Heavy rainfall frequency analysis in the Benin section of the Niger and Volta Rivers basins: is the Gumbel's distribution a one-size-fits-all model?

<p>West African populations are increasingly exposed to heavy rainfall events which cause devastating floods. For the design of rainwater drainage facilities (to protect populations), practitioners systematically use the Gumbel distribution regardless of rainfall statistical behaviour. The obj...

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Autores principales: D. F. Badou, A. Adango, J. Hounkpè, A. Bossa, Y. Yira, E. I. Biao, J. Adounkpè, E. Alamou, L. O. C. Sintondji, A. A. Afouda
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:9521b36442da48648cdc3dc91a4ee0bd2021-11-16T07:08:13ZHeavy rainfall frequency analysis in the Benin section of the Niger and Volta Rivers basins: is the Gumbel's distribution a one-size-fits-all model?10.5194/piahs-384-187-20212199-89812199-899Xhttps://doaj.org/article/9521b36442da48648cdc3dc91a4ee0bd2021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://piahs.copernicus.org/articles/384/187/2021/piahs-384-187-2021.pdfhttps://doaj.org/toc/2199-8981https://doaj.org/toc/2199-899X<p>West African populations are increasingly exposed to heavy rainfall events which cause devastating floods. For the design of rainwater drainage facilities (to protect populations), practitioners systematically use the Gumbel distribution regardless of rainfall statistical behaviour. The objective of this study is twofold. The first is to update existing knowledge on heavy rainfall frequency analysis in West Africa to check whether the systematic preference for Gumbel's distribution is not misleading, and subsequently to quantify biases induced by the use of the Gumbel distribution on stations fitting other distributions. Annual maximum daily rainfall of 12 stations located in the Benin sections of the Niger and Volta Rivers' basins covering a period of 96 years (1921–2016) were used. Five statistical distributions (Gumbel, GEV, Lognormal, Pearson type III, and Log-Pearson type III) were used for the frequency analysis and the most appropriate distribution was selected based on the Akaike (AIC) and Bayesian (BIC) criteria. The study shows that the Gumbel's distribution best represents the data of <span class="inline-formula"><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1" display="inline" overflow="scroll" dspmath="mathml"><mrow><mn mathvariant="normal">2</mn><mo>/</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">3</mn></mrow></math><span><svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20pt" height="14pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" md5hash="d0c4f60399bff34d5e35d8e638a41e97"><svg:image xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="piahs-384-187-2021-ie00001.svg" width="20pt" height="14pt" src="piahs-384-187-2021-ie00001.png"/></svg:svg></span></span> of the stations studied, while the remaining <span class="inline-formula"><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M2" display="inline" overflow="scroll" dspmath="mathml"><mrow><mn mathvariant="normal">1</mn><mo>/</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">3</mn></mrow></math><span><svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20pt" height="14pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" md5hash="dad779fc4d6ec81af5f2e51c87dd9156"><svg:image xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="piahs-384-187-2021-ie00002.svg" width="20pt" height="14pt" src="piahs-384-187-2021-ie00002.png"/></svg:svg></span></span> of the stations fit better GEV, Lognormal, and Pearson type III distributions. The systematic application of Gumbel's distribution for the frequency analysis of extreme rainfall is therefore misleading. For stations whose data best fit the other distributions, annual daily rainfall maxima were estimated both using these distributions and the Gumbel's distribution for different return periods. Depending on the return period, results demonstrate that the use of the Gumbel distribution instead of these distributions leads to an overestimation (of up to <span class="inline-formula">+6.1</span> %) and an underestimation (of up to <span class="inline-formula">−45.9</span> %) of the annual daily rainfall maxima and therefore to an uncertain design of flood protection facilities. For better validity, the findings presented here should be tested on larger datasets.</p>D. F. BadouD. F. BadouA. AdangoJ. HounkpèA. BossaY. YiraE. I. BiaoJ. AdounkpèE. AlamouL. O. C. SintondjiA. A. AfoudaCopernicus PublicationsarticleEnvironmental sciencesGE1-350GeologyQE1-996.5ENProceedings of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences, Vol 384, Pp 187-194 (2021)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Environmental sciences
GE1-350
Geology
QE1-996.5
spellingShingle Environmental sciences
GE1-350
Geology
QE1-996.5
D. F. Badou
D. F. Badou
A. Adango
J. Hounkpè
A. Bossa
Y. Yira
E. I. Biao
J. Adounkpè
E. Alamou
L. O. C. Sintondji
A. A. Afouda
Heavy rainfall frequency analysis in the Benin section of the Niger and Volta Rivers basins: is the Gumbel's distribution a one-size-fits-all model?
description <p>West African populations are increasingly exposed to heavy rainfall events which cause devastating floods. For the design of rainwater drainage facilities (to protect populations), practitioners systematically use the Gumbel distribution regardless of rainfall statistical behaviour. The objective of this study is twofold. The first is to update existing knowledge on heavy rainfall frequency analysis in West Africa to check whether the systematic preference for Gumbel's distribution is not misleading, and subsequently to quantify biases induced by the use of the Gumbel distribution on stations fitting other distributions. Annual maximum daily rainfall of 12 stations located in the Benin sections of the Niger and Volta Rivers' basins covering a period of 96 years (1921–2016) were used. Five statistical distributions (Gumbel, GEV, Lognormal, Pearson type III, and Log-Pearson type III) were used for the frequency analysis and the most appropriate distribution was selected based on the Akaike (AIC) and Bayesian (BIC) criteria. The study shows that the Gumbel's distribution best represents the data of <span class="inline-formula"><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1" display="inline" overflow="scroll" dspmath="mathml"><mrow><mn mathvariant="normal">2</mn><mo>/</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">3</mn></mrow></math><span><svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20pt" height="14pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" md5hash="d0c4f60399bff34d5e35d8e638a41e97"><svg:image xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="piahs-384-187-2021-ie00001.svg" width="20pt" height="14pt" src="piahs-384-187-2021-ie00001.png"/></svg:svg></span></span> of the stations studied, while the remaining <span class="inline-formula"><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M2" display="inline" overflow="scroll" dspmath="mathml"><mrow><mn mathvariant="normal">1</mn><mo>/</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">3</mn></mrow></math><span><svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20pt" height="14pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" md5hash="dad779fc4d6ec81af5f2e51c87dd9156"><svg:image xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="piahs-384-187-2021-ie00002.svg" width="20pt" height="14pt" src="piahs-384-187-2021-ie00002.png"/></svg:svg></span></span> of the stations fit better GEV, Lognormal, and Pearson type III distributions. The systematic application of Gumbel's distribution for the frequency analysis of extreme rainfall is therefore misleading. For stations whose data best fit the other distributions, annual daily rainfall maxima were estimated both using these distributions and the Gumbel's distribution for different return periods. Depending on the return period, results demonstrate that the use of the Gumbel distribution instead of these distributions leads to an overestimation (of up to <span class="inline-formula">+6.1</span> %) and an underestimation (of up to <span class="inline-formula">−45.9</span> %) of the annual daily rainfall maxima and therefore to an uncertain design of flood protection facilities. For better validity, the findings presented here should be tested on larger datasets.</p>
format article
author D. F. Badou
D. F. Badou
A. Adango
J. Hounkpè
A. Bossa
Y. Yira
E. I. Biao
J. Adounkpè
E. Alamou
L. O. C. Sintondji
A. A. Afouda
author_facet D. F. Badou
D. F. Badou
A. Adango
J. Hounkpè
A. Bossa
Y. Yira
E. I. Biao
J. Adounkpè
E. Alamou
L. O. C. Sintondji
A. A. Afouda
author_sort D. F. Badou
title Heavy rainfall frequency analysis in the Benin section of the Niger and Volta Rivers basins: is the Gumbel's distribution a one-size-fits-all model?
title_short Heavy rainfall frequency analysis in the Benin section of the Niger and Volta Rivers basins: is the Gumbel's distribution a one-size-fits-all model?
title_full Heavy rainfall frequency analysis in the Benin section of the Niger and Volta Rivers basins: is the Gumbel's distribution a one-size-fits-all model?
title_fullStr Heavy rainfall frequency analysis in the Benin section of the Niger and Volta Rivers basins: is the Gumbel's distribution a one-size-fits-all model?
title_full_unstemmed Heavy rainfall frequency analysis in the Benin section of the Niger and Volta Rivers basins: is the Gumbel's distribution a one-size-fits-all model?
title_sort heavy rainfall frequency analysis in the benin section of the niger and volta rivers basins: is the gumbel's distribution a one-size-fits-all model?
publisher Copernicus Publications
publishDate 2021
url https://doaj.org/article/9521b36442da48648cdc3dc91a4ee0bd
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