This study suggested a novel approach of estimating the optimal probability density function (OPDF) of the annual maximum rainfall time series (AMRT) combining the L-moment ratio diagram and the geographical information system. This study also reported several interesting geographical characteristics of the AMRT in Korea. To achieve this purpose, this study determined the OPDF of the AMRT with the duration of 1-, 3-, 6-, 12-, and 24-hours using the method of L-moment ratio diagram for each of

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... e 67 rain gages in Korea. Then, a map with the Thiessen polygons of the 67 rain gages colored differently according the different type of the OPDF, was produced to analyze the spatial trend of the OPDF. In addition, this study produced the color maps which show the fitness of a given probability density function to represent the AMRT. The study found that (1) both L-skewness and L-kurtosis of the AMRT have clear geographical trends, which means that the extreme rainfall events are highly influenced by geography; (2) the impact of the altitude on these two rainfall statistics is greater for the mountaneous region than for the non-mountaneous region. In the mountaneous region, the areas with higher altitude are more likely to experience the less-frequent and strong rainfall events than the areas with lower altitude; (3) The most representative OPDFs of Korea except for the Southern edge are Generalized Extreme Value distribution and the Generalized Logistic distribution. The AMRT of southern edge of Korea was best represented by the Generalized Pareto distribution.