Chan-Young Son

Characteristics of tropical cyclone-induced precipitation over the Korean River basins according to three evolution patterns of the Central-Pacific El Nino

This study carried out a comparative analysis of the changes in tropical cyclone (TC) genesis, TC track, and TC intensity focusing on TCs that affected the Korean peninsula (KP) according to three evolutionary patterns (prolonged, abrupt and symmetric-decay) of the abnormal sea surface temperature in the Central-Pacific (CP) region. As a result of the analysis, the activity pattern of TCs was found to vary depending on the evolution patterns of the CP El Niño, and such changes appeared to result in clear variations in the regional rainfall in Korea. In the prolonged-decaying and symmetric-decaying years, the KP received considerable TC rainfall. On the other hand, in abrupt-decaying years, it was subtly affected by the TC rainfall. Although rather limited conditions and relatively short observation data were used to analyze the effects of the evolution pattern of the CP El Niño on TCs, the results can be used to quantitatively identify the spatial features of TCs affecting the KP. These results are expected to be helpful in managing the disaster risks in vulnerable areas, including plans to secure stable water resources in the basin, and in establishing effective and active measures to cope with natural disasters by extreme events over the KP.

Comparative Assessment of a Method for Extraction of TC-induced Rainfall Affecting the Korean Peninsula

Strong winds and heavy rainfall from tropical cyclones (TCs) that occur in the Northwestern Pacific cause significant human and material damage to the Korean peninsula and East Asia. Hence, it is important to establish early warning systems and conduct preparedness activities in advance of a TC. This study suggests a technique to extract the value of uniform TC-induced rainfall considering the TC track and TC size. To validate our technique, we compare it to existing TC rainfall techniques using the spatial domain. To determine the TC size required for extracting TC-induced rainfall, this research analyzed the mean of TC-induced rainfall by TC size (1973-2012). As a result of this analysis, the maximum amount of mean of TC-induced rainfall was found for a TC with a radius of 700 km. Other techniques have limitations which this new technique addresses; it can extract TC-induced rainfall in each administrative area and minimize systematic biases of other extraction methods. The result of this study can be utilized in the preparation of rainfall forecasts, designing hydraulic structures, and predicting landslide and debris flows using TC-induced rainfall and downpours. keywords : TC rainfall extraction, tropical cyclone, TC-induced rainfall, Korean peninsula ..............................................................................................................................................................................................

Application of New Version of Flood Frequency Analysis (Bulletin 17C)

Accurate flood frequency and magnitude estimation has a critical role in flood risk management and damage reduction. In United States, Log Pearson Type-III (LP-III) distribution with method of moments for parameter estimation has been uniformly and consistently employed in estimating design floods. After the first version of flood frequency guidelines (Bulletin 15) was published in 1967, the revised version Bulletin 17B has been employed since 1982 up to now. A new version of flood frequency guidelines, Bulletin 17C, is prepared and about to come out soon. In the current study, we analyzed the new features of the upcoming Bulletin 17C and presented case studies applying its new features. From the presented results, we see what critical components in the new design flood frequency guideline we could learn.

Revisiting design flood estimation of Nam River Dam basin considering climate change

Extreme events of rainfall has increased mainly from climate change, resulting in more severe floods intensified by land use development. Appropriate estimation of design floods gets more attention to ensuring the safety of life and property in flood-prone areas for hydraulic structures such as dams and levees. In the current study, we reestimated the design flood of the Nam River Dam to adopt the influence of climatic change of hydrometeorological variables including recent datasets of extreme rainfall events. The climate change scenarios of extreme rainfall events in hourly scale that has been downscaled was used in analyzing the annual maximum rainfall for the weather stations in the Nam River Dam basin. The estimates of 200-year and 10,000-year return periods were calculated to provide a design flood and a probable maximum flood case for the Nam River Dam. The results present that the new estimate employing the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 downscaled data is much higher than the original design flood estimated at the dam construction stage using a 200-year return period. We can conclude that the current dam area might be highly vulnerable and need an enhancement of the dam safety regarding the reduction of damage in Sachen bay from the outflow of Nam River Dam.

Analyzing the drought event in 2015 through statistical drought frequency analysis

AbstractDrought is a water-related natural disaster which can be simply described as spatially and temporally sequential absence of water. However, its characteristics are very difficult to define. For this reason, the preparation and mitigation from drought events have not been successful. In the current study, we illustrated a design drought estimation approach of water resources infrastructures as well as the existing theoretical one to prepare and mitigate drought disasters. Theoretical and simulation methods were tested including three time series models such as autoregressive (AR), Gamma AR, Copula AR models. The results indicated that for South Korea region, the simulation-based method to estimate drought frequency presented better performance and all the three time series models show similar performance to each other. The current drought event occurring in South Korea was investigated with dividing South Korea into four basins as Han River, Nakdong River, Geum River, and Nakdong River basins. The results showed that two middle and north basins presented significant drought events with 3 year drought duration and around 40 year return period while the other two southern regions illustrated relatively weaker drought events.Keywords: simulation-based method, drought, return period, time series model

Estimation and Assessment of Future Design Rainfall from Non-stationary Rainfall Frequency Analysis using Separation Method

본 연구에서는 태풍의 경로 및 규모를 이용한 호우분리기법을 통해 한반도에 유발된 강우를 집중호우와 태풍강우로 분류하고, 지역별 강우특성 및 경향성 분석을 수행하였다. 또한 호우분리를 통한 비정상성 빈도해석을 수행하여 미래확률강우량을 산정하였으며, 이에 대한 정량적인 비교 및 평가를 수행하였다. 분석결과, 전기간 자료, 태풍강우 및 집중호우의 증가 및 감소율이 각각 상이하며, 증가 및 감소경향이 서로 상반되는 지점도 나타났다. 또한 호우분리를 통한 비정상성 빈도해석을 수행한 결과, 비교적 합리적인 미래확률강우량이 산정됨을 확인할 수 있었으며, 전기간 자료를 이용한 미래확률강우량과 비교한 결과 한반도 남부 및 동부지역에서 상대적으로 큰 차이가 나타났다. 호우분리기법을 적용한 비정상성 빈도해석 결과는 태풍 및 집중호우의 지역적인 변화특성을 잘 반영하는 것으로 나타나 수공구조물 설계 및 미래 기후변화와 관련된 치수대책 및 정책수립에 활용도가 높을 것으로 판단된다. 【This study aimed to estimate the future design rainfall through a non-stationary frequency analysis using the rainfall separation technique. First, we classified rainfall in the Korean Peninsula into local downpour and TC-induced rainfall through rainfall separation technique based on the path and size of a typhoon. Furthermore, we performed the analysis of regional rainfall characteristics and trends. In addition, we estimated the future design rainfall through a non-stationary frequency analysis using Gumbel distribution and carried out its quantitative comparison and evaluation. The results of the analysis suggest that the increase and decrease rate of rainfall in the Korean Peninsula were different and the increasing and decreasing tendencies were mutually contradictory at some points. In addition, a non-stationary frequency analysis was carried out by using the rainfall separation technique. The outcome of this analysis suggests that a relatively reasonable future design rainfall can be estimated. Comparing total rainfall with the future design rainfall, differences were found in the southern and eastern regions of the Korean peninsula. This means that climate change may have a different effect on the typhoon and local downpour. Thus, in the future, individual assessment of climate change impacts needs to be done through moisture separation. The results presented here are applicable in future hydraulic structures design, flood control measures related to climate change, and policy establishment.】