@article{22558,
  abstract     = {Heavy rainfall is expected to intensify with increasing
temperatures, which will likely affect rainfall spatial characteristics. The
spatial variability of rainfall can affect streamflow and sediment transport
volumes and peaks. Yet, the effect of climate change on the small-scale
spatial structure of heavy rainfall and subsequent impacts on hydrology and
geomorphology remain largely unexplored. In this study, the sensitivity of
the hydro-morphological response to heavy rainfall at the small-scale
resolution of minutes and hundreds of metres was investigated. A numerical
experiment was conducted in which synthetic rainfall fields representing
heavy rainfall events of two types, stratiform and convective, were
simulated using a space-time rainfall generator model. The rainfall fields
were modified to follow different spatial rainfall scenarios associated
with increasing temperatures and used as inputs into a landscape evolution
model. The experiment was conducted over a complex topography, a medium-sized
(477 km2) Alpine catchment in central Switzerland. It was found that
the responses of the streamflow and sediment yields are highly sensitive to
changes in total rainfall volume and to a lesser extent to changes in local
peak rainfall intensities. The results highlight that the morphological
components are more sensitive to changes in rainfall spatial structure in
comparison to the hydrological components. The hydro-morphological features
were found to respond more to convective rainfall than stratiform rainfall
because of localized runoff and erosion production. It is further shown that
assuming heavy rainfall to intensify with increasing temperatures without
introducing changes in the rainfall spatial structure might lead to
overestimation of future climate impacts on basin hydro-morphology.},
  author       = {Peleg, Nadav and Skinner, Chris and Fatichi, Simone and Molnar, Peter},
  issn         = {2196-632X},
  journal      = {Earth Surface Dynamics},
  number       = {1},
  pages        = {17--36},
  publisher    = {Copernicus Publications},
  title        = {{Temperature effects on the spatial structure of heavy rainfall modify catchment hydro-morphological response}},
  doi          = {10.5194/esurf-8-17-2020},
  volume       = {8},
  year         = {2020},
}