Experimental study on rainfall interception over an outdoor urban-scale model

Rainfall interception (RI) over an outdoor urban‐scale model was investigated from the perspectives of water and energy balance. On average, RI was 6% of the gross rainfall and smaller than typical values in forests. No correlation was found between RI and gross rainfall or rainfall duration unlike the correlations found in forests. Most RI occurred in the first several hours of rainfall, and then RI rapidly decreased with time during a rainfall event. RI was dependent on the saturation deficit at the beginning of the rainfall event. The latent heat for RI was approximately balanced by heat conduction from the concrete surfaces. Differences in the canopy structure are considered as possible reasons for the different behaviors of RI between the present site and forests. Accordingly, three aspects of the canopy structure, i.e., effective wet surface area, efficiency for scalar transfer, and canopy heat capacity, are discussed.