A Nonstationary Daily and Hourly Analysis of the Extreme Rainfall Frequency Considering Climate Teleconnection in Coastal Cities of the United States

The nonstationarity of extreme precipitation is now well established in the presence of climate change and low-frequency variability. Consequently, the implications for urban flooding, for which there are not long flooding records, need to be understood better. The vulnerability is especially high i...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lei Yan, Yuhan Zhang, Mengjie Zhang, Upmanu Lall
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-01-01
Series:Atmosphere
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/16/1/75
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1832589136458940416
author Lei Yan
Yuhan Zhang
Mengjie Zhang
Upmanu Lall
author_facet Lei Yan
Yuhan Zhang
Mengjie Zhang
Upmanu Lall
author_sort Lei Yan
collection DOAJ
description The nonstationarity of extreme precipitation is now well established in the presence of climate change and low-frequency variability. Consequently, the implications for urban flooding, for which there are not long flooding records, need to be understood better. The vulnerability is especially high in coastal cities, where the flat terrain and impervious cover present an additional challenge. In this paper, we estimate the time-varying probability distributions for hourly and daily extreme precipitation using the Generalized Additive Model for Location Scale and Shape (GAMLSS), employing different climate indices, such as Atlantic Multi-Decadal Oscillation (AMO), the El Niño 3.4 SST Index (ENSO), Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), the Western Hemisphere Warm Pool (WHWP) and other covariates. Applications to selected coastal cities in the USA are considered. Overall, the AMO, PDO and WHWP are the dominant factors influencing the extreme rainfall. The nonstationary model outperforms the stationary model in 92% of cases during the fitting period. However, in terms of its predictive performance over the next 5 years, the ST model achieves a higher log-likelihood in 86% of cases. The implications for the time-varying design rainfall in coastal areas are considered, whether this corresponds to a structural design or the duration of a contract for a financial instrument for risk securitization. The opportunity to use these time-varying probabilistic models for adaptive flood risk management in a coastal city context is discussed.
format Article
id doaj-art-a56f1c87a9c44741b07e208e7708f14a
institution Kabale University
issn 2073-4433
language English
publishDate 2025-01-01
publisher MDPI AG
record_format Article
series Atmosphere
spelling doaj-art-a56f1c87a9c44741b07e208e7708f14a2025-01-24T13:21:56ZengMDPI AGAtmosphere2073-44332025-01-011617510.3390/atmos16010075A Nonstationary Daily and Hourly Analysis of the Extreme Rainfall Frequency Considering Climate Teleconnection in Coastal Cities of the United StatesLei Yan0Yuhan Zhang1Mengjie Zhang2Upmanu Lall3Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering, & Columbia Water Center, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USASchool of Complex Adaptive Systems, & Water Institute, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USADepartment of Earth and Environmental Engineering, & Columbia Water Center, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USADepartment of Earth and Environmental Engineering, & Columbia Water Center, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USAThe nonstationarity of extreme precipitation is now well established in the presence of climate change and low-frequency variability. Consequently, the implications for urban flooding, for which there are not long flooding records, need to be understood better. The vulnerability is especially high in coastal cities, where the flat terrain and impervious cover present an additional challenge. In this paper, we estimate the time-varying probability distributions for hourly and daily extreme precipitation using the Generalized Additive Model for Location Scale and Shape (GAMLSS), employing different climate indices, such as Atlantic Multi-Decadal Oscillation (AMO), the El Niño 3.4 SST Index (ENSO), Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), the Western Hemisphere Warm Pool (WHWP) and other covariates. Applications to selected coastal cities in the USA are considered. Overall, the AMO, PDO and WHWP are the dominant factors influencing the extreme rainfall. The nonstationary model outperforms the stationary model in 92% of cases during the fitting period. However, in terms of its predictive performance over the next 5 years, the ST model achieves a higher log-likelihood in 86% of cases. The implications for the time-varying design rainfall in coastal areas are considered, whether this corresponds to a structural design or the duration of a contract for a financial instrument for risk securitization. The opportunity to use these time-varying probabilistic models for adaptive flood risk management in a coastal city context is discussed.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/16/1/75nonstationary frequency analysissub-daily extreme precipitationGAMLSSAMOENSOIOD
spellingShingle Lei Yan
Yuhan Zhang
Mengjie Zhang
Upmanu Lall
A Nonstationary Daily and Hourly Analysis of the Extreme Rainfall Frequency Considering Climate Teleconnection in Coastal Cities of the United States
Atmosphere
nonstationary frequency analysis
sub-daily extreme precipitation
GAMLSS
AMO
ENSO
IOD
title A Nonstationary Daily and Hourly Analysis of the Extreme Rainfall Frequency Considering Climate Teleconnection in Coastal Cities of the United States
title_full A Nonstationary Daily and Hourly Analysis of the Extreme Rainfall Frequency Considering Climate Teleconnection in Coastal Cities of the United States
title_fullStr A Nonstationary Daily and Hourly Analysis of the Extreme Rainfall Frequency Considering Climate Teleconnection in Coastal Cities of the United States
title_full_unstemmed A Nonstationary Daily and Hourly Analysis of the Extreme Rainfall Frequency Considering Climate Teleconnection in Coastal Cities of the United States
title_short A Nonstationary Daily and Hourly Analysis of the Extreme Rainfall Frequency Considering Climate Teleconnection in Coastal Cities of the United States
title_sort nonstationary daily and hourly analysis of the extreme rainfall frequency considering climate teleconnection in coastal cities of the united states
topic nonstationary frequency analysis
sub-daily extreme precipitation
GAMLSS
AMO
ENSO
IOD
url https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/16/1/75
work_keys_str_mv AT leiyan anonstationarydailyandhourlyanalysisoftheextremerainfallfrequencyconsideringclimateteleconnectionincoastalcitiesoftheunitedstates
AT yuhanzhang anonstationarydailyandhourlyanalysisoftheextremerainfallfrequencyconsideringclimateteleconnectionincoastalcitiesoftheunitedstates
AT mengjiezhang anonstationarydailyandhourlyanalysisoftheextremerainfallfrequencyconsideringclimateteleconnectionincoastalcitiesoftheunitedstates
AT upmanulall anonstationarydailyandhourlyanalysisoftheextremerainfallfrequencyconsideringclimateteleconnectionincoastalcitiesoftheunitedstates
AT leiyan nonstationarydailyandhourlyanalysisoftheextremerainfallfrequencyconsideringclimateteleconnectionincoastalcitiesoftheunitedstates
AT yuhanzhang nonstationarydailyandhourlyanalysisoftheextremerainfallfrequencyconsideringclimateteleconnectionincoastalcitiesoftheunitedstates
AT mengjiezhang nonstationarydailyandhourlyanalysisoftheextremerainfallfrequencyconsideringclimateteleconnectionincoastalcitiesoftheunitedstates
AT upmanulall nonstationarydailyandhourlyanalysisoftheextremerainfallfrequencyconsideringclimateteleconnectionincoastalcitiesoftheunitedstates