Weibull Distribution and Natural Hydrograph

by Nazeer Ahmed, Univ of Nevada, Las Vegas, United States,



Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: Hydraulic Engineering

Abstract:

For design projects in water resources, a hydrograph is commonly used for the determination of flood volume generated by a given drainage basin. The division of total flow into direct runoff and baseflow is of paramount importance for these types of studies. A large sample of hydrographs from different geographical areas of the 48 contiguous states is considered in this investigation. A two-parameter Weibull distribution is fitted to each of the sample hydrographs. The two parameters of the distribution are related to the shape factor and storage time constant of the drainage basin respectively. Both parameters are determined through the analysis of the measured flow data. The calibrated form of the Weibull distribution describes the natural hydrograph curve well and furnishes accurate estimates of the flood volume and baseflow for a given drainage basin.

Subject Headings: Drainage basins | Hydrographs | Base flow | Flow measurement | Floods | Parameters (statistics) | Water resources

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