Entropy Based Regional Precipitation Prediction in the Case of Gediz River Basin

Abstract

The Shannon’s entropy concept is defined to measure the information content of hydrological processes in hydrology and water resources. Entropy concept has also provided an opportunity to solve several related topics in water resources engineering. The presented study aims to define the regional distribution of the expected long-term annual total precipitation, by using the entropy concept. For this purpose, the frequency analysis of the observed long-term total monthly precipitation data for each station is analyzed, and entropy values are calculated using the frequency histogram called " Intensity Entropy – IE". By using the IE values, it is possible to define the regional information of long-term expected precipitation even if the gauging stations have different observation periods without missing any information of available data. In addition, there is no need to complete the data of the missing observation years (months) to define the precipitation-elevation relations for producing an isometric map. In regional analysis, it is possible to create isoentropy map, by using the determined IE values for each gauging station. The IE method is performed and isoentropy map is created for Gediz Basin as a case study, and the a priori conditions of using IE method results for regional information are discussed in the paper.