The study and analysis of precipitation has become a crucial tool in understanding the temporal and spatial behavior of water resources, in terms of availability and impact on extreme events. The objective of this study was to evaluate different rainfall parameters (intensities for 1-h duration D = 1 h and return periods of T = 5 and 100 yr, and mean annual precipitation) for different latitudinal and climatic zones in Chile. We analyzed the information recorded on thousands of pluvial bands and rain gauges for 49 stations; this because it is unclear how rainfall intensities change along the country (though total amounts do), in addition to a lack of literature focused on ranges and amounts on the behavior of rainfall variables. The Gumbel probability distribution function (PDF) and mathematical rainfall intensity formulas were used to develop intensity-duration-frequency (IDF) curves for each station. Maximum and minimum rainfall intensity values for T = 100 yr ranged from 8.79 (hyperarid zone) to 40.17 mm h -1 (subhumid-humid zone). Total annual rainfall values ranged between 43.9 (hyperarid zone) and 3891.0 mm yr -1 (humid zone). Additionally, the real maximum intensity registered on each station was analyzed, determining its exceedance probability. Likewise, multiple comparisons were made to detect significant differences between the gauge stations and different climatic zones using the Kruskal Wallis test (alpha = 0.05). Differences between maximum and minimum values registered for all stations were as much as 80 times for total rainfall amounts and 4.5 times for rainfall intensities (T = 100 yr). However, maximum rainfall intensities values were similar at different latitudes, suggesting the absence of correlation between maximum rainfall intensity and annual rainfall amount, as the latter variable increased gradually with latitude.
This study aims to determine if there is variation in precipitation concentrations in Chile. We analyzed daily and monthly records from 89 pluviometric stations in the period and distributed between 29 • 12 S and 39 • 30 S. This area was divided into two climatic zones: arid-semiarid and humid-subhumid. For each station, the Gini coefficient or Gini Index (GI), the precipitation concentration index (PCI), and the maximum annual precipitation intensity in a 24-h duration were calculated. These series of annual values were analyzed with the Mann-Kendall test with 5% error. Overall, it was noted that positive trends in the GI are present in both areas, although most were not found to be significant. In the case of PCI, the presence of positive trends is only present in the arid-semiarid zone; in the humid-subhumid zone, negative trends were mostly observed, although none of them were significant. Although no significant changes in all indices are evident, the particular case of the GI in the humid-subhumid zone stands out, where mostly positive trends were found (91.1%), of which 35.6% were significant. This would indicate that precipitation is more likely to be concentrated on a daily scale.
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