Laboratory Exercise No.

Spatial Interpolation of Rainfall Data

I. Introduction

Hydrometeorological problems are concerned with the rainfall falling on a natural basin or
watershed. As such, a properly determined representative value of the average rainfall amount being
received by the basin is vital to determine appropriate solutions to hydrometeorological problems.

Many factors affect the spatial distribution of rain falling on the ground. Rain gauging networks
must therefore be designed and operated to optimally sample this rainfall distribution. In the same
way, methods of estimating mean areal rainfall from point values (as measured by individual rain
gauges) must be able to represent this distribution in a reasonable manner.

There are three methods frequently used to estimate areal average of rainfall over drainage basins
from observations taken at a number of rain gauges station. These are arithmetic mean, thiessen
polygon, and isohyetal method. The arithmetic mean method is the simplest and straightforward
procedure. However, its reliability is limited to areas or basin where there are a large number of
uniformly spaced observation stations which give representative samples of the rainfall patterns in
the basin and in areas where topographic influences are nil.

For watersheds or areas with relatively few rainfall stations unevenly distributed geographically,
the thiessen and isohyetal methods are more advantageous to use. These methods allow non-uniform
distribution o rain gauges. However, these methods, when done manually, are very laborious and
generally require basic engineering skills to take into account both the observed rainfall and the
physical knowledge of natural distribution of rainfall. Owing to the diverse and multiple rainfall data
to be considered in the solution of a particular hydrometeorological problem (i.e., climatological
characterization of watershed), there is a need for a faster and accurate method in the estimation of
areal rainfall over a given watershed.

II. Objectives

III. Procedure
A. Arithmetic Method

The mean basin rainfall, P is simply calculated by

∑"!#$ 𝑃!
𝑃=
𝑛

where Pi is the rainfall at each station and n is the number of stations.

B. Thiessen Polygon Method

1. Plot the locations of the rain gauges on a scaled map of the area
 2. Draw straight lines connecting adjacent rain gauges. No two lines should intersect. Choose
the shortest distances when drawing the lines.
3. Draw perpendicular bisectors of the connecting lines such that the bisectors enclose areas
referred to a Thiessen polygons.
4. Determine P as

∑"! 𝑃! 𝐴!
𝑃=
𝐴

where Ai and A are the area of each polygon and total basin area, respectively.

C. Isohyetal Method

1. Plot the gauge locations and indicate the rainfall amounts on a scaled map of the area
2. Decide on the isohyetal interval by considering the lowest and highest isohyetal values.
3. Interpolate desired rainfall amounts between any two rain gauges according to the chosen
isohyetal interval. More interpolated points will give accurate results
4. Connect all points having the same rainfall amount with a smooth line. Each line, properly
labeled with the corresponding rainfall depth is called an isohytet (line or equal rainfall)
5. Determine P using the same as in Thiessen polygon method.
IV. DATA