Comparisons between the window-based and storm-event analysis

Abstract

Rainfalls data have been broadly used in researches including in hydrological and meteorological areas. Two common ways in extracting observations from hourly rainfalls data are the window-based analysis (WBA) and storm-event analysis (SEA) approach. However, the differences in the qualitative and quantitative properties of both methods are still vaguely discussed. The aim of studying these dissimilarities is to understand the effects of each approach in modelling and analysis. The qualitative difference is due to the way the two analyses define the accumulated rainfalls for observations which are referred to as rainfall and storm depths, respectively. The repetitiveness of rainfall depths provide nested structure while the storm depths are considered independent. The quantitative comparisons include their statistical and scaling properties that are linked by the self-similarity concept from simple scaling characteristics. If self-similarity concept holds, then the rainfall or storm depths follow simple scaling and the analysis would be simplified. The rainfall depths showed clearer simple scaling characteristics compared to the storm depths. Though the storm depths do not yield self-similarity for a large range of storm duration but the characteristics of simple scaling can be observed for a reduced range of the considered duration. In general, the context of the research and the region of the time interval and duration will be an important aspects to consider in choosing which method is best to use for analyzing the data.