A NOTE ON THE ESTIMATION OF THE PARAMETERS IN LOGARITHMIC STAGE-DISCHARGE RELATIONSHIPS WITH ESTIMATES OF THEIR ERROR

Abstract

Under certain assumptions the stage-discharge relationship of a channel cross-section can be approximated by a logarithmic relationship. Observational pairs of stage and discharge plotted on log-log paper often cluster around a straight line and this suggests that the assumptions involved are often approximately satisfied.

In such cases the parameters of the logarithmic relationship are usually estimated graphically from the position and slope of the straight line on the log-log paper. In this paper principles and methods are outlined for the estimation of the parameters with estimates of their standard error, via regression analysis. Because the water level of zero flows is usually one of the unknown parameters, the regression is non-linear and least squares optimal estimates can be obtained by a step-by-step approximation. The variances of the parameter estimates can be obtained from the dispersion matrix of the joint distribution of the least squares estimators via the likelihood function. An estimate of the error in predictions of the discharge depending on the corresponding stage may be obtained.