Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e1353 |
| Journal | WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS-WATER |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Early online date | 26 May 2019 |
| Publication status | Published - 14 Jun 2019 |
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 Extremes Science of Water > Hydrological Processes Science of Water > Methods.
Keywords
- flood genesis, flood mechanisms, flood typology, historical floods, hydroclimatology of floods, Flood mechanisms, Flood genesis, Flood typology, Historical floods, Hydroclimatology of floods
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Environmental Science(all)
- Water Science and Technology
- Engineering(all)
- Ocean Engineering
- Agricultural and Biological Sciences(all)
- Aquatic Science
- Environmental Science(all)
- Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
- Earth and Planetary Sciences(all)
- Oceanography
- Environmental Science(all)
- Ecology
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In: WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS-WATER, Vol. 6, No. 4, e1353, 14.06.2019.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Causative classification of river flood events
AU - Tarasova, Larisa
AU - Merz, Ralf
AU - Kiss, Andrea
AU - Basso, Stefano
AU - Bloeschl, Guenter
AU - Merz, Bruno
AU - Viglione, Alberto
AU - Ploetner, Stefan
AU - Guse, Bjoern
AU - Schumann, Andreas
AU - Fischer, Svenja
AU - Ahrens, Bodo
AU - Anwar, Faizan
AU - Bardossy, Andras
AU - Buehler, Philipp
AU - Haberlandt, Uwe
AU - Kreibich, Heidi
AU - Krug, Amelie
AU - Lun, David
AU - Müller-Thomy, Hannes
AU - Pidoto, Ross
AU - Primo, Cristina
AU - Seidel, Jochen
AU - Vorogushyn, Sergiy
AU - Wietzke, Luzie
N1 - Funding Information: We thank all the participants of February 13–15, 2018 SPATE Symposium on “Flood typology” in Halle (Saale), Germany and Joint Workshop on Event Definition and Characterization on July 9–11, 2018 in Vienna, Austria for discussion and ideas that have inspired this review. We are grateful to S. Lane, J. Seibert, K.K. Hirschboeck, and one anonymous reviewer for valuable comments and suggestions that improved the manuscript. The financial support of the German Research Foundation (“Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft”, DFG) and the Austrian Science Fund (“Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung”, FWF) in terms of the research group FOR 2416 “Space-Time Dynamics of Extreme Floods (SPATE)” and subproject I 3174 is gratefully acknowledged. For Hannes Müller-Thomy the funding was provided as a Research Fellowship (MU 819 4257/1-1) by the German Research Foundation (“Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft”, DFG).
PY - 2019/6/14
Y1 - 2019/6/14
N2 - 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 Extremes Science of Water > Hydrological Processes Science of Water > Methods.
AB - 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 Extremes Science of Water > Hydrological Processes Science of Water > Methods.
KW - flood genesis
KW - flood mechanisms
KW - flood typology
KW - historical floods
KW - hydroclimatology of floods
KW - Flood mechanisms
KW - Flood genesis
KW - Flood typology
KW - Historical floods
KW - Hydroclimatology of floods
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85120718049&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/wat2.1353
DO - 10.1002/wat2.1353
M3 - Review article
VL - 6
JO - WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS-WATER
JF - WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS-WATER
SN - 2049-1948
IS - 4
M1 - e1353
ER -