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Development of storm hyetographs for flood forecasting in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

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Abstract

This paper presents the derivation of the design storm hyetograph patterns for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia based on real rainfall events from meteorological stations distributed throughout the Kingdom. Two thousand twenty-seven rainfall storms for a 20–28-year period were collected and analyzed covering 13 regions of the Kingdom. Four distinct dimensionless rainfall hyetograph patterns have been obtained over the Kingdom, while two patterns have been obtained for each individual region because of the lack of data for long-duration storms in individual regions. The resulting dimensionless rainfall patterns for each region can be used to develop storm hyetographs for any design duration, total rainfall depth and return period. It has been shown that the developed storm hyetographs have different features from other storm patterns that are commonly used in arid zones. The study recommends using these curves for the design of hydraulic structures in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and regions alike.

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Acknowledgement

This work was funded by the Deanship of Scientific Research (DSR), King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, under grant no. (7-155-D1432). The authors, therefore, acknowledge with thanks DSR technical and financial support. The authors would like to thank Mr. Abdelaziz Albishri for his great help on storms arrangement in a spreadsheet for the analysis and for producing the GIS map of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewer for his commendation and appreciation of the work that has been performed in this research. The first author is on leave from Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt and the second author is on leave from Faculty of Engineering, Azhar, University, Cairo, Egypt.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Hydrology and Water Resources Management, Faculty of Metreology, Environment and Arid Land Agriculture, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    Amro M. Elfeki, Hatem A. Ewea & Nassir S. Al-Amri

  2. Department of Hydrology and Water Resources Management, Faculty of Meteorology, Environment and Arid Land Agriculture, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80208, Jeddah, 21589, Saudi Arabia

    Amro M. Elfeki

Authors
  1. Amro M. Elfeki
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  2. Hatem A. Ewea
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  3. Nassir S. Al-Amri
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amro M. Elfeki.

Appendix

Appendix

Table 5 The median of the first and second quartiles of the incremental distribution curves for 13 regions of KSA
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Elfeki, A.M., Ewea, H.A. & Al-Amri, N.S. Development of storm hyetographs for flood forecasting in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Arab J Geosci 7, 4387–4398 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-013-1102-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-013-1102-3

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