<
https://theconversation.com/three-ways-to-reduce-europes-flood-risk-244196>
"From the Czech Republic to Spain, Europe has been plagued by devastating
floods in late 2024.
Climate scientists agree that severe flooding was probably driven by climate
change resulting in record-breaking rainfall. Warmer temperatures increase the
amount of water vapour in the atmosphere, especially over warmer oceans, which
increases the amount of rainfall. Europe is projected to experience a greater
frequency of severe floods, potentially with dire consequences to economies and
livelihoods.
It’s challenging to reduce flood risk in Europe because of the high density of
population and economic activities within flood-prone lands, as well as
substantial cultural heritage. Flood risk has increased in Europe largely
because people have moved into protected areas that were formerly flood prone,
referred to as the “levee effect”.
Implementing effective flood management is also difficult because not all
floods are the same. Broadly, Europe is impacted by three main types of flood
processes: fluvial, pluvial and coastal storm surge.
Fluvial flooding refers to excessive precipitation (both rain and melted snow)
flowing into upstream river basins drives high run-off and downstream over-bank
flooding. These floods are particularly severe in mountainous regions near the
coast, like Valencia, Spain in 2024, because steep slopes accelerate runoff.
Pluvial flooding occurs when local rainfall is not adequately drained, fields
in rural areas become saturated, while flash floods can occur in urban areas.
Excessive local rainfall is especially a problem over lowland rivers and deltas
during wet winter months, as saturated lands do not permit drainage of
additional rainfall and run-off, leading to local flood problems.
Strong winds drive coastal storm surge events. This causes rivers to backup and
overflow, flooding adjacent lands. Storm surge events are more common in winter
months.
The most challenging floods to manage are caused by multiple flood processes.
Last winter in the lower Rhine basin in Germany and the Netherlands, three
flood processes combined to produce flooding (high water), saturating fields
and substantially impacting agricultural activities for months.
For the first time since its construction in 1997, the huge Maeslant barrier at
the mouth of the Rhine River near Hook of Holland, had to close to manage a
storm surge."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
