Homogeneous region delineation based on annual flood generation mechanisms

Abstract

Flood distributions can have unimodal or multimodal densities due to different flood generation mechanisms such as snowmelt and rainfall in the annual flood series. When applying nonparametric frequency analysis to annual flood data from the province of New Brunswick in Canada, unimodal, bimodal and heavy-tailed distribution shapes were found. By grouping basins with similarly-shaped densities on a geographical basis, homogeneous regions were delineated. Regional equations derived for a homogeneous region gave lower integral square errors than those of province-wide equations.