2001 Volume 45 Pages 205-210
Flood frequency analysis uses two types of extreme-value series: the annual maximum series (AMS) and the partial duration series (PDS) or the peaks-over-threshold (POT) data. Though the AMS has a few disadvantages, it has been used in many countries without identifying which method is more appropriate for analyzing flood peaks or extreme rainfalls. This paper discusses which method should be used for analyzing flood peaks. Samples are 105 continuous time series of discharge in A-class rivers in Japan. The Gumbel distribution and the GEV distribution are used for the AMS, the exponential distribution and the generalized Pareto (GP) distribution for the PDS. Consequently, the PDS is recommended through the comparison of the AMS and the PDS in terms of shape parameter, quantile estimates, SLSC goodness of fit and quantile stability.
