A procedure for the determination of a flow duration curve at an ungaged basin

The purpose of this study is to develop a method for predicting monthly flow duration curves for ungaged basins that are suitable for estimating average annual flow, and installed capacity and average annual energy generation at potential sites for hydropower development. The procedures were tested by developing monthly rainfall duration curves for five sample watersheds and then developing flow duration curves from the rainfall data. The methods were evaluated by comparing the predicted monthly flow duration curves to daily and monthly flow duration curves based on field data from the selected sites because a plant's potential energy output can be computed directly from a flow duration curve. The methods tested fit duration curves based on field data reasonably well and are suitable for preliminary evaluation of hydropower developments in ungaged basins