Inland water bodies in Chile can locally increase rainfall intensity

Abstract

Analysis of precipitation observations from Chile indicated that man-made water reservoirs might be affecting the intensity of extreme precipitation events. Fifty rain gauges were used to evaluate rainfall intensities under different climates, using the Gumbel method (T = 5 and 100 years) and average maximum recorded rainfall intensities to construct IDF curves for each station. A spatial analysis of the stations was undertaken to establish graphical relationships on documented maximum annual rainfall intensities for 1 h and those obtained by the Gumbel method as a function of latitude, longitude, elevation, and the distance from water bodies. The Mann-Whitney U test was applied with an error of 5%. Values obtained from stations located close to water bodies were compared to those located away from them. The results show significant changes in dryer climates. (c) 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V.