The Thiessen polygon (Figure T5) is a commonly used methodlogy for computing the mean areal precipitation for a catchment from raingauge observations which was presented by A.H. Thiessen (1911). The Thiessen method is based on the assumption that measured amounts at any station can be applied halfway to the next station in any direction, which means that for any point rainfall is equal to the observed rainfall at the closest gauge. The weights of the rain gauges are computed by their relative areas, which are estimated with the Thiessen polygon network. The polygons are formed by the perpendicular bisectors of the lines joining nearby stations. The area of each polygon is used to weight the rainfall amount of the station in the center of the polygon. If the amount for any station is missing, the polygon must be changed. The Thiessen method is unable to consider orographic differences in rainfall distributions.
Example of a Thiessen polygon.
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Bibliography
Thiessen, A.H., 1911. Precipitation for large areas, Monthly Weather Review, 39, 1082–1084.
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© 1998 Kluwer Academic Publishers
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Schumann, A.H. (1998). Thiessen polygon . In: Encyclopedia of Hydrology and Lakes. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Dordrecht . https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4497-6_220
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