DESIGN RAINFALL

-Design rainfall is defined as the total amount of rain during the cropping season at which or above
which the catchment area will provide sufficient runoff to satisfy the crop water requirements. If the
actual rainfall in the cropping season is below the design rainfall, there will be moisture stress in the
plants; if the actual rainfall exceeds the design rainfall, there will be surplus runoff which may result in a
damage to the structures.

-The design rainfall is usually assigned to a certain probability of occurrence or exceedance. If, for
example, the design rainfall with a 67 percent probability of exceedance is selected, this means that on
average this value will be reached or exceeded in two years out of three and therefore the crop water
requirements would also be met in two years out of three.

-The design rainfall is determined by means of a statistical probability analysis.

RETURN PERIOD

-The probability of rainfall is represented as “ return period”

-The average length of time in years for an event (e.g. flood or river level) of given magnitude to be
equalled or exceeded.

-For example, if the river level with a 50 year return period at a given location is 8 ft above flood stage,
this is just another way of saying that a river level of 8 ft above flood stage, or greater, should occur at
that location on the average only once every 50 years.

-Common design rainfall return periods for urban storm drainage systems:

– 1 year or 2 year return periods

– 5-year return periods if a property would be subject to significant flood damage.

– More recent practice is to prevent surface flooding with return periods up to 30 years.
𝑛+1
-Return Period = 𝑚
; n = number of years on record, m = number of recorded occurrence of
the event being considered, eg. Flood

RAINFALL DURATION

-The interval of time elapsed between the beginning and ending of a rainfall event.

RAINDALL DEPTH/INTENSITY

-Rainfall intensity is defined as the ratio of the total amount of rain (rainfall depth) falling during a given
period to the duration of the period It is expressed in depth units per unit time, usually as mm per hour
(mm/h).
-It means that if the rain stays where it falls, it would form a layer of a certain height. We say things like:
30 millimeter of rain fell today or it rained 20 millimeter in two hours. Sometimes people speak of the
volume of water that falls on a square meter in a period of time: ten liter per square meter per day for
instance. A millimeter of water equals a liter of water on a square meter.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DURATION, INTENSITY & RETURN PERIOD

-They can be calculated as:

1
𝑎 − 𝑏 ln[ − ln(1 − 𝑇)]
𝑖=
(𝐷 + 𝐾)𝑁
Where:

i = rainfall intensity (mm/hr)

D = Duration (mins)

T = Return Period (years)

a , b, K ,N = constants ( located from Rainfall Data at PAGASA)