Lab instructions: Flood prediction for the Mississippi
River
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download the data annual peak discharge data of the
Mississippi at St Louis (St_Louis_annual_peak.tsv)
and convert the data into an EXCEL spreadsheet. If you like, you can visit
the source of the data on the USGS water resources page (Mississippi
River At St Louis Mo ).
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determine minimum and maximum of the annual peak
discharge rate and make a histogram
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the data are skewed and are not normally distributed
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calculate the natural logarithm of the annual peak
discharge and determine the basic statistics of those data (MIN,MAX, AVERAGE,
STDEV)
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make a histogram of those data as well
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what is the discharge rate equivalent to the 100
year flood (P=0.01)? Use the NORMINV function to determine this value,
do not forget to reverse the transformation by using the EXP function
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do the same for the 1000 year flood
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how does the 1993 flood compare to these discharge
rates?
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what is the recurrence interval of the 1993 flood
at St. Louis? Use the NORMDIST function
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perform the calcluation for the 100 y flood again,
this time only using a period of only 20 years from anywhere in the record