Regional maximum flood peaks in Southern Africa
Loading...
Files
Date
1988
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Department of Water Affairs, Directorate of Hydrology
Abstract
The regional maximum flood (RMF) is an empirically established upper limit of flood peaks that can be reasonably expected at a given site. The proposed method for the estimation of RMF is a revised and updated version of Departmental technical report TR 105 published in 1980' 1 ' The method is based on maximum flood peaks recorded since 1856 at more than 500 sites in Southern Africa. The relative flood peak magnitude is expressed by the Francou-Rodier regional coefficient K. Eight maximum flood peak regions were delimited by a joint consideration of K, maximum observed 3 day rainfall and catchment characteristics. The respective K envelope lines (K.) were established by taking onto account the number and quality of data. The RMF can be instantly calculated if the geographic position of the site and its effective catchment area are known. Owing to its consistency the RMF compares favourably with results obtained by other methods. It is also shown that flood peaks in the 50 to 200-year recurrence interval can be estimated from RMF.
Description
Keywords
Southern Africa, Floods, South Africa, Hydrology, Flood control, Flood forecasting, Geophysical prediction., Hydrological forecasting