Intensity, duration and frequency curves derived of diary maximum rainfall from data of six meteorological stations, Nicaragua

Abstract

In the places of hydraulics resources facility, it is required to estimate the intensity-duration-frequency rainfall curves, in order to estimate the maximum discharges. The aim of this study was to estimate the correlations between the annual diary maximum precipitation, the maximum intensities for different rainfall durations, and the returns periods, using rainfall data of six meteorological stations from the Pacific and Central zones of the country. The Gumbell distribution has been used to obtain the intensity-duration-frequency curves for the pluviograph stations, for durations of five to 120 minutes. Using the Smirnov-Kolmogorov test, with a 5% significant level, it was determined that the Gumbell distribution has a good adjustment with the analyzed data's empirical probability. Using a potential relation for the intensities with different durations, the return periods, and the 24 h maximum precipitations, equations were developed to allow to estimate the intensity-duration-frequency curves from the 24 h maximum precipitations. These equations could be used to obtain the IDF curves in those places where only available dairy precipitations, in the six meteorological stations.