RainGain Travel Diary

The frequency and the damages of pluvial floods in urban areas are expected to increase as a consequence of climate change and urban development. New solutions are needed to cope with intense storms and to reduce the risks for populations and infrastructures. RainGain project develops and tests innovative tools and practices based on the use of high resolution radars. Four European cities are involved as pilot cities: Leuven, London, Paris, Rotterdam. The project is funded by the European programme Interreg IVB NWE. Learn more about the project on www.raingain.eu

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The #smell of #rain ? Its origin explained in 80 seconds #nice #rainfall #water #drops #video @nytimesscience

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The digital artist Yugo Nakamura recorded the sound of rain drops falling on  various surfaces. From one drop on one object to 10 millions drops on 256 x 256 objects, he created 雨音の由来 ("The origin of the sound of rain"). Enjoy the concert!

Rosa Vicari, RainGain communication officer - École des Ponts ParisTech

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Today our radar is singin’ in the rain: check this out

Rosa Vicari, École des Ponts ParisTech

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Heavy storms -with hail- hit the Paris area on June 8 – 9 in Paris. Here is an illustration just before going to sleep! It was a bit frustrating to witness the event while the Paris X-band radar is not yet installed, since it would have helped to improve measurements and storm water management during just event. However it was monitored by the three disdrometers installed on the roof on the ENPC building.

Auguste Gires (Ecole des Ponts ParisTech)

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In some countries like South Africa or Australia, floods do not only imply water destroying houses or resources. It also implies the arrival of crocodiles and poisonous snakes in town, threatening the people trying to walk through water or trying to escape with what is left of their belongings. 

See some examples there : 

Mexico http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-24159952

Thailand http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/25/flood-waters-free-crocodiles-in-thailand/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

South Africa http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Crocodiles-on-the-loose-in-Limpopo-20130124-2

Australia http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1347973/Australia-floods-Rescue-teams-face-face-6-foot-crocodile-street.html

Bérénice Persoz - Intern at École des Ponts Paristech

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YOU CAN’T HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT

X-band radars, that are used for the RainGain project, have many advantages in comparison to traditional weather radars. One of these is the radar precision in detecting the quantity of rainfall and its evolution through time.  But like I said, you cannot have your cake and eat it, there is a price to pay for this extremely great precision: forecasts based on x-band radar data only concern 10-15 minutes prevision, no more. It is actually a very small price to pay since these forecasts, even if 15 minutes seems a short period of time, it will allow local authorities to improve sewer systems and water basins management and avoid pluvial flood.  

So even if you cannot have both precision and great forecasting period of time with X-band radars, they will help a lot to deal with urban flooding risks. 

Bérénice Persoz - Intern at École des Ponts ParisTech

photo credit: SimplySchmoopie via photopin cc

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A new traveller on board!

My name is Wouter Koole and I live in Utrecht, the Netherlands. I studied my bachelor Natural Science and Innovation management at the University Utrecht, and thereafter I did my master Environment and Resource Management at the VU University Amsterdam. During this studies, I focussed on environment - and water management.

I started working at the TU Delft since the 1st of May 2014 as a project coordinator. In this function,  I will help Marie-Claire ten Veldhuis with the organisation of the RainGain project. Furthermore, I will contribute to the dissemination of the results of WP4. From time to time I will write a news article about the current status of the RainGain project in Rotterdam. Besides that I am involved in the coordination and maintenance of the weather stations in Rotterdam.

So, if you get an email from me, you will know who I am and how I am involved in the RainGain project.

Wouter Koole 

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An X-band radar in the heart of London

In March 2013, UK RainGain partners installed a portable X-band RS90 'Rainscanner' weather radar on the rooftop of a tall building in Central London. The installation was rather challenging and we nearly froze up there, but the view and the experience was definitely worth it!

The radar was lent to us by radar manufacturer Selex for a period of 6 months, so unfortunately we had to dismount it at the end of 2013. While it was operational we were lucky to capture a couple of good storms over Central London and we also used it to monitor rainfall and drizzle during the Wimbledon All-England Lawn Tennis Championship. We are currently processing the data we collected and will soon have some results to show!

This experiment not only allowed us to assess the added value of a low‑cost small X-band radar for urban hydrological applications, but it also enabled us to explore the feasibility and identify the challenges associated to the deployment and operation of an X-band radar in the heart of a dense urban area such as London (e.g. mitigation of radiation risk, filtering of dynamic clutter coming from multiple communication devices within the city, amongst others).

All in all, lots of lessons were learnt from this experiment which we will be sharing soon! 

Susana Ochoa-Rodríguez

Imperial College London

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Unidentified flying object detected by radars in North-Western Europe

A strange object was spotted several times in the last decade by weather radars located in Paris, London, Cabaw and Leuven. The fast moving blip was always sighted on radar screens on the 25th of December between 00:45 and 1:00 am, directed from North to South. The red areas in the radar image below describe the apparently random itinerary followed by the unidentified flying object.

Scientists plan to implement new technologies that could provide further information on the unexplained phenomenon. In spring 2014 two last generation X-band radars will be installed in the Paris Region and in Rotterdam, while radars already in use in Leuven and London will continue to be tested and possibly upgraded. Hopefully these devices will provide high-resolution images of the mysterious visitor and will give enlightening insights on this Christmas Eve event.

Rosa Vicari ( École des Ponts ParisTech)

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Today we did not catch rain, but we got the big bang!

I took this picture this afternoon on the roof of École des Ponts where three disdrometers are currently being tested. Such device provides information on the size and velocity of each rain drop passing through a sampling area of roughly 50 cm2. In the future they will be used to validate the polarimetric data of the radar that will shortly be installed in Marne-la-Vallée.

Auguste Gires (Ecole des Ponts ParisTech)

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Virtual rain is falling in Rotterdam

This is IDRA, a polarimetric X-band IRCTR Drizzle Radar, owned by the Technological University of Delft. It is installed at the top of meteorological measurement tower at the Cabauw experimental site for atmospheric research in the Netherlands.

It has similar specifications to the one that will be installed in Rotterdam urban area, in a short while, and will monitor rainfall within a range of 15 km. Looking forward to it! 

In the meanwhile the rainfall data collected in Cabaw is virtually (only !!) moved to Rotterdam, and used as an input to the hydrological models of our pilot sites. This simulation helps us to increase our knowledge about water flows in these areas.

- Guendalina Bruni (TU Delft)

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Why a marine radar is in the city of Leuven, 140 km away from the seaside?

Two weeks ago Johan and I did a checkup of our radar together with a technician from the supplier (DHI). It was a cloudy day, but the nice panorama of Leuven city centre deserved a pic.

The single pol X-band radar is a low-cost marine radar that is installed since 2007 on the roof of the Province House, a high building near the railway station of Leuven. This device provides information on rainfall distribution every minute with a resolution of 125 m, a level of detail that is relevant for a better management of the sewer system in urban areas. The radar was purchased by Aquafin for a research project in cooperation with the University of Leuven. The aim of this project was to investigate the added value of small scale rainfall measurements provided by the X-band technology. 

This was a pilot experience in Europe and after five years of research on X-band technology we want take on new challenges through the RainGain project. Our objective is now to improve the accuracy of rainfall nowcasts that will help the operators of the sewer network to reduce the risk of floods in the city. Indeed in Leuven, as well as in other cities of North-West Europe, the frequency of floods is expected to increase because of the combined effects of climate change and ongoing urbanisation.

- Laurens Cas Decloedt (KU Leuven) and Johan Van Assel (Aquafin)

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Did you know that? You can include a 3D model inside a pdf! It's compatible with acrobat reader (from the 9.5 version). I think it's the moment to have a look on that... I saw that you can also add an animation to the model ! Great ! This might be a useful tool to visualise urban storms and potential floods.

The new radar of École des Ponts ParisTech will provide very accurate information on rainfall events, but raw data need to be processed and injected in models that can measure and predict precipitations and floods. Then the models outputs need to be presented with visualisation tools that are understandable for decision makers, such as emergency operators. The 3D pdf could be a useful support for visualisation.

- Julien Richard (École des Ponts ParisTech)

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What the hydro-meteorological radar of École des Ponts will look like?

I did a 3D view with Scketchup to see the future radar implantation in Marne-la-Vallée. We can see the minimum height between the roof and the blue circle (corresponding to the restrictive zone).

My PhD subject is about interaction with users and hydrological models. For that I will develop a user-friendly interface for the visualisation of model inputs and outputs.

What about you? See you on the blog ! You can also follow me on twitter #levraijulien !

- Julien Richard (École des Ponts ParisTech)

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An important concept that helps to understand the complexities of a turbulent wind is that of the cascade of eddies - an eddy being the circular movement of the wind. The image this creates is one of whirls within whirls within whirls in which stronger and stronger gusts are concentrated at smaller and smaller scales. The result of this kind of process is the sudden appearance of strong gusts at seemingly random and intermittent points in time. The artwork 'the wind wall’ by Charles Sowers gives a living, breathing, visualisation of the intermittency of the eddy structures. We see that most of the time the wind follows a smooth continuous direction. This is then suddenly followed by a complex change in both direction and structures - an intermittency that is ubiquitous when one thinks of the wind.

When we think of the wind, we think of the weather and therefore (if European) the rain. The intermittent nature observed in the wind is also observed in the rain. Sometimes it rains and sometimes it doesn't. When it does rain, it can be drizzle one minute, and downpours the next. The wind wall not only shows us that this kind of behaviour makes the wind and the rain very difficult to predict it shows us something much more important - that these natural processes are heterogeneous; not just a little, but a lot. Now that we know this we can start to ask better posed questions such as: how do we meaningfully quantify heterogeneity, intermittency?

- George Fitton (École des Ponts ParisTech)

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Back in Antibes...

Nous souhaitions vous remercier de nous avoir permis de participer à ce colloque et ce en tant qu'intervenants. En ce qui nous concerne, nous sommes pleinement satisfaits de l'accueil qui nous a été réservé par l'ensemble des participants notamment après notre présentation. Il est toujours très agréable pour des intervenants de constater que leur travail ait plu et surtout amené un certain nombre de questions. Sans vouloir trop m'avancer, ma collègue et moi-même sommes prêts de nouveau à participer à des colloques dans le cadre du programme Raingain et faire partager notre expérience en matière opérationnelle. Nous avons pu constater le haut niveau de technicité de l'ensemble des conférenciers et nous tenions à  remercier chaleureusement Monsieur Bompard pour la qualité de son organisation. Nous conservons et conserverons longtemps un excellent souvenir de cette journée.

Valérie EMPHOUX et Jean-Marie AICARDI (Ville d'Antibes-Juan-Les Pins)

We would like to thank you for allowing us to participate to this conference as speakers. We are fully satisfied with the cordial welcome from all participants especially after our presentation. It is always nice for speakers to see that their work has been appreciated and brought a certain number of questions. Without wanting to anticipate anything, my colleague and I are ready again to attend seminars of the RainGain projects and share our experience on operational issues. We observed the high technical level of all speakers and we want to thank Mr. Bompard for the quality of his organisation. We keep and will keep for long good memories of this day.

Valérie EMPHOUX and Jean-Marie AICARDI (City of Antibes-Juan-Les Pins)

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Many thanks to all the participants to the "European Local Authorities Meeting on High Resolution Water management"

Thank you for attending the "European Local Authorities Meeting on High Resolution Water management" on 23rd October. I hope that you found the presentations and the discussions interesting and stimulating.

Your opinion on the meeting is precious and invite you to share it with us. Let us know what you most appreciated, what should be improved and what are your hopes for the next developments of the project.

Nous vous remercions de votre présence à la “Rencontre européenne des collectivités territoriales sur la gestion de l’eau à haute résolution”. Nous espérons que cette journée de présentations et discussions a été pour vous enrichissante.

Votre opinion sur la rencontre est pour nous importante et nous vous invitons à la partager. Faites-nous savoir ce que vous avez le plus apprécié, ce qui devrait être amélioré et quels sont vos attentes pour le futur développement du projet.

Rosa Vicari (École des Ponts ParisTech)