Development of a New Event-Based Rainfall-Runoff Equation Based on Average Rainfall Intensity During an Event

Event-based rainfall-runoff models are practical tools commonly used to predict catchments' response to a rainfall event. However, one of the main concerns is that the characteristics of rain events are neglected in the model development. This paper develops a novel event-based rainfall-runoff equation to incorporate rainfall characteristics into account. The performance of the new equation is evaluated based on the root mean square error, Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient, and per cent bias for 13,339 rainfall-runoff events between 2005 and 2020 over 23 catchments across New Zealand and Australia with oceanic, mediterranean, tropical, subtropical, and semiarid climates. Compared to the previous event-based models, the new equation shows an improvement in runoff estimation in almost all case studies. Furthermore, considering the new equation is simple, efficient, and takes the rain event duration into account, the new equation has the potential to become a robust alternative method to the conventional curve number method in hydrological engineering projects.

Automated summary

This paper develops a novel event-based rainfall-runoff equation that incorporates rainfall characteristics and evaluates its performance compared to previous models. The results show that the new equation improves runoff estimation in almost all case studies. Furthermore, considering its simplicity, efficiency, and consideration of rain event duration, the new equation has the potential to become a robust alternative method to the conventional curve number method in hydrological engineering projects.