Physics Of Flood Frequency Analysis. Part I. Linear Convective Diffusion Wave Model

Abstract

It is hypothesized that the impulse response of a linearized convective diffusion wave (CD) model is a probability distribution suitable for flood frequency analysis. This flood frequency model has two parameters, which are derived using the methods of moments and maximum likelihood. Also derived are errors in quantiles for these methods of parameter estimation. The distribution shows an equivalency of the two estimation methods with respect to the mean value - an important property in the case of unknown true distribution function. As the coefficient of variation tends to zero (with the mean fixed), the distribution tends to a normal one, similar to the lognormal and gamma distributions.