Aplicação do método das isozonas na obtenção das equações IDF de chuvas intensas dos municípios de Juazeiro do Norte, Barbalha e Crato – CE

Abstract

The increase in use of urban and rural land demands knowledge on statistically treated data on intensity, duration and frequency of heavy rainfall, allowing better forecasting of peak flow rates - used in the design of drainage networks. The damage caused by flooding of urban and rural areas are only avoided by well dimensioned drainage works, resulting in construction costs compatible with adequate treatment of the risk factors and with projected flow prediction. These projected flows can be obtained from the rainfall IDF equation, which links a given intensity (I) of heavy rain with its duration (D), and to its frequency (F) or with the time to pass until its return. This equation is obtained for a given location, usually by a conventional method, using rain gauge rainfall records considered intense for observed durations and frequencies. However, in Brazil there is insufficiency of rain gauge records, for many large and important urban, agricultural and industrial areas. Thus, 70 digital recording rain gauges were recently installed within the state of Ceará, monitored by the Fundação Cearense de Meteorologia e Recursos Hídricos (FUNCEME), but still with less than four years of recorded observation. In this context, this research was aimed at developing a methodology to obtain the equation of heavy rainfall IDF in areas devoid of recording rain gauges, using data obtained from conventional rain gauges, treated by the method of isozones. This study was conducted in four stages: (i) obtention and descriptive statistical analysis of a series of annual maximal precipitations, (ii) obtention of the data fit to a distribution function, (iii) generation of the rainfall intensities by the isozones method (iv) formulation of the heavy rainfall IDF equation. This methodology was applied to the municipalities of Juazeiro, Barbalha and Crato, located in the Cariri (CE) metropolitan area. Before the development of the methodology, it was performed the validation of the isozones method in two climatologically different areas, comparing it with intensities obtained from pre-existing IDF equations. The validation showed, for the cities of Fortaleza (in Ceará) and Miracema do Norte (in Tocantins), that the isozones method overestimates the rainfall intensities in approximately 10%, and thus can be used with relative safety. Still, the validation of the isozones method was verified using rainfall data from the meteorological station of Aiuaba - EC, located in the isozone G. The numbers obtained from the Aiuaba station show the good performance of the isozones methodology, what is significantly important to this study, because the studied area is also in the isozone G. Through the methodology, for each city studied, the isozones method turned the basic data of annual daily maximal precipitation, in a series of intensities, durations and return times, which were used in the formulation of their heavy rainfall IDF equations, for durations of up to 240 min. These equations make the use of the isozones method more practical, eliminating the analysis of charts and tables, and thus reducing the probability of transcription errors.