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Statistical distribution of rainy events characteristics and instantaneous hyetographs generation (Merguellil watershed in central Tunisia)

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Abstract

In semi-arid regions, variability of rainfall inputs is high at different time and space scales. Thus, intense and highly variable hydro-meteorological events, which generate both potential resource and hazards, are of major interest. The Merguellil watershed is characterized by a large majority of rainfall in the form of storms, particularly violent in spring and autumn. Storms of summer are short and violent and can be the origin of important floods. Due to the strong rainfall variability, precipitation and hydrological regime are very irregular. This is what led us to think of a detailed study of rainy events. It was founded that two statistical distributions of parameters characterizing events are dominated (log normal, exponential).Thus, our objective consists in studying, in its globality, the collected pluviographic data in order to make a synthesis and analysis which should make it possible the generation of fictitious events to better control the rainfall risk and to study the response of the watershed faces to several types of rainfall. As result, we obtained hyetographs of the height studied rain gauges. These hyetographs show several types of events that are well in conformity with the observed reality. This generation is an advantageous tool in terms of both its robustness and its performance. Its relevance is based on the analysis of the fine time structure of recorded rainfall events. It can be made over several years, and would permit us to avoid being constrained by sample size. Generating rainfall events provides extensive time-related rainfall data that are consistent at all time steps, and can be seen as solution, even partially, of data lack in hydrological study.

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Acknowledgements

Most of this work was supported by TEMPUS and WASSERMed project. Chargui Sameh is grateful to Dr. Zohra Lili Chabaane for her support to this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INAT, Lab. STE, 1082, Tunis, Tunisia

    Sameh Chargui & Mohamed Slimani

  2. Agrocampus Ouest, UMR1069, Soil Agro and Hydrosystem, 35000, Rennes, France

    Sameh Chargui & Christophe Cudennec

  3. INRA, UMR1069, Soil Agro and hydroSystem, 35000, Rennes, France

    Sameh Chargui & Christophe Cudennec

Authors
  1. Sameh Chargui
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  2. Mohamed Slimani
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  3. Christophe Cudennec
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Correspondence to Sameh Chargui.

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Chargui, S., Slimani, M. & Cudennec, C. Statistical distribution of rainy events characteristics and instantaneous hyetographs generation (Merguellil watershed in central Tunisia). Arab J Geosci 6, 1581–1590 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-011-0440-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-011-0440-2

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