This review outlines the use of documentary evidence of historical flood events in contemporary flood frequency estimation in European countries.The study shows that despite widespread consensus in the scientific literature on the utility of documentary evidence, the actual migration from academic to practical application has been limited. A detailed review of flood frequency estimation guidelines from different countries showed that the value of historical data is generally recognised, but practical methods for systematic and routine inclusion of this type of data into risk analysis are in most cases not available. Studies of historical events were identified in most countries, and good examples of national databases attempting to collate the available information were identified. The conclusion is that there is considerable potential for improving the reliability of the current flood risk assessments by harvesting the valuable information on past extreme events contained in the historical data sets.

The paper presents a map of historical ponds of the whole Czech Republic which was created on

In this paper the data measured by application of the MDS NZ2 field rainfall simulator have been used to demonstrate the effect of vegetation cover on surface runoff generation and soil loss. The results of 15 experiments for two crops (oats and wheat) are presented. Canopy cover and the leaf area index are used to describe the vegetation development. Measured soil loss decreased with growing vegetation significantly from the maximum values 74.7 g/min for oats (38.4 g/min for wheat) to 0.4 g/min (1.5 g/min respectively) from the experimental plot of 16 m 2 . Thus, this work clearly demonstrates the positive effect of canopy development on soil loss. However, the effect of the developing cover on the surface runoff generation was not significant.

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Abstract. To evaluate how summer low flows and droughts are affected by the winter snowpack, a Tri-National effort will analyse data from three catchments: Alpbach (Prealps, central Switzerland), Gudjaretis-Tskali (Little Caucasus, central Georgia), and Kamenice (Jizera Mountains, northern Czech Republic). Two GIS-based rainfall-runoff models will simulate over 10 years of runoff in streams based on rain and snowfall measurements, and further meteorological variables. The models use information on the geographical settings of the catchments together with knowledge of the hydrological processes of runoff generation from rainfall, looking particularly at the relationship between spring snowmelt and summer droughts. These processes include snow accumulation and melt, evapotranspiration, groundwater recharge in spring that contributes to (the) summer runoff, and will be studied by means of the environmental isotopes 18 O and 2 H. Knowledge about the isotopic composition of the different water sources will allow to identify the flow paths and estimate the residence time of snow meltwater in the subsurface and its contribution to the stream. The application of the models in different nested or neighbouring catchments will explore their potential for further development and allow a better early prediction of low-flow periods in various mountainous zones across Europe. The paper presents the planned activities including a first analysis of already available dataset of environmental isotopes, discharge, snow water equivalent and modelling experiments of the (already) available datasets.

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The risk of increasing frequency and duration of dry periods has become much more discussed topic with respect to expected climate change. This can result in water scarcity for different purposes. Besides others, agriculture and river ecosystems can be mentioned as those which can suffer from droughts. The retention of the landscape is therefore still more accented. Increase of landscape retention capacity is considered as a good way to keep water in the landscape which can be then available during dry periods. Despite the most retention capacity consists in the soil, the volume of small water reservoirs must be considered as important in conditions of the Czech Republic. This results in increased demand for building new small water reservoirs spread in the landscape. However, there is a lack of suitable profiles for that due to relatively high population density in the Czech Republic. The restoration of extinct ponds is considered therefore as a good option for this purpose. The paper presents the results of GIS analysis of the volume of water which would be available in case of the restoration of extinct ponds in the catchment of the river Blanice (543 km 2 ). For this purpose, detail elevation data were used to avoid unacceptable error in volume estimates due to the sizes of considered areas. The results of analyses show that there is considerable retention volume available which could be used either to improve hydrologic conditions in stream network or for agricultural use consisting mainly in irrigations. Additionally, the results were compared to discharge data for three profiles on main major stream channels. In general, the results show how the building of new small water reservoirs can be used to mitigate droughts.