Estimation of flood frequency using statistical method: Mahanadi River basin, India

Estimating stream flow has a substantial financial influence, because this can be of assistance in water resources management and provides safety from scarcity of water and conceivable flood destruction. Four common statistical methods, namely, Normal, Gumbel max, Log-Pearson III (LP III), and Gen. extreme value method are employed for 10, 20, 30, 35, 40, 50, 60, 70, 75, 100, 150 years to forecast stream flow. Monthly flow data from four stations on Mahanadi River, in Eastern Central India, namely, Rampur, Sundargarh, Jondhra, and Basantpur, are used in the study. Results show that Gumbel max gives better flow discharge value than the Normal, LP III, and Gen. extreme value methods for all four gauge stations. Estimated flood values for Rampur, Sundargarh, Jondhra, and Basantpur stations are 372.361 m(3)/sec, 530.415 m(3)/sec, 2,133.888 m(3)/sec, and 3,836.22 m(3)/sec, respectively, considering Gumbel max. Goodness-of-fit tests for four statistical distribution techniques applied in the present study are also evaluated using Kolmogorov-Smirov, Anderson-Darling, Chi-squared tests at critical value 0.05 for the four proposed gauge stations. Goodness-of-fit test results show that Gen. extreme value gives best results at Rampur, Sundergarh, and Jondhra gauge stations followed by LP III, whereas LP III is the best fit for Basantpur, followed by Gen. extreme value.