Hydrometric Network Evaluation for Bakhtegan-Maharlu Watershed Using the Discrete Entropy

Quality of streamflow information for a given watershed or region is primary information needed for the sustainable designing and operation of water resources systems. For an optimal hydrometric network design, they should be reviewed periodically based on the information needs and future water resources development plans. This study evaluates regional values of streamgages in Bakhtegan-Maharlu basin using the discrete entropy. Discrete entropy can overcome limits of data normality assumption in past research and applications for hydrological variables. To determine the regional value of each station within a region, several information parameters such as marginal entropy, joint entropy, information send and received by stations and transinformation index between stations, were calculated to identify essential streamflow stations and critical area. Sensitive analysis to number of discrete intervals show that the entropy is sensitive to changes, but the ranks based on entropy indices appear to be less sensitive. Validation result confirms that the entropy is useful and comparable with correlation to characterize the essential and excess station in the region.