2023. June 07.
The rational method is widely used for design flow estimation in engineering practice. A major assumption of this method is however, that rainfall is evenly distributed over the catchment. The upper boundary for the applicability of this method regarding catchment size depends on the validity of this assumption. Unfortunately, this upper boundary is usually defined as a rule-of-thumb. Radar precipitation measurements however can provide a basis for image processing. The resolution of radar images is good enough to estimate rainfall patterns and calculate the coverage and uniformity of precipitation at the catchment scale. The study must be carried out for a foreign region, since radar measurements are not freely available for Hungary.
The student should discover the available datasets, download, and transform the precipitation data to Matlab- or Python-accessible format. Next, the image processing of the created dataset needs to be performed using Matlab or Python. The possible metrics to be derived from such a dataset is quite broad, the supervisors will guide the student through the calculation steps. As a final result, the student should be able to define the upper boundary of applicability for the rational method based on a statistical approach, using observed data.
Software requirements: Matlab or Python (possibly ArcGIS/QGIS)