Conference Agenda

The accuracy of rainfall-runoff models is essential for understanding climate variability, managing water resources, and mitigating flood risks. Rainfall data, as a crucial input to hydrological processes, significantly contributes to the uncertainty of these models. High temporal resolution is needed to understand and evaluate rainfall variability and its impact on urban drainage management and design when dealing with urban areas. Focusing on the Sicilian region (Italy), an approach for the assimilation of rainfall data has been studied, integrating satellite and ground observations to enhance urban drainage design through the precise identification of design storms. The methodology's core is based on the bootstrap method for evaluating spatial uncertainty in Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) curves within a comprehensive rain gauge network. Findings derived from a dataset encompassing more than 200 low-resolution rainfall stations (in place for more than 50 years on average) and more than 80 high-resolution ones (in place from 2005) reveal high variability in uncertainty ranging highlighting areas within the urban core that necessitate targeted improvements for data accuracy. The research contributes to developing resilient urban water systems by advancing precision in hydrological assessments. The proposed analysis can create a unitary rainfall analysis approach to be applied at the regional scale.