EGS XXVI General Assembly, Nice, France, March 2001

HSC1. Regional frequency analysis of extreme precipitation and floods:

Event Information

Extremes of precipitation and river flow are of vital interest to science and society. Water resources planning and engineering design rely on the estimation of the risk associated with such events. A better understanding of the processes associated with them, both at local and regional scales, is urgently needed to properly assess this risk. The uncertainties in regional frequency analyses not only depend on the methods used but also on the climatic and physiographic properties of the regions where they are applied. Paradigms of regional homogeneity (including tests of regional heterogeneity) may be valid only under specific conditions. The objective of this session is to shed light on the regional patterns of extreme precipitation and floods, in a probabilistic framework, and the processes that give rise to such patterns. Furthermore, the session is also intended as a forum for presenting concepts of regional homogeneity, and methods for estimating design values at a regional scale as well as regional methods for making predictions at the local scale. Both general methodological contributions and case studies in different regions are welcome. Specifically, papers are solicited that address one or more of the following questions: * what are the important mechanisms producing regional extremes, * what is the role of climatic forcings and catchment properties in the regional distribution of extremes, * which hydro-meteorological and catchment characteristics, and indices can be used to describe regional patterns of extremes, * what is the validity and applicability of various concepts of regional homogeneity in the pooling process under various climatic and physiographic conditions at different catchment scales, and * what are the relative merits of different statistical methods of regional frequency estimation such as quantile methods, index flood methods and region of influence approaches?

Preliminary List of Solicited Speakers

Co-Sponsorship