GATE CE 2019 Set 1 — Question 25
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Water Resources Engineering → Hydrology & Precipitation → Rainfall Measurement
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Question
A catchment may be idealised as a rectangle. There are three rain gauges located inside the catchment at arbitrary locations. The average precipitation over the catchment is estimated by two methods: (i) Arithmetic mean (), and (ii) Thiessen polygon (). Which one of the following statements is correct?
Correct answer
(D) There is no definite relationship between P_A and P_T
Solution
The Arithmetic Mean method () calculates the average precipitation as the simple average of the readings from all rain gauges: .
The Thiessen Polygon method () assigns a weight to each gauge based on the area it represents: .
Because the rain gauges are at arbitrary locations and the rainfall distribution can vary, the weighted average () can be greater than, less than, or equal to the simple average (). There is no fixed mathematical relationship that holds for all cases.
The Thiessen Polygon method () assigns a weight to each gauge based on the area it represents: .
Because the rain gauges are at arbitrary locations and the rainfall distribution can vary, the weighted average () can be greater than, less than, or equal to the simple average (). There is no fixed mathematical relationship that holds for all cases.
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