• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.3B
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• pp.257-267
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• 2010

A flood event can be characterized by three attributes such as peak discharge, total flood volume, and flood duration, which are correlated each other. However, the amount of peak discharge is only used to evaluate the flood events for the hydrological plan and design. The univariate analysis has a limitation in describing the complex probability behavior of flood events. Thus, the univariate analysis cannot derive satisfying results in flood frequency analysis. This study proposed bivariate flood frequency analysis methods for evaluating flood events considering correlations among attributes of flood events. Parametric distributions such as Gumbel mixed model and bivariate gamma distribution, and a non-parametric model using a bivariate kernel function were introduced in this study. A time series of annual flood events were extracted from observations of inflow to the Soyang River Dam and the Daechung Dam, respectively. The joint probability distributions and return periods were derived from the relationship between the amount of peak discharge and the total volume of flood runoff. Applicabilities of bivariate flood frequency analysis were examined by comparing the return period acquired from the proposed bivariate analyses and the conventional univariate analysis.