Abstract
A regional frequency analysis of annual maximum series (AMS) of flood flows from relatively unregulated rivers in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa has been conducted, including identification of homogeneous regions and suitable regional frequency distributions for the regions. The study area was divided into two homogeneous regions based on an index of monthly rainfall concentration. Region 1 covers the coastal and midlands area and Region 2 the west north-western parts of the study area. The General Normal, Pearson Type 3 and General Pareto distributions were found to be suitable for AMS of flood flows in Region 2. The occurrence of a few flood events of extreme magnitude in Region 1 resulted in no suitable regional frequency distribution for this region.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 194-211 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| Journal | Journal of Hydrology |
| Volume | 255 |
| Issue number | 1-4 |
| Early online date | 28 Nov 2001 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2 Jan 2002 |
Funding
The funding provided by the Water Research Commission for this project and the assistance and computing facilities provided by the Computing Centre for Water Research are acknowledged gratefully. Mr D. van Bladeren is thanked for providing the flood AMS data and Mr M. Horan for assistance with the GIS work. The reviewers, Professor G. Pegram and Dr C. Pearson, are thanked for their pertinent comments, which significantly improved the quality of this paper.
Keywords
- Index-flood
- L-moments
- Regional flood frequency analysis
- South Africa
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Water Science and Technology