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1 - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2022

Vijay P. Singh  and
Lan Zhang
Vijay P. Singh
Affiliation:
Texas A & M University
Lan Zhang
Affiliation:
University of Akron, Ohio
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Summary

Several generalized frequency distributions have been employed in environmental and water engineering over the years. These distributions are quite versatile and can apply to frequency analysis of a wide variety of random variables, such as flood peaks, volume, duration, and inter-arrival time; extreme rainfall amount, duration, spatial coverage, and inter-arrival time; drought duration, severity, spatial extent, and inter-arrival time; wind speed, duration, direction, and spatial coverage; water quality parameters; and sediment concentration, discharge, and yield. However, because of their relatively complex form, these distributions have not become as popular as the simpler distributions. These distributions have at least three but usually more parameters, which have been estimated using the methods of moments, maximum likelihood, probability weighted moments, and L-moments. In some cases, entropy theory has been used to estimate parameters. This chapter provides a snapshot of the generalized distributions that will be discussed in this book. Moreover, a short discussion of the methods of parameter estimation, goodness-of-fit statistics, and confidence intervals is provided.

Keywords

distributionsmethod of momentmaximum likelihoodprobability weighted momentL-moment
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Generalized Frequency Distributions for Environmental and Water Engineering , pp. 1 - 49
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • Introduction
  • Vijay P. Singh, Texas A & M University, Lan Zhang, University of Akron, Ohio
  • Book: Generalized Frequency Distributions for Environmental and Water Engineering
  • Online publication: 13 April 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009025317.002
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Introduction
  • Vijay P. Singh, Texas A & M University, Lan Zhang, University of Akron, Ohio
  • Book: Generalized Frequency Distributions for Environmental and Water Engineering
  • Online publication: 13 April 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009025317.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Vijay P. Singh, Texas A & M University, Lan Zhang, University of Akron, Ohio
  • Book: Generalized Frequency Distributions for Environmental and Water Engineering
  • Online publication: 13 April 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009025317.002
Available formats
×