Flood frequency analysis of southern Africa: II. Identification of regional distributions

Regional frequency analysis of annual maximum flood data comprising 407 sta tions from 11 countries of southern Africa is presented. Forty-one homogene ous regions are identified. The L-moments of the observed data indicate tha t the possible underlying frequency distributions are Pearson type 3 (P3), lognormal 3-parameter (LN3), General Pareto (GPA) or General Extreme Value (GEV). Simulation experiments for the selection of the most suitable flood frequency procedure indicate that Pearson type 3/Probability Weighted Momen ts (P3/PWM) and log-Pearson type 3/Method of Moments (LP3/MOM) are suitable procedures for the region.