Abstract
Flood events of the Pachang River, one of the major rivers in Taiwan, are modeled by extreme value distributions. Flood events are characterized by its peak, volume, duration and the time of peak. Flood volume and peak are fitted to a generalized extreme value distribution. Flood duration and the time of flood peak are incorporated into the model to detect possible trends. The results show that flood volume exhibits an upward trend with respect to flood duration, but flood peak exhibits a downward trend with respect to flood duration. There appears to be no significant trends with respect to time. Among other results, we provide estimates of return period for flood peak and flood volume, which could be used as measures of flood protection. This paper provides the first application of extreme value distributions to flood data from Taiwan.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Cannarozzo, M., Dasaro, F., and Ferro, V., 1995, ‘Regional rainfall and flood frequency-analysis for Sicily using the 2-component extreme-value distribution’, Hydrological Sciences Journal – Journal Des Sciences Hydrologiques 40, 19–42.
El-Jabi, N., Ashkar, F., and Hebabi, S., 1998, ‘Regionalization of floods in New Brunswick (Canada)’, Stochastic Hydrology and Hydraulics 12, 65–82.
Enjo, M. A. A., Agudo, J. P., and Viqueira, F. D. F., 2001, ‘Regional flood analysis at the Atlantic coast of Galicia northwest of Spain’, Ingenieria Hidraulica en Mexico 16, 67–76.
Farago, T. and Katz, R., 1990, ‘Extremes and Design Values in Climatology’, World Meteorological Organization, WCAP-14, WMO/TD-No. 386.
Fisher, R. A. and Tippett, L. H. C., 1928, ‘Limiting forms of the frequency distribution of the largest or smallest member of a sample’, Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society 24, 180–290.
Galambos, J., 1987, The Asymptotic Theory of Extreme Order Statistics (second edition). Krieger, Melbourne, Florida.
Goel, N. K., Seth, S. M., and Chandra, S., 1998, ‘Multivariate modeling of flood flows’, Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, ASCE 124, 146–155.
Haktanir, T. and Horlacher, H. B., 1993, ‘Evaluation of various distributions for flood frequency-analysis’, Hydrological Sciences Journal – Journal Des Sciences Hydrologiques 38, 15–32.
Hosking, J. R. M., Wallis, J. R., and Wood, E. F., 1985, ‘Estimation of the generalized extreme value distribution by the method of probability weighted moments’, Technometrics 27, 251–261.
Hoybye, J. and Iritz, L., 1997, ‘Analysis of extreme hydrological events in a monsoon climate catchment: The Hongru River, China’, Hydrological Sciences Journal – Journal Des Sciences Hydrologiques 42, 343–356.
Jenkinson, A. F., 1955, ‘The frequency distribution of the annual maxima (or minima) values of meteorological elements’, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 81, 158–171.
Karim, M. A. and Chowdhury, J. U., 1995, ‘A comparison of 4 distributions used in flood frequency-analysis in Bangladesh’, Hydrological Sciences Journal – Journal Des Sciences Hydrologiques 40, 55–66.
Kotz, S. and Nadarajah, S., 2000, Extreme Value Distributions: Theory and Applications. Imperial College Press, London.
Madsen, H., Pearson, C. P., and Rosbjerg, D., 1997, ‘Comparison of annual maximum and partial duration series methods for modeling extreme hydrological events. 2. Regional modeling’, Water Resources Research 33, 759–769.
De Michele, C. and Rosso, R., 2001, ‘Uncertainty assessment of regionalized flood frequency estimiates’, Journal of Hydrological Engineering 6, 453–459.
Mkhandi, S. H., Kachroo, R. K., and Gunasekara, T. A. G., 2000, ‘Flood frequency analysis of southern Africa: II. Identification of regional distributions’, Hydrological Sciences Journal – Journal Des Sciences Hydrologiques 45, 449–464.
Phien, H. N. and Laungwattanapong, N., 1991, ‘At-site flood frequency-analysis for Thailand’, Water SA 17, 147–154.
Pitlick, J., 1994, ‘Relation between peak flows, precipitation, and physiography for 5 mountainous regions in the western USA’, Journal of Hydrology 158, 219–240.
Prescott, P. and Walden, A.T., 1980, ‘Maximum likelihood estimation of the parameters of the generalized extreme-value distribution’, Biometrika 67, 723–724.
Provaznik, M. K. and Hotchkiss, R. H., 1998, ‘Analysis of gauging station flood frequency estimates in Nebraska using L-moments and region of influence methods’, General Design and Roadside Safety Features Transportation Research Record 1647, 53–60.
Sankarasubramanian, A. and Srinivasan, K., 1999, ‘Investigation and comparison of sampling properties of L-moments and conventional moments’, Journal of Hydrology 218, 13–34.
Sene, K. J., Houghton-Carr, H. A., and Hachache, A., 2001, ‘Preliminary flood frequency estimates for Lebanon’, Hydrological Sciences Journal – Journal Des Sciences Hydrologiques 46, 659–676.
Stedinger, J. R., Vogel, R. M., and Foufoula-Georgiou, E., 1993, ‘Frequency analysis of extreme events’, in D. Maidment (ed), Handbook of Hydrology, chapter 18.
Vogel, R. M., McMahon, T. A., and Chiew, F. H. S., 1993, ‘Floodflow frequency model selection in Australia’, Journal of Hydrology 146, 421–449.
Wald, A., 1943, ‘Tests of statistical hypotheses concerning several parameters when the number of observations is large’, Transactions of the American Mathematical Society 54, 426–483.
Yim, J. Z., Lin, J. G., and Hwang, C. H., 1999, ‘Statistical properties of the wind field at Taichung harbour, Taiwan’, Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics 83, 49–60.
Yue, S., Ouarda, T. B. M. J., Bobee, B., Legendre, P., and Bruneau, P., 1999, ‘The Gumbel mixed model for flood frequency analysis’, Journal of Hydrology 226, 88–100.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nadarajah, S., Shiau, J.T. Analysis of Extreme Flood Events for the Pachang River, Taiwan. Water Resour Manage 19, 363–374 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-005-2073-2
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-005-2073-2