Estimation of flood discharges at selected annual exceedance probabilities for unregulated, rural streams in Vermont, with a section on Vermont regional skew regression

Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5078
Prepared in cooperation with the Federal Emergency Management Agency
By:  and 

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Abstract

This report provides estimates of flood discharges at selected annual exceedance probabilities (AEPs) for streamgages in and adjacent to Vermont and equations for estimating flood discharges at AEPs of 50-, 20-, 10-, 4-, 2-, 1-, 0.5-, and 0.2-percent (recurrence intervals of 2-, 5-, 10-, 25-, 50-, 100-, 200-, and 500-years, respectively) for ungaged, unregulated, rural streams in Vermont. The equations were developed using generalized least-squares regression. Flood-frequency and drainage-basin characteristics from 145 streamgages were used in developing the equations. The drainage-basin characteristics used as explanatory variables in the regression equations include drainage area, percentage of wetland area, and the basin-wide mean of the average annual precipitation. The average standard errors of prediction for estimating the flood discharges at the 50-, 20-, 10-, 4-, 2-, 1-, 0.5-, and 0.2-percent AEP with these equations are 34.9, 36.0, 38.7, 42.4, 44.9, 47.3, 50.7, and 55.1 percent, respectively.


Flood discharges at selected AEPs for streamgages were computed by using the Expected Moments Algorithm. To improve estimates of the flood discharges for given exceedance probabilities at streamgages in Vermont, a new generalized skew coefficient was developed. The new generalized skew for the region is a constant, 0.44. The mean square error of the generalized skew coefficient is 0.078. This report describes a technique for using results from the regression equations to adjust an AEP discharge computed from a streamgage record. This report also describes a technique for using a drainage-area adjustment to estimate flood discharge at a selected AEP for an ungaged site upstream or downstream from a streamgage.


The final regression equations and the flood-discharge frequency data used in this study will be available in StreamStats. StreamStats is a World Wide Web application providing automated regression-equation solutions for user-selected sites on streams.

Study Area

Publication type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Title Estimation of flood discharges at selected annual exceedance probabilities for unregulated, rural streams in Vermont, with a section on Vermont regional skew regression
Series title Scientific Investigations Report
Series number 2014-5078
DOI 10.3133/sir20145078
Year Published 2014
Language English
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Publisher location Reston, VA
Contributing office(s) New England Water Science Center
Description Report: vi, 27 p.; Appendixes 1-8, 7, 9
Country United States
State Vermont
Online Only (Y/N) Y
Additional Online Files (Y/N) Y
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
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