design rainfall

Czech Land Use and CN analyzer: an open tool for generating CN layers and calculating direct runoff from design rainfall in QGIS

Ing. Josef Jehlička, Ing. Martin Landa, Ph.D. and doc. Ing. Petr Kavka, Ph.D. – 2/2026

The SCS–CN method is one of the most widely used hydrological methods in the Czech Republic for estimating direct runoff from precipitation events in small catchments. Its practical application is sensitive to the quality and consistency of input data, in particular land use (LU), soil char-acteristics defined by the hydrological soil group (HSG), and appropriately specified design rainfall. The tool, designed to utilise open data in the Czech Republic as a plug-in for the QGIS GIS platform, automates the preparation of input data and the subsequent SCS–CN analysis. Land use is derived from ZABAGED data in combination with LPIS data. HSG and design rainfall are obtained via download services provided at rain.fsv.cvut.cz.

Response variability of selected hydrological models to typical temporal distributions of short-term precipitation

Ing. Luděk Strouhal, Ph.D., doc. Ing. Petr Kavka, Ph.D. and Ing. Lenka Weyskrabová, Ph.D. – 1/2018

The article presents a selection of outcomes of a three-years’ project named “Variability of Short-term Precipitation and Runoff in Small Catchments and its Influence on Water Resources Management“. Its aim was to provide to the public the newly derived typical temporal distributions of subdaily precipitation, also known as design rainfalls.