Rain on snow induced urban floods in cold maritime climate: Risk,indicators and trends

Urban floods pose a societal and economical risk. This study evaluated the risk and hydro-meteorological conditions that cause pluvial flooding in coastal cities in a cold climate. Twenty years of insurance claims data and up to 97 years of meteorological data were analysed for Reykjavík, Iceland (64.15°N; <100 m above sea level). One third of the city's wastewater collection system is combined, and pipe grades vary from 0.5% to 10%. Results highlight semi-intensive rain (<7 mm/h; ≤3 year return period) in conjunction with snow and frozen ground as the main cause for urban flood risk in a climate which undergoes frequent snow and frost cycles (avg. 13 and 19 per season, respectively). Floods in winter were more common, more severe and affected a greater number of neighbourhoods than during summer. High runoff volumes together with debris remobilized with high winds challenged the capacity of wastewater systems regardless of their age or type (combined vs. separate). The two key determinants for the number of insurance claims were antecedent frost depth and total precipitation volume per event. Two pluvial regimes were particularly problematic: long duration (13–25 h), late peaking rain on snow (RoS), where snowmelt enhanced the runoff intensity, elongated and connected independent rainfall into a singular, more voluminous (20–76 mm) event; shorter duration (7–9 h), more intensive precipitation that evolved from snow to rain. Closely timed RoS and cooling were believed to trigger frost formation. A positive trend was detected in the average seasonal snow depth and volume of rain and snowmelt during RoS events. More emphasis, therefore, needs to be placed on designing and operating urban drainage infrastructure with regard to RoS co-acting with frozen ground. Furthermore, more detailed, routine monitoring of snow and soil conditions is important to predict RoS flood events.     

Diffusive mass exchange of non‐reactive substances in dual‐porosity porous systems – column experiments under saturated conditions

Diffusive mass exchange into immobile water regions within heterogeneous porous aquifers influences the fate of solutes. The percentage of immobile water is often unidentified in natural aquifers though. Hence, the mathematical prediction of solute transport in such heterogeneous aquifers remains challenging. The objective of this study was to find a simple analytical model approach that allows quantifying properties of mobile and immobile water regions and the portion of immobile water in a porous system. Therefore, the Single Fissure Dispersion Model (SFDM), which takes into account diffusive mass exchange between mobile and immobile water zones, was applied to model transport in well‐defined saturated dual‐porosity column experiments. Direct and indirect model validation was performed by running experiments at different flow velocities and using conservative tracer with different molecular diffusion coefficients. In another column setup, immobile water regions were randomly distributed to test the model applicability and to determine the portion of immobile water. In all setups, the tracer concentration curves showed differences in normalized maximum peak concentration, tailing and mass recovery according to their diffusion coefficients. These findings were more pronounced at lower flow rates (larger flow times) indicating the dependency of diffusive mass exchange into immobile water regions on tracers' molecular diffusion coefficients. The SFDM simulated all data with high model efficiency. Successful model validation supported the physical meaning of fitted model parameters. This study showed that the SFDM, developed for fissured aquifers, is applicable in porous media and can be used to determine porosity and volume of regions with immobile water. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.