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This webinar was co-sponsored by ASCE's Environmental & Water Resources Institute (EWRI) and ASCE Continuing Education

Instructor:  David C. Curtis, Ph.D.

Course Length: 1 Hour

Purpose and Background

This webinar discusses how radar is being used to more accurately determine actual rainfall, including gage-adjusted radar rainfall estimation in modeling and design.

Hydrologists and engineers are modeling watersheds and designing water infrastructure based on sampling the tiniest of points in the rainfall field at rates of "parts per billion." Practitioners are forced to interpolate what actually falls between the gages to estimate total volumes of incoming rainfall.

With the deployment of National Weather Service Doppler Radars in the 1990s, a new method of estimating rainfall emerged. Radar could "see" between the gages, providing a high resolution view of the spatial variability of rainfall.

This webinar provides an introduction to radar rainfall estimation and the merging of radar and rain gage data to improve rainfall estimation. Key challenges, pitfalls, and traps facing radar rainfall users are discussed along with strategies to navigate around them.

Primary Discussion Topics

  • Traditional rainfall estimation using rain gages is reviewed
  • Radar rainfall estimation basics
  • Merging rain gage and radar estimates to for gage-adjusted radar rainfall estimates
  • Challenges, pitfalls, and traps to avoid
  • Use of gage-adjusted radar rainfall estimation in modeling and design

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

  • Gain a new perspective of traditional rainfall measurement
  • Determine the basics of radar rainfall estimation
  • Identify how rain gage and radar data are combined to improve rainfall estimation
  • Recognize the strengths and weaknesses of radar rainfall estimation
  • Identify how to improve hydrologic modeling and design using radar rainfall estimates

Webinar Benefits

  • Learn how to improve hydrologic modeling with better rainfall estimates
  • Improve understanding of rainfall measurement
  • Learn to navigate around challenges, traps, and pitfall associated with radar rainfall estimation
  • Gain perspective on the current state-of-the are in rainfall estimation
  • Learn practical approaches for utilizing radar rainfall estimation
  • Learn about applications with historical, real-time, and forecast radar rainfall

Assessment of Learning Outcomes

Students' achievement of the learning outcomes will be assessed via a short post-assessment (true-false, multiple choice and fill in the blank questions).

Intended Audience

  • Water Resources Engineers
  • Hydrologists
  • Public agency engineers
  • Stormwater managers
  • Watershed managers

Webinar Outline

  • Review rain observation with rain gages
  • Introduction to radar rainfall estimation
    • Radar basics
    • Radar data issues to be aware of
  • Merging rain gage and radar rainfall estimates
    • Overview of data merging techniques
    • Key challenges
  • Using gage adjusted radar rainfall in modeling and design applications
  • A glimpse to the future

How to Earn your CEUs/PDHs and Receive Your Certificate of Completion

To receive your certificate of completion, you will need to complete a short on-line post-test and receive a passing score of 70% or higher within 1 year of purchasing the course.

How do I convert CEUs to PDHs?

1.0 CEU = 10 PDHs [Example: 0.1 CEU = 1 PDH]