Flood Regionalization: A Hybrid Geographic and Predictor-Variable Region-of-Influence Regression Method
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 12, Issue 6
Abstract
To facilitate estimation of streamflow characteristics at an ungauged site, hydrologists often define a region of influence containing gauged sites hydrologically similar to the estimation site. This region can be defined either in geographic space or in the space of the variables that are used to predict streamflow (predictor variables). These approaches are complementary, and a combination of the two may be superior to either. Here we propose a hybrid region-of-influence (HRoI) regression method that combines the two approaches. The new method was applied with streamflow records from 1,091 gauges in the southeastern United States to estimate the peak flow . The HRoI approach yielded lower root-mean-square estimation errors and produced fewer extreme errors than either the predictor-variable or geographic region-of-influence approaches. It is concluded, for in the study region, that similarity with respect to the basin characteristics considered (area, slope, and annual precipitation) is important, but incomplete, and that the consideration of geographic proximity of stations provides a useful surrogate for characteristics that are not included in the analysis.
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Acknowledgments
The writers wish to thank Wladmir Guimaraes, U.S. Geological Survey, Columbia S.C., for providing the estimates of flood peaks and basin characteristics.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 12 • Issue 6 • November 2007
Pages: 585 - 591
Copyright
© 2007 ASCE.
History
Received: Dec 6, 2005
Accepted: Feb 5, 2007
Published online: Nov 1, 2007
Published in print: Nov 2007
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