Development of Regional IDF Relationships for Middle East Region

The countries in Middle East region fall in arid zone due to scarcity of rainfall. The coastal cities rely on energy-intensive seawater desalination process to meet the potable water demands. But the interior regions of Arabian peninsula depend solely on the rainfall to recharge the groundwater which can be used throughout the year employing ancient technique of water conveyance channels called Aflaj in Arabic language (Qanat in Persian). During the last two decades, occurrences of the high intensity of rainfall due to increasing cyclonic activity in the region have resulted in flash floods causing severe damage to life and property to the people.

The limitations of historical meteorological data in the Middle Eastern Region is a big concern for the water resources engineers in designing various hydraulic structures for water storage and/or flood protection. A large area, especially in the interior regions, is ungauged. Nonetheless, new water resources projects are being proposed and implemented in these regions of the Arabian peninsula. The Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) relationships or curves are essential in designing water resources systems. But there are a number of areas for which such relationships are not available. Whenever, new water resources project is proposed, IDF relationships of the neighboring stations are collected and IDF relationship for the study area is estimated.

A few studies have been carried out in Middle East to develop IDF relationships for a number of locations. However, such type of information does not exist for a large area. Therefore, there is a need to compile the IDF relationships for Arabian Peninsula to facilitate water resources engineers in the design activities.

The objective of this study was to carry out extensive literature review and collect the IDF relationships from the Arabian peninsula. Then, the contours of the parameters in IDF relationship were plotted. The validation of these contours was done using the data from stations located at various places. These contour maps may be used to estimate IDF relationships for ungauged locations in the region.