Regional flood frequency analysis in the Volta River Basin, West Africa

Abstract

In the Volta River Basin, flooding has been one of the most damaging natural hazards during the last few decades. Therefore, flood frequency estimates are important for disaster risk management. This study aims at improving knowledge of flood frequencies in the Volta River Basin using regional frequency analysis based on L-moments. Hence, three homogeneous groups have been identified based on cluster analysis and a homogeneity test. By using L-moment diagrams and goodness of fit tests, the generalized extreme value and the generalized Pareto distributions are found suitable to yield accurate flood quantiles in the Volta River Basin. Finally, regression models of the mean annual flood with the size of the drainage area, mean basin slope and mean annual rainfall are proposed to enable flood frequency estimation of ungauged sites within the study area.