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Tarasova L, Merz R, Kiss A, et al. Causative classification of river flood events. WIREs Water. 2019;6(4):e1353doi: 10.1002/wat2.1353.
Tarasova, L., Merz, R., Kiss, A., Basso, S., Blöschl, G., Merz, B., Viglione, A., Plötner, S., Guse, B., Schumann, A., Fischer, S., Ahrens, B., Anwar, F., Bárdossy, A., Bühler, P., Haberlandt, U., Kreibich, H., Krug, A., Lun, D., Müller-Thomy, H., Pidoto, R., Primo, C., Seidel, J., Vorogushyn, S., & Wietzke, L. (2019). Causative classification of river flood events. WIREs. Water, 6(4), e1353. https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1353
Tarasova, Larisa, et al. "Causative classification of river flood events." WIREs. Water vol. 6,4 (2019): e1353. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1353
Tarasova L, Merz R, Kiss A, Basso S, Blöschl G, Merz B, Viglione A, Plötner S, Guse B, Schumann A, Fischer S, Ahrens B, Anwar F, Bárdossy A, Bühler P, Haberlandt U, Kreibich H, Krug A, Lun D, Müller-Thomy H, Pidoto R, Primo C, Seidel J, Vorogushyn S, Wietzke L. Causative classification of river flood events. WIREs Water. 2019 Jul-Aug;6(4):e1353. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1353. Epub 2019 May 26. PMID: 31423301; PMCID: PMC6686718.
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WIREs Water. 2019 Jul-Aug;6(4):e1353. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1353. Epub 2019 May 26.

Causative classification of river flood events.

WIREs. Water

Larisa Tarasova, Ralf Merz, Andrea Kiss, Stefano Basso, Günter Blöschl, Bruno Merz, Alberto Viglione, Stefan Plötner, Björn Guse, Andreas Schumann, Svenja Fischer, Bodo Ahrens, Faizan Anwar, András Bárdossy, Philipp Bühler, Uwe Haberlandt, Heidi Kreibich, Amelie Krug, David Lun, Hannes Müller-Thomy, Ross Pidoto, Cristina Primo, Jochen Seidel, Sergiy Vorogushyn, Luzie Wietzke

Affiliations

  1. Department Catchment Hydrology Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research Halle (Saale) Germany.
  2. Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management Vienna University of Technology Vienna Austria.
  3. Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences Potsdam Germany.
  4. Institute for Environmental Sciences and Geography University Potsdam Potsdam Germany.
  5. Department of Environment, Land and Infrastructure Engineering Politecnico di Torino Turin Italy.
  6. Institute for Hydrology and Water Resources Management Leibniz University Hannover Hannover Germany.
  7. Institute of Hydrology, Water Resources Management and Environmental Engineering Ruhr University Bochum Bochum Germany.
  8. Institute for Atmospheric and Environmental Science Goethe University Frankfurt Frankfurt Germany.
  9. Institute for Modelling Hydraulic and Environmental Systems University of Stuttgart Stuttgart Germany.

PMID: 31423301 PMCID: PMC6686718 DOI: 10.1002/wat2.1353

Abstract

A wide variety of processes controls the time of occurrence, duration, extent, and severity of river floods. Classifying flood events by their causative processes may assist in enhancing the accuracy of local and regional flood frequency estimates and support the detection and interpretation of any changes in flood occurrence and magnitudes. This paper provides a critical review of existing causative classifications of instrumental and preinstrumental series of flood events, discusses their validity and applications, and identifies opportunities for moving toward more comprehensive approaches. So far no unified definition of causative mechanisms of flood events exists. Existing frameworks for classification of instrumental and preinstrumental series of flood events adopt different perspectives: hydroclimatic (large-scale circulation patterns and atmospheric state at the time of the event), hydrological (catchment scale precipitation patterns and antecedent catchment state), and hydrograph-based (indirectly considering generating mechanisms through their effects on hydrograph characteristics). All of these approaches intend to capture the flood generating mechanisms and are useful for characterizing the flood processes at various spatial and temporal scales. However, uncertainty analyses with respect to indicators, classification methods, and data to assess the robustness of the classification are rarely performed which limits the transferability across different geographic regions. It is argued that more rigorous testing is needed. There are opportunities for extending classification methods to include indicators of space-time dynamics of rainfall, antecedent wetness, and routing effects, which will make the classification schemes even more useful for understanding and estimating floods. This article is categorized under:Science of Water > Water ExtremesScience of Water > Hydrological ProcessesScience of Water > Methods.

Keywords: flood genesis; flood mechanisms; flood typology; historical floods; hydroclimatology of floods

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared no conflicts of interest for this article.

References

  1. Science. 2017 Aug 11;357(6351):588-590 - PubMed
  2. Int J Climatol. 2018 Apr;38(Suppl Suppl 1):e497-e517 - PubMed

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