GIS-supported modelling of areal rainfall in a mountainous river basin with monsoon climate in southern India

Abstract

Spatial rainfall patterns and seasonal variability were assessed for a mountainous river basin with monsoon climate. Factors were identified that could explain this variability, and a GIS-supported method to determine the areal distribution of precipitation was developed. To find acceptable regression equations, a division had to be made between rainfall stations dominated by the southwest-monsoons and the northeast-monsoons, respectively. Distance to the southwestern border was the main explaining factor for precipitation at southwest-monsoon dominated stations. For northeast-monsoon dominated stations, altitude and slope were the most important factors. The basin was divided into pixels with characteristics typical for northeast- or southwest-monsoon dominated rainfall stations to allow calculation of spatial rainfall. The difference when comparing regression-based estimates with Thiessen-based estimates was small when considering the annual estimates for the whole basin. However, when analysing seasonal rainfall or sub-catchments, the differences between Thiessen-based and regression-based estimates were significant.