Hello
I'm very confused by the methods determining the 90% of the average annual rainfall in SSS Credit 6.2 LEED guide.
In p103 of LEED guide, they said "For this credit, managing 90% of the average annual rainfall is equivalent to treating the runoff from the amounts listed in Table:
Watershed Rainfall per 24 Hours(ins)
Humid 1
Semiarid 0.75
Arid 0.5
I wondered Why the 90% of average rainfall is equivalent to treating the runoff of 1,0.75 and 0.5 (this is the quantity of 24 hours? not entire year?).
Thanks
Jean Marais
b.i.g. Bechtold DesignBuilder Expert832 thumbs up
April 20, 2010 - 7:14 am
1) Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) Charts. These charts show the relationship between the rainfall intensity (rate) and the corrisponding rainfall duration (minutes). This data is required for 1 and 2 year statistical return periods.
2) Depth-Duration-Frequency (DDF) Charts. These charts show the relationship between the rainfall depth (volume) and the corrisponding rainfall duration (minutes). This data is required for 1 and 2 year statistical return periods.
3) Volume of the 90% rainfall event, i.e. only 10% of rainfall events have a cummilative depth of more than this amount.
4) 90% Shortest Time between rainfall events, i.e. only 10% of rainfall events have between them a dry time less than this time.
5) Volume of yearly rainfall for "water shed" classification as per LEED.
in plain english this means that it is the volume of rain coming down for an entire rainfall 24 hour equivalent event AND the event is the one that statistically happens most of the time.
I think the reason the userguide wording is comfusing is because the statistical concepts are confusing and these calculations are usually done by an expert civil engineer. I also am not 100% certain of this area.
Links:
http://www.hydrocad.net/pdf/TR-55%20Chapter%203.pdf
http://www.bossintl.com/download/SoilCharacteristics.html
http://www.bossintl.com/download/RunoffCurveNumbers.html
also google
RUN-OFF VOLUME CALCULATION - TR-55 Method
Stromwater Retention Volume - Schueler's Simple Method
RUN-OFF RATE CALCULATION - Rational Method
Hansong Sun
16 thumbs up
April 26, 2010 - 5:27 am
Hello Jean,
Thanks very much for your detailed explanation. I think what you said is right.