Integrated high-resolution dataset of high-intensity European and Mediterranean flash floods

Abstract

This paper describes an integrated, high-resolution dataset of hydro-meteorological variables (rainfall and discharge) concerning a number of high-intensity flash floods that occurred in Europe and in the Mediterranean region from 1991 to 2015. This type of dataset is rare in the scientific literature because flash floods are typically poorly observed hydrological extremes. Valuable features of the dataset (hereinafter referred to as the EuroMedeFF database) include (i) its coverage of varied hydro-climatic regions, ranging from Continental Europe through the Mediterranean to Arid climates, (ii) the high space-time resolution radar rainfall estimates, and (iii) the dense spatial sampling of the flood response, by observed hydrographs and/or flood peak estimates from post-flood surveys. Flash floods included in the database are selected based on the limited upstream catchment areas (up to 3000 km 2 ), the limited storm durations (up to 2 days), and the unit peak flood magnitude. The EuroMedeFF database comprises 49 events that occurred in

A flood-risk-oriented, dynamic protection motivation framework to explain risk reduction behaviours

“…This is in line with findings highlighting that individual expectations of government responses shape the public's actions in response to floods and longer-term adaptation (Adger et al, 2013;Chamlee-Wright and Storr, 2010). Public adaptation and damage compensation can lead to reduced private protective behaviour either because citizens view flood mitigation as a government responsibility (Bichard and Kazmierczak, 2012;Botzen et al, 2009b;Box et al, 2013;Grothmann and Reusswig, 2006) or because the public adaptation reduced their perceptions of risk and costs (Raschky and Weck-Hannemann, 2007). Finally, other variables that have been added to the PMT framework in past studies and which appear to be influential in households' risk reduction decisions are knowledge (Martin et al, 2007), flood experience (Poussin et al, 2014;Gutscher, 2006, 2008), public assistance (Hanger et al, 2018), and sociodemographic characteristics (e.g.…”

“…However, it remains unclear whether this actually matches the capacity of individuals to increase their levels of protection (Scolobig et al, 2015). For instance, in the case of floods, citizens often transfer the responsibility for their own safety and protection to the agencies in charge (Adger et al, 2013;Bichard and Kazmierczak, 2012). This may be related to the fact that people perceive flooding as a human-made phenomenon rather than a natural one, for example in the Mediterranean region (Diakakis et al, 2018;Lara et al, 2010).…”

Flood trends in Europe: are changes in small and big floods different?

“…Notice, however, that the small catchments analysed in southern Europe have sizes of the order of 10 km 2 and are, therefore, larger than catchments where flash floods are the dominant flood type and infiltration excess runoff is the main generation mechanism (Amponsah et al, 2018). For these very small catchments (< 10 km 2 ), floods may become larger due to more frequent thunderstorms (Ban et al, 2015) and land management changes, e.g. deforestation and urbanization .…”

Contrasting rainfall-runoff characteristics of floods in desert and Mediterranean basins

“…Less frequently and affecting mostly the southern and eastern part of the study area, a surface low-pressure trough extending along the Red Sea and supported by an upper level trough brings localized con- vective showers in the area, mostly occurring after the daily thermal maximum, in the afternoon (active Red Sea trough -ARST) (Sharon and Kutiel, 1986;De Vries et al, 2013). On rare occasions a conveyor belt of moisture in the mid-upper tropospheric layers causes widespread rainfall over the whole region (Armon et al, 2018;Rubin et al, 2007). Mean annual precipitation shows a north-to-south gradient, from 700 to less than 50 mm yr −1 , caused by the different occurrence and intensity of Mediterranean cyclones and the shape of the Mediterranean shoreline, and a west-to-east sharp gradient caused by the shading effect of the Judean Mountains.…”

“…Floods in arid areas are characterized by short durations (Keppel and Renard, 1962). During extreme storms, event-based runoff coefficients and unit peak discharge can reach values comparable to wetter climates, especially in small basins (Amponsah et al, 2018;Costa, 1987;Tarolli et al, 2012), and respond mostly to the intensity and volume of the storm core (Syed et al, 2003). The resulting flood frequency distribution is skewed, with a high ratio of large to small floods (Farquharson et al, 1992;McDermott and Pilgrim, 1983).…”