Uncertainty Analysis of National Weather Service Rainfall Frequency Atlas
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 113, Issue 2
Abstract
The rainfall‐frequency atlas published by the National Weather Service (NWS) has been extensively used in the storm drainage structures design. The users of such maps should recognize the fact that these maps are the result of many processes involving smoothing, translation, and interpolation. Rainfall depths extracted from these publications can only be regarded as representative values associated with uncertainties. Quantification of the uncertainty associated with the rainfall isopluvial maps in the NWS Technical Paper Number 40 is made in this paper. The method applies first‐order analysis in conjunction with Chen's general rainfall intensity‐duration‐frequency formula. Examples of performing point error analysis and developing error maps are given.
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Copyright © 1987 ASCE.
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Published online: Feb 1, 1987
Published in print: Feb 1987
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