By Patrick P. Rasmussen and Charles A. Perry
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Abstract
Introduction
Purpose and Scope
Previous Studies
Acknowledgments
Factors Affecting Occurrence of Floods
Physical Characteristics
Climatic Characteristics
Occurrence of Extreme Floods
Estimation of Peak-Streamflow Frequencies at Gaging Stations on Unregulated, Rural Streams
Log-Pearson Type III Techniques
Historical Peak Discharges and Outlier Thresholds
Skew Coefficient
Peak-Streamflow Frequencies at Gaging Stations
Regression Equations for Estimation of Peak-Streamflow Frequencies at Ungaged Sites on Unregulated, Rural Streams
Regression Analysis
Selected Physical and Climatic Characteristics
Regression Equation Results
Use of Regression Equations
Summary
Selected References
Peak streamflows were estimated at selected recurrence intervals (frequencies) ranging from 2 to 200 years using log-Pearson Type III distributions for 253 streamflow-gaging stations in Kansas. The annual peak-streamflow data, through the 1997 water year, were from streamflow-gaging stations with unregulated flow in mostly rural basins. A weighted least-squares regression model was used to generalize the coefficients of station skewness. The resulting generalized skewness equation provides more reliable estimates than the previously developed equation for Kansas.
A generalized least-squares regression model then was used to develop equations for estimating peak streamflows for sites without stream gages for selected frequencies from selected physical and climatic basin characteristics for sites without stream gages. The equations can be used to estimate peak streamflows for selected frequencies using contributing-drainage area, mean annual precipitation, soil permeability, and slope of the main channel for ungaged sites in Kansas with a contributing-drainage area greater than 0.17 and less than 9,100 square miles. The errors of prediction for the generalized least-squares-generated equations range from 31 to 62 percent.
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