Bayesian Nonstationary Flood Frequency Analysis Using Climate Information

It is now widely acknowledged that climate variability modifies the frequency spectrum of hydrological extreme events. Traditional hydrological frequency analysis methodologies are not devised to account for nonstationarity that arises due to variation in exogenous factors of the causal structure. We use Hierarchical Bayesian Analysis to consider the exogenous factors that can influence on the frequency of extreme floods. The sea surface temperatures, predicted GCM precipitation, climate indices and snow pack are considered as potential predictors of flood risk. The parameters of the model are estimated using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm. The predictors are compared in terms of the resulting posterior distributions of the parameters associated with estimated flood frequency distributions.