Geostatistical interpolation of space–time rainfall on Tamshui River basin, Taiwan

Taiwan suffers from heavy storm rainfall during the typhoon season. This usually causes large river runoff, overland flow, erosion, landslides, debris flows, loss of power, etc. In order to evaluate storm impacts on the downstream basin, a real-time hydrological modelling is used to estimate potential hazard areas. This can be used as a decision-support system for the Emergency Response Center, National Fire Agency Ministry, to make ‘real-time’ responses and minimize possible damage to human life and property. This study used 34 observed events from 14 telemetered rain-gauges in the Tamshui River basin, Taiwan, to study the spatial–temporal characteristics of typhoon rainfall. In the study, regionalized theory and cross-semi-variograms were used to identify the spatial-temporal structure of typhoon rainfall. The power form and parameters of the cross-semi-variogram were derived through analysis of the observed data. In the end, cross-validation was used to evaluate the performance of the interpolated rainfall on the river basin. The results show the derived rainfall interpolator represents the observed events well, which indicates the rainfall interpolator can be used as a spatial-temporal rainfall input for real-time hydrological modelling. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.