A geostatistical approach to quantifying rainfall uncertainty in Southern Africa using terrain characteristics
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Rainfall is the most important driver of hydrologic response predicted by models. By improving estimates of rainfall, improved estimates of streamflow may be possible. There has been little comprehensive research regarding the relative importance of ancillary terrain data for improving rainfall estimates. This research focuses on using geostatistical techniques to generate improved rainfall estimates using gridded ancillary terrain data. In addition, a geostatistical approach is used to estimate ensemble rainfall fields, which could be used to stochastically drive a rainfall-runoff model. The field sites for this research are (1) the 31,200 sq km Inkomati Water Management Area (IWMA) in northeastern South Africa, and (2) the more data-sparse 185,100 sq km Central-North Regional Water Administration (ARACN) in Mozambique. Monthly rainfall data for the year 1970 were analyzed. This study found that, for this time period, the most important pieces of ancillary data for improving the estimation of rainfall fields in IWMA and ARACN are elevation (20km resolution) and slope. Distance to long-term annual rainfall maximum and distance to coast also helped to improve rainfall estimation.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2013 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Raheem, Yacoub Tiedje |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. |
| Advisor | Freyberg, David L |
| Thesis advisor | Freyberg, David L |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Yacoub Tiedje Raheem. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. |
| Thesis | Engineering Stanford University 2013 |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2013 by Yacoub Tiedje Raheem
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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