Flood Frequency Analysis for Burhi Gandak River Basin

Abstract

The study is aimed at finding the best distribution to match the steam flow and calculation of magnitude and frequency of flow. In the current study, we have used several statistical distributions to find the best fit distribution for stream flow and used flood frequency analysis techniques to find the magnitude and frequency of stream flow and non-exceedance probability of peak discharge. The study has been performed at Sikandarpur and Rosera gauging sites of BurhiGandak River. Historical (50 years) maximum annual peak discharge data of each station are used for statistical analysis for estimating maximum peak discharge in 5, 10, 25, 50, 100 year return period. In this study, Lognormal distribution, Galton distribution, Gamma distribution, Log Pearson Type III distribution, Gumbell distribution, Generalised extreme values distribution have been considered to describe the annual maximum stream flow. Flood frequency analysis methods were used for estimating the magnitude of the extreme flow events and their associated return periods. For both Sikandarpur and Rosera stations, Log Pearson type III distributions showed the lowest value of K–S and Chi-square test statistic. The annual probable peak discharge for 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 years return period is calculated for each distribution. The most suitable distribution for both the stations is found to be the log-Pearson type III distribution.