GoldSim Tutorial: Calculating and Displaying Annual Peak Flow Statistics

Posted by Jason Lillywhite

Reliable peak river flow statistics are necessary for effective design, planning, and risk communication. GoldSim can calculate a range of statistics for flood frequency analysis, such as the flow associated with a specific return period (e.g., the 99th percentile flow) or the timing distribution of the annual peak flow. This tutorial walks you through building a model to calculate these types of statistics in GoldSim, focusing on displaying results on a dashboard: 

• Median Peak Flow
• Median Time of Peak (Day of the Year)

The GoldSim Extrema element captures these annual extreme values. To display specific statistics (like a percentile or value at a percentile), these statistics need to be shown on a Dashboard, which requires a specific setup. I will show the process of screening out a certain group of results, so the result statistics reflect that screening.

Figure 1. GoldSim Model Dashboard: Annual Peak Flow Statistics

Statistical Analysis of Streamflow Time Series

Posted by Jason Lillywhite

Using GoldSim's built-in probabilistic simulation capabilities, it is straightforward to perform statistical analysis of time series data. An example model was built and added to our library, which demonstrates how Monte Carlo simulation is used to analyze daily time series data of streamflow to produce daily, monthly, and annual statistics. In addition to this, the model finds a best fit probability distribution for these statistics.