Regional Frequency Analysis

This book is the first complete account of the L-moment approach to regional frequency analysis of environmental extremes.

Extreme environmental events, such as floods, droughts, rainstorms, and high winds, have severe consequences for human society. Regional frequency analysis helps to solve the problem of estimating the frequency of these rare events at one site by using data from several sites. This book is the first complete account of the L-moment approach to regional frequency analysis. Regional Frequency Analysis comprehensively describes the theoretical background to the subject, is rich in practical advice for users, and contains detailed examples that illustrate the approach. This book will be of great value to hydrologists, atmospheric scientists and civil engineers, concerned with environmental extremes.

Floods constitute a persistent and serious problem throughout the United States and many other parts of the world. They are responsible for losses amounting to billions of dollars and scores of deaths annually. Virtually all parts of the nation--coastal, moun tainous and rural--are affected by them. Two aspects of the problem of flooding that have long been topics of scientific inquiry are flood frequency and risk analyses. Many new, even improved, tech niques have recently been developed for performing these analyses. Nevertheless, actual experience points out that the frequency of say a 100-year flood, in lieu of being encountered on the average once in one hundred years, may be as little as once in 25 years. It is therefore appropriate to pause and ask where we are, where we are going and where we ought to be going with regard to the technology of flood frequency and risk analyses. One way to address these ques tions is to provide a forum where people from all quarters of the world can assemble, discuss and share their experience and expertise pertaining to flood frequency and risk analyses. This is what con stituted the motivation for organizing the International Symposium on Flood Frequency and Risk Analyses held May 14-17, 1986, at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

After five decades, the field of Statistical Hydrology continues to evolve and remains a very active area of investigation. Researchers continue to examine various distributions, methods of estimation of parameters, and problems related to regionalization. However, much of this research appears in journals and reports and usually in a form not easi