Quantification and spatial distribution of precipitation on the territory of Serbia

This paper describes a method for quantification and spatial distribution of precipitation on the territory of Serbia on the basis of data on mean annual rainfall and altitude of measuring points and relief data of Serbia. What has been determined first in the study is how the amount of precipitation depends on the altitude of the measuring point. The established type of the dependence of the amount of rainfall on altitude has been applied on data on elevations (relief) of Serbia, which led to the spatial distribution of rainfall. The data on average annual rainfall and altitude for 434 measuring points served as precipitation data, while the data created during the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) were used as data source on relief of Serbia. The research was conducted using a geographic information system (GIS). The problem of determining the spatial distribution of rainfall in the literature is usually solved by establishing a direct relationship between the height of terrain (independent variable) and precipitation (dependent variable), and then the dependence applied to the whole observed area is determined (linear dependence, kriging, etc.). In this case the relation between precipitation (P) and altitude (h) was determined indirectly. Coefficient K is defined as the ratio between precipitation and altitude at which precipitation is measured, K = P/h. It has been found that there is a very high correlation (> 0.95) between the coefficient K and altitude h. The relationship between the height h and the coefficient K is modelled by form K = ahb. The resulting ratio is applied to the data on the relief and thus the distribution of rainfall for the area of Serbia is obtained. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 47007