Determination of expected value for monthly total precipitation by entropy based method case study: Gediz basin

In water systems planning, it is essential to use an objective criterion to determine the information content of hydrological data. The entropy concept, defined by Shannon in information theory has been applied in hydrology and water resources for measuring the information content of hydrologic processes.The presented study aims to determine the expected value of monthly total precipitation by using entropy concept. For these purposes, the frequency analyses of the observed long term monthly total precipitation are made and the entropy values are determined. The entropy values, determined by the frequency histogram are called as ?intensity entropy? (IE).The observed monthly total precipitation values of Gediz basin are evaluated within the presented study. In Gediz basin, 44 rainfall observation stations which have long term data are evaluated and the intensity entropy (IE) values are determined. The results show that IE and the mean of annual total rainfall in observation period are quite similar. Hence, IE values can be use to define regional information for the expected value of monthly total precipitation