Development of a General Equation for Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF): Iraq

In the field of water resource management, rainfall intensity-duration-frequency (IDF) curves are of great importance, especially in the design of hydraulic structures and the assessment of flash-flood risks. The aim of this study is to obtain IDF curves and find empirical equations for rain duration for Al-Najaf city in the southwest of Iraq. Rainfall data for 30 years, from 1989 to 2018, were collected. The practical reduction equation of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), with six methods of probability distribution, was used for short intervals (0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 6, 12, and 24 hours) with a specified recurrence period (100, 50, 25, 10, 5, and 2 years). The Kolmogorov-Smirnov, chi-squared, and Anderson-Darling goodness of fit tests were used with the help of EasyFit 5.6 software. The findings revealed that the highest intensity of rainfall occurs during a repeated cycle of 100 years with a duration of 0.25 hours, while the lowest intensity of rainfall occurs during a repeated cycle of 2 years with a duration of 24 hours. In the results obtained from the six methods, as well as the superiority of the log Pearson type III method, the consistency of the fit tests showed some convergence.