Responses of flood peaks to land use and landscape patterns under extreme rainstorms in small catchments - A case study of the rainstorm of Typhoon Lekima in Shandong, China

Abstract Investigations of the formation mechanisms of flood peaks in small catchments facilitate flood prediction and disaster prevention under extreme rainstorms. However, there have been few studies on the responses of flood peaks to land use landscape patterns using field surveys during extreme rainstorm events. Based on field data from 17 small catchments near the rainstorm center of Typhoon Lekima, 7 landscape indices were chosen. The flood peak and its sensitivity to the land use landscape were investigated by combining remote sensing interpretation and related analysis. The conclusions are as follows: (1) The peak discharge of the small catchment was 2.36–56.50 m3/s, the peak modulus was 8.00–48.89 m3/(s·km2), and the flood index K ranged from 3.61 to 4.55. (2) Under similar rainfall conditions, the flood peak modulus, K and the proportion of sloping cropland had significantly positive correlations (p