Abstract
Rio de Janeiro, a tropical and densely populated state in Southeastern Brazil, has been recording severe impacts associated with heavy rain such as flooding, erosion, storm surges and landslides. Since this scenario might get worse if rainfall becomes more concentrated, the study evaluated recent trends of daily rainfall in the region. The database consisted of 42 stations for a homogeneous period of 50 years (October 1970- September 2020, P0), pointing out geographical differences and changes in two subperiods compared between them: P1 (Oct.1971 - Sep. 1995) and P2 (Oct. 1996 – Sep. 2020). The Concentration Index (Martin-Vide, 2024), which identifies the participation of the most exceptional occurrences in the series was used to determine the degree of regularity of the rainfall distribution. Further analyses at annual level provided complementary information on the distribution of rainfall. Results show that over the 50 years there was no substantial change in annual rainfall totals, but there has been a general trend in the concentration of rainfall, i.e. very high volumes on a single day, as well as annual maxima that tend to be higher in recent years. Given the recent history of catastrophic events in the state of Rio de Janeiro, the results are a relevant element for natural disaster management.
Presenters
Lucí Hidalgo NunesVisiting Researcher, Geography, Visiting Researcher (FAPERJ scholarship) at Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Rio de Janeiro, Extreme, Daily, Rainfall, Concentration Index
