When It Rains, It Pours A Rainfall Monitoring Approach for the Sewer Community

The accurate measurement of rainfall is critical for the successful design and evaluation of sewer systems. Although rainfall data are regularly collected and used within the sewer community, little attention is paid to the manner in which they are collected or to their resulting quality. What level of accuracy is needed for rainfall data used by the sewer community? What level of effort should be put forth to make sure that representative rainfall data are gathered? The purpose of this paper is to answer these questions and develop a framework to help those in the sewer community determine appropriate rainfall monitoring criteria best-suited to their application and local rainfall characteristics.