UNIVERSITY OF MAURITIUS FACULTY OF ENGINEERING CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

FLOW DURATION CURVES

Task 1: A local water authority wishes to extract water directly from two rivers, A and B. Explain how a flow duration curve can help the water authority to decide which of the two rivers would be most appropriate for direct abstraction, given that the minimum flow required to make the abstraction effective is known. Task 2: Explain how a D-Day family flow curves would help to give a good understanding of the nature of both rivers, and how these could be used to provide a firm basis for comparison of the two rivers. Task 3: The local water authority decides to make use of a different method for comparing the two rivers, the non-parametric ranking method. Explain what is meant by exceedance probability and why the return period is considered as being more convincing as an argument for decision making. Task 4: Given that the non-parametric looks too simplistic, the company now wishes to make use of a more scientific method of comparing the flow pattern of the two rivers, the parametric methods. List the different parametric methods commonly used to analyse and compare river flows. Explain how you will select the most appropriate one for the company, assuming that both rivers are gauged. Task 5: Parametric methods are commonly used in order to analyse hydrological extremes. Explain how you will gather data from both rivers A and B, and make use of both the non-parametric and the parametric methods to compare the two rivers. How will these methods help you to decide from which river you need to eventually directly abstract water for use?

You may wish to consult the following sites: http://www.scribd.com/doc/50833266/350/Procedure-to-Prepare-a-Flow-Duration-Curve http://www.wou.edu/las/physci/taylor/g473/Flow_Duration_Tutorial.pdf http://streamflow.engr.oregonstate.edu/analysis/flow/index.htm http://streamflow.engr.oregonstate.edu/analysis/flow/tutorial.htm