Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF)

• Rainfall intensity-duration-frequency (IDF) curves

allow calculation of the average design rainfall
intensity for a given exceedance probability over a
range of durations.
• Commonly used in the design of hydrologic,
hydraulic, and water resource systems
• Obtained through frequency analysis of rainfall
observations
Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF)
• The procedure for developing IDF
– From the rainfall measurements, for each year the
annual maximum rainfall intensity for specific is
calculated
– Common durations for design applications are:
5-min, 10-min, 15-min, 30-min, 1-hr, 2-hr, 6-hr,
12-hr, and 24-hr
• The development of IDF curves requires a frequency
analysis be performed for each set of annual
maxima, one each associated with each rain
duration.
• The basic objective of each frequency analysis is to
determine the exceedance probability distribution
function of rain intensity for each duration.
• Two options for this frequency analysis:
– An empirical plotting position approach
– Fit a theoretical Extreme Value (EV) distribution
(e.g., Gumbel Type I)
 Empirical Plotting Position Approach
The steps followed in this approach is:
Rank the observations in descending order for a desired
duration.
Compute the exceedance probability associated with each
rainfall volume using the
following expression:

where m is the number of observations, p is the exceedance

probability and T is the corresponding return period.
Transform the rainfall data into rainfall intensity.
As indicated above, this procedure is repeated for each of
the desired durations.
Now plot the intensity, return period vs rainfall intensity for
different durations.
Example:
Developing IDF curves for Annual maximum series
Annual maximum Rainfall [mm]

5 min 10 min 15 min 30 min 1 hr 2 hr 6 hr 12 hr 24 hr

1985 2.8 5.3 8.1 10.9 13.7 14.4 24.2 28 30.4
1986 2.5 3.9 4.4 5.9 8.6 14.6 36.8 56.3 84.7
1987 1.5 2.5 3.2 5.5 9.9 17.7 33.8 43.2 65.3
1988 2 3.2 4.2 5.3 6.8 11.1 27.7 45 51.8
1989 3 4.3 5.2 6.9 9.3 15.2 30 45.6 50.9
1990 2.4 2.9 3.5 6.2 10.5 17.7 41.4 52.1 78.6
1991 2.6 3.6 4.8 6.4 10.7 17.4 36 66.4 100.9
1992 1.7 2 3.1 5.3 9.1 15.3 26.1 43.9 54.4
1993 2.8 4 4.5 7.4 10.8 15.8 27.2 38.2 64.9
1994 1.8 2.7 3.6 5.8 10.1 15 30.9 40.1 60.6
1995 2.5 3.2 4.1 5.9 9.4 14.4 33.7 50.7 82.6
1996 4.4 6.9 9.9 15.9 21.2 24 46.7 50.3 60.9
1997 3.1 3.6 4.3 6.7 10.5 15.9 38.8 54.8 65.2
1998 1.9 2.3 2.9 5.3 8.8 14.4 33.5 44.3 48.5
1999 2 2.5 3.5 6 10.8 17.4 35.9 48 59.4
2000 2 3.5 4 5.9 8.7 15 30.1 45.2 47.6
2001 2.9 4 4.2 5.5 7.8 13.2 23.2 36.2 45.6
2002 4.4 4.8 4.8 5.7 9.3 14.5 30 38 64.9
2003 2.3 4.2 5.6 8.1 8.7 11.8 29.1 45.5 72.6
• To illustrate the approach, select for example the
30-min duration data from above Table and proceed
as follows:

• Rank the observations in descending order (Table 2,

Column 1)

• Compute the exceedance probability associated with

each rainfall depth (Table 2, Column 4)

• Transform the data into rainfall intensity by dividing

rainfall depth by the corresponding duration (Table 2,
Column 6).
30-min rainfall – Frequency Analysis
30_min
Return_period Intensity
Rank Year Probability (p) (T) [mm/hr]
1 1996 15.9 0.05 22.00 31.8
2 1985 10.9 0.09 11.00 21.8
3 2004 9.2 0.14 7.33 18.4
4 2005 8.5 0.18 5.50 17
5 2003 8.1 0.23 4.40 16.2
6 1993 7.4 0.27 3.67 14.8
7 1989 6.9 0.32 3.14 13.8
8 1997 6.7 0.36 2.75 13.4
9 1991 6.4 0.41 2.44 12.8
10 1990 6.2 0.45 2.20 12.4
11 1999 6 0.50 2.00 12
12 1986 5.9 0.55 1.83 11.8
13 1995 5.9 0.59 1.69 11.8
14 2000 5.9 0.64 1.57 11.8
15 1994 5.8 0.68 1.47 11.6
16 2002 5.7 0.73 1.38 11.4
17 1987 5.5 0.77 1.29 11
18 2001 5.5 0.82 1.22 11
19 1988 5.3 0.86 1.16 10.6
20 1992 5.3 0.91 1.10 10.6
21 1998 5.3 0.95 1.05 10.6
• As indicated above, this empirical procedure is
repeated for each of the desired durations (5min, 10
min, 1 hr, 2hr, 6 hr,12 hr and 24 hr).
• The rainfall intensity Vs duration can be plotted for
the various selected return periods to obtain the
intensity-duration-frequency (i-d-f) relationships.
 Extreme Value (EV) Distribution
Approach
• A suitable probability distribution is fitted to the each
selected duration data series.
• Generally used probability distributions are Gumbel’s Extreme
Value distribution, Gamma distribution (two parameter).
• The Kolmogorov-Smirnov or the Chi-Square goodness of fit
test is used to evaluate the accuracy of the fitting of a
distribution.
• To determine the rainfall intensities, first the rainfall depths
at different durations corresponding to different return
periods are calculated.
 Using frequency factors

• It can be shown that the value of the random

variable xt associated with a given return period, T,
may be obtained from the following expression,

• where is the mean of the observations (e.g.,

arithmetic average of the observations), and is the
standard deviation of the observations.
• KT is the frequency factor (Gumbel
distribution) associated with return period T
and it depends on the probability distribution
that is fitted to the data.
Example:
1. Compute the frequency factors (KT) associated with the
desired return periods (e.g., 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100) Frequency
Factors

T 2 5 10 25 50 100 1000

KT -0.164272 0.7194574 1.3045632 2.0438459 2.5922880 3.1366806 4.9355236

2. For each duration (e.g., 5-min, 10-min,.................etc.),

compute the sample mean and sample standard deviations
of the series of annual maxima.

5 min 10min 15min 30min 1 hr 2 hr 6 hr 12 hr 24 hr

Mean 2.65 3.84 4.86 7.06 10.22 15.42 31.76 44.73 60.69

St. Dev. 0.82 1.28 1.80 2.50 2.87 2.61 6.04 8.79 16.69
• Compute the precipitation intensity associated with each
return period

Rainfall intensity (mm/hr)

Return Period (T)

Duration 2 year 5 year 10 year 25 year 50 year 100 year 1000 year

5 min 30.213 38.904 44.658 51.928 57.322 62.676 80.366

10 min 21.795 28.585 33.080 38.759 42.973 47.155 60.976

15 min 18.248 24.600 28.806 34.121 38.063 41.976 54.907

30 min 13.303 17.719 20.642 24.336 27.076 29.797 38.785

1 hr 9.753 12.287 13.965 16.085 17.657 19.218 24.377

2 hr 7.497 8.651 9.415 10.380 11.096 11.807 14.155

6 hr 5.128 6.017 6.605 7.349 7.901 8.449 10.259

12 hr 3.607 4.254 4.683 5.225 5.626 6.025 7.343

24 hr 2.415 3.029 3.436 3.950 4.331 4.710 5.961

Plot the results