Hydrological Characterization of Floods in the Lower Panuco River Basin with Respect to Yearly Maximum Levels

Abstract

This paper presents several aspects of flood studies. The first is a contrast analysis of 5 probability distribution functions to determine the most appropriate for registers of yearly maximum levels; second, a description is given of the estimates of return periods for the critical scale (minimum flood level) for each town within the range of the corresponding hydrometric station; third, the return periods for the maximum observed levels in the 30 registers used in this study and fourth, an estimate is made of the periodicity of the most severe floods in the lower Panuco River basin. The General Extreme Values distribution (GEV) was accepted as appropriate to examine historical registers. The greatest periodicity associated with the levels corresponding to the critical scales lies between 2 to 13 years; for the most severe floods, the interval lies between 5 to 45 years. The magnitude of the maximum levels associated with several return periods, included as additional results of the first analysis, allows us to design or check the protection infrastructure against floods.