Marathonas in Greece. Nat Hazards 60, 789–800 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-011-9904-7

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