Research on the Relationship Between Terrain Factors and Precipitation

Using multiple regression and Geographic Information System techniques,the authors modeled the spatial distribution of daily precipitation for a rain process in a mountainous region,located in the Northwest China.The precipitation data measured at 26 stations were used,using 20 stations for function development and reserving 6 for validation tests.The best model developed used five topographic descriptors as independent variables: longitude,latitude,elevation,slope,aspect.The model accounted for most of the spatial variability in daily precipitation and enabled us to estimate precipitation in areas where there are no nearby stations and where topography has a major influence on precipitation.