Document No ATL/09/01

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
INDIA METEOROLOGICAL DEPARTMENT

ATLAS
of
Statewise Generalised
ISOPLUVIAL (Return Period) Maps
of Northern India
(Part - IV)

ATLAS
of
Statewise Generalised
ISOPLUVIAL (Return Period) Maps
of Northern India
(Part - IV)
Price Rs. 2200/-

DESIGNED & PRINTED AT Division of Hydrometeorology

Division of Hydrometeorology
O/o The Director General of Meteorology
India Meteorological Department
New Delhi - 110 003
February 2009
THE METEOROLOGICAL OFFICE PRESS, Office of the
OFFICE OF THE
ADDITIONAL DIRECTOR GENERAL
The Director General of Meteorology
OF METEOROLOGY (RESEARCH),PUNE India Meteorological Department
New Delhi - 110 003
February 2009
 Document No ATL/09/01

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
INDIA METEOROLOGICAL DEPARTMENT

ATLAS
of
STATEWISE GENERALISED
ISOPLUVIAL (RETURN PERIOD)MAPS
of
NORTHERN INDIA
(Part - IV)

Division of Hydrometeorology
Office of the
Director General of Meteorology
India Meteorological Department
New Delhi-110003
February 2009

1
 PREFACE

The return period maps of different durations are in great demand by

design engineers for construction of hydraulic structures. In view of this, an atlas
of state-wise isopluvial maps for all the states of Indian mainland is prepared. The
Atlas contains the isopluvial maps of 2-year, 5- year, 10-year, 25-year, 50-year
and 100 –year 24-hour for each state. It is published in four parts. Part-I of the
atlas contains the isopluvial maps of southern peninsular states, namely, Kerala,
Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Part-II contains the isopluvial maps
of Eastern states, namely, Bihar, Jharkhand, West-Bengal & Sikkim and Assam &
adjoining states. Part-III contains the similar maps of Central Indian states,
namely, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Gujarat and Maharashtra & Goa.
This part, i.e., Part–IV of the atlas contains the maps of North & North-Western
states, namely, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Rajasthan,
Punjab, Haryana & Delhi and Himachal Pradesh.

This atlas has been prepared by the Hydromet Division of India

Meteorological Department. A notable contribution towards its preparation
has been made by Dr. (Mrs.) Surinder Kaur, Director, Dr. A. K. Das, Met-II &
Sh. P.K.Sharma, A.M.-I. Valuable assistance has also been rendered by
Sh.Greesh Kumar, Sh. N.K.Lakra, Sh.Raju Bhargava, Sh. P.K.Panchal and
Smt. Neelam.

Sincere thanks are due to Sh.S.K.Banerjee, A.D.G.M.(H &I) for his valuable
guidance in preparation of this atlas. Thanks are also due to Sh. N. Y. Apte,
DDGM(H) for his help in completion of the atlas.

My appreciation goes to all of them.

New Delhi-110003 AJIT TYAGI

February 2009 Director General of Meteorology

2
 CONTENTS

1 Introduction 1
2 Data Used 3
3 Methodology 3
4 Utility of Maps 4
5 References 4
6 Isopluvial Maps 5-46

UTTAR PRADESH
Plate-1 2-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 5
Plate-2 5-year 24-hour isopluvial map 6
Plate-3 10-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 7
Plate-4 25-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 8
Plate-5 50-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 9
Plate-6 100-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 10

UTTARAKHAND
Plate-7 2-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 11
Plate-8 5-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 12
Plate-9 10-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 13
Plate-10 25-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 14
Plate-11 50-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 15
Plate-12 100-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 16

HIMACHAL PRADESH
Plate-13 2-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 17
Plate-14 5-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 18
Plate-15 10-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 19
Plate-16 25-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 20
Plate-17 50-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 21
Plate-18 100-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 22

JAMMU & KASHMIR

Plate-19 2-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 23
Plate-20 5-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 24
Plate-21 10-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 25
Plate-22 25-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 26
Plate-23 50-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 27
Plate-24 100-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 28

PUNJAB
Plate-25 2-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 29
Plate-26 5-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 30
Plate-27 10-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 31
Plate-28 25-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 32
Plate-29 50-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 33
Plate-30 100-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 34

3
 HARYANA & DELHI
Plate-31 2-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 35
Plate-32 5-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 36
Plate-33 10-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 37
Plate-34 25-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 38
Plate-35 50-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 39
Plate-36 100-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 40

RAJASTHAN
Plate-37 2-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 41
Plate-38 5-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 42
Plate-39 10-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 43
Plate-40 25-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 44
Plate-41 50-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 45
Plate-42 100-year 24-hour Isopluvial map 46

4
 ISOPLUVIAL MAPS OF NORTHERN INDIA

1. INTRODUCTION

Water is elixir of life. It is a major factor in sustaining life on earth. In spite of

the fact that 3/4th of the Globe is covered with water, meeting water requirement of
ever increasing growth of population and rapid urbanization has become a real
challenge. It is well known that water is unevenly distributed over land. In India,
while there are regions with high precipitation and plenty of watersheds and rivers, it
is also true that there are also regions practically devoid of water. Due to high
variability of precipitation in India, it is observed that many a times Flood and
Drought co-exist simultaneously in some parts of India. It has been said that out of
the total quantity of water on the earth, only 3% water is fresh which either lies in the
form of permanent ice fields,in rivers or underground, rest lies in ocean and is saline.
Hence only a fraction of it is available for direct human consumption. Thus, due to
aforesaid reasons, proper management of water is necessary for optimum utilization
of this meager resource.

There are various ways to manage the water. One of these is by construction
of hydraulic structures. The hydrological and meteorological investigations are
required at the beginning for any activity related to water resource project. The
success of the project lies in the safe, efficient, environmental and economic design
of hydraulic structure. The safety factor not only includes the hydraulic structure
itself but also life and property. Design engineers need the design flood for the
construction of a hydraulic structure. The design flood for small and medium
hydraulic structures are based on the specific return period values for fixing the
waterways vis-à-vis the design highest flood level and foundation depths of bridges,
culverts and cross drainage structures depending on their life and importance to
ensure safety as well as economy. Isopluvial (Return Period) maps provide fairly
reliable estimates of rainfall at a particular point / area.The return period is the
average time in which a given magnitude of the event is equaled or exceeded.

IMD is supplying isopluvial maps of different return periods to various users

according to their requirement. Some of the important users are Delhi Metro Rail

1
Corporation(DMRC), New Delhi, Irrigation Department of Govt. of Gujarat,
Government of Jharkhand, National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) for National
Highways, to name a few. IMD supplied such maps to Govt. of Gujarat to carry out
the restoration work of their water resources, dams, drainage system and Minor
Irrigation Projects which were damaged in the devastating earth quake of 26th
January 2001. For design of construction of small and medium hydraulic structures,
the country has been divided into 26 homogenous sub-zones on the basis of river
basins, coastal areas etc. The Flood Estimation Reports are being prepared for
these sub-zones. This work is jointly done by Central Water Commission (CWC),
India Meteorological Department (IMD), Research Design and Standard
Organization (RDSO) under Ministry of Railways and Ministry of Surface Transport.
In this reports IMD provides 25, 50 and 100 year isopluvial maps, short duration
ratios, time distribution curves and point to areal rainfall curves, which are used in
the preparation of Design Flood Estimation. Reports on 24 sub-zones are already
published.

Apart from these, isopluvial maps were also provided by IMD to many other
Govt./Private agencies for carrying out construction activities / extension of National
Highways, Irrigation / Drainage system design etc. for different parts of the country.
Intensity Duration Frequency (IDF) Curves based on isopluvial values were also
prepared for specific projects.

Keeping in view the requirements of a large variety of users, an atlas of state-

wise generalized isopluvial maps of 24-hr rainfall of different return period, viz., 2-yr,
5-year, 10-year, 25-year, 50-year and 100-year is prepared so that design
engineers can estimate design flood according to their need. These maps will cover
whole of the mainland in India except extreme northern portion of J& K and
Arunachal Pradesh due to the scarcity of data. This atlas (in four parts) will be useful
for design engineers for designing of hydraulic structures, like bridges, culverts,
cross-drainage structures etc. It is the first attempt to provide state-wise isopluvial
maps of different return periods. Such work is not available in published form till
today.

2
 2. DATA USED:

The daily rainfall data obtained from Ordinary Raingauges (ORG) at 746
stations inside the states, and in their neighbourhood, having data for more than 30
years have been utilized in the present study. It has been ensured to use maximum
available period of data , and in case of some stations, ORG data of even more
than100 years has been utilized.

The state-wise break-up of number of stations considered for the study is as under:

S. No. Name of the State No.

of
Stations
1 Uttar Pradesh 256
2. Uttarakhand 52
3. Himachal Pradesh 57
4. Jammu & Kashmir 56
5. Punjab 83
6. Haryana & Delhi 47
7. Rajasthan 195
Total 746

3. METHODOLOGY:

The one day annual maximum rainfall series was constructed for all the
stations after scrutinizing the data and it was subjected to frequency analysis by
Gumbel’s technique using the method of least squares and rainfall estimates for
different return periods , viz., 2 year, 5 year, 10 year, 25 year, 50 year and 100 year
were obtained.
The frequency distribution function of Gumble’s distribution is given by
−( x − µ )
α
F ( X ) = e−e
− ∝≤ X ≤∝ and µ ,α 〉 0

3
Here X represents the extreme rainfall series and µ & α are the parameters of the
distribution.

The different return period values, viz, 2-year, 5-year, 10-year, 25-year, 50-year
and 100-year for 1-day rainfall were obtained by fitting extreme value distribution to
the extreme series for all the stations. These 1-day return period values were
converted into 24-hr values by using conversion factor 1.15, the ratio of any 24 hour
rainfall to one day rainfall found earlier by Harihara Ayyar and Tripathi (1973). These
return period values for each station were plotted on the state maps for different
periods and isopluvial lines were drawn. These isopluvial lines give fairly accurate
estimate of rainfall for various return periods.

4. UTILITY OF MAPS:

These maps find their utility in providing fairly reliable estimates of the rainfall
at a particular point/ area , for different return periods. These are used by design
engineers and hydraulic-consultants of different public and private sector
organizations for construction of dams, railways and road bridges, National
Highways, culverts, irrigation & drainage purposes etc. These also provide
meteorological support for flood forecasting and flood control operations.

5. REFERENCES:

1. Gumbel, E.J 1954 Applied Mathematics, Series

No.33, National Bureau of
Standards, U.S. Deptt. of
Commerce
2. 1972 Hydromet Manual, India
Meteorological Deptt.
3. Harihara Ayyar, P.S and 1973 Indian J. of Met. Geophysics,
Tripathi, N Vol. 24 , 3 , pp.279-282.
4. Mukherjee, K., Surinder 1991 Mausam , Vol.42,1, pp. 29-32
Kaur, and Mehra,A.K. India Meteorological Deptt.