%0 Journal Article %T Establishment of IDF-curves for precipitation in the tropical area of Central Africa - comparison of techniques and results %A B. Mohymont %A G. R. Demar¨Ĥe %A D. N. Faka %J Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (NHESS) & Discussions (NHESSD) %D 2004 %I Copernicus Publications %X The establishment of Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) curves for precipitation remains a powerful tool in the risk analysis of natural hazards. Indeed the IDF-curves allow for the estimation of the return period of an observed rainfall event or conversely of the rainfall amount corresponding to a given return period for different aggregation times. There is a high need for IDF-curves in the tropical region of Central Africa but unfortunately the adequate long-term data sets are frequently not available. The present paper assesses IDF-curves for precipitation for three stations in Central Africa. More physically based models for the IDF-curves are proposed. The methodology used here has been advanced by Koutsoyiannis et al. (1998) and an inter-station and inter-technique comparison is being carried out. The IDF-curves for tropical Central Africa are an interesting tool to be used in sewer system design to combat the frequently occurring inundations in semi-urbanized and urbanized areas of the Kinshasa megapolis. %U http://www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/4/375/2004/nhess-4-375-2004.pdf