Floods are the most prevalent natural hazard in Europe. Has flood risk increased in the continent? How, where, and why? Are climate change impacts apparent? How do socio-economic trends and associated land-use and land-cover change impact flood risk? This book considers national and regional perspectives on flood risk change, detection and attribution of change, and the re-insurer's point of view. Offers an overview of flood risk in Europe, past, present, and future Includes national/regional chapters covering central, western, southern, and northern Europe, the Alpine region, and the Iberian Peninsula Rectifies commonplace judgements: e.g. the climate is warming so floods should be becoming more frequent and intense, but observations do not always confirm this expectation
Introduction
Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz
I FACETS OF CHANGE
Changes in Flood Risk – Setting the Stage
Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz, Erich J. Plate, Harvey J. E. Rodda, John C. Rodda, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber & Witold G. Strupczewski
Catalogue of Large Floods in Europe in the 20th Century
Adam Choryński, Iwona Pińskwar, Wolfgang Kron, G. Robert Brakenridge & Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz
Large-scale Flooding in Europe, 1961–2005
Christel Prudhomme, Simon Parry, Marie Genevier, Jamie Hannaford & Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz
Changing Floods in Europe
Iwona Pińskwar, Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz, Pascal Peduzzi, G. Robert Brakenridge, Kerstin Stahl & Jamie Hannaford
Changes in Intense Precipitation in Europe
Olga Zolina
Historical Floods in Europe in the Past Millennium
Rudolf Brázdil, Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz, Gerardo Benito, Gaston Demarée, Neil Macdonald & Lars A. Roald
II NATIONAL AND REGIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON FLOODS
Floods in Austria
Günter Blöschl, Ralf Merz, Juraj Parajka, José Salinas & Alberto Viglione
Floods in the Czech Republic
R. Brázdil, L. Řezníčková, M. Havlíček & L. Elleder
Floods in France
Ignazio Giuntoli, Benjamin Renard & Michel Lang
Flood Risk from a Holistic Perspective – Observed Changes in Germany
Fred F. Hattermann, Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz, Shaochun Huang, Tobias Vetter, Wolfgang Kron, Olaf Burghoff, Bruno Merz, Axel Bronstert, Valentina Krysanova, Friedrich-Wilhelm Gerstengarbe, Peter Werner & Ylva Hauf
Floods in Greece
D. Koutsoyiannis, N. Mamassis, A. Efstratiadis, N. Zarkadoulas & I. Markonis
Floods in Iceland
Árni Snorrason, Bergur Einarsson, Emmanuel Pagneux, Jórunn Harðardóttir, Matthew J. Roberts, Oddur Sigurðsson, Óðinn Thórarinsson, Philippe Crochet, Tómas Jóhannesson & Thorsteinn Thorsteinsson
Flood Risk in Italy
Paola Salvati, Cinzia Bianchi, Mauro Rossi & Fausto Guzzetti
Floods in The Netherlands
J. K. Vrijling
Floods in Norway
Lars Andreas Roald
Floods in Poland
Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz, Andrzej Dobrowolski, Halina Lorenc, Tadeusz Niedźwiedź, Iwona Pińskwar & Piotr Kowalczak
Floods in Switzerland
Petra Schmocker-Fackel & Felix Naef
Flood Risk in the UK: Evidence of Change and Management Responses
Jamie Hannaford & Jim W. Hall
Floods in the Alpine Areas of Europe
Antoine Bard, Benjamin Renard & Michel Lang
Floods in the Iberian Peninsula
Gerardo Benito & Maria J. Machado
III DETECTION AND ATTRIBUTION OF CHANGE, AND PROSPECTS
Detection of Changes
Sheng Yue, Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz & Linghui Wang
Detection and Attribution of Climate Change and Its Impacts
Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz & Wolfgang Cramer
Detection and Attribution of Changes in Water Resources
Dieter Gerten, Wolfgang Lucht & Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz
Detection and Attribution of Changes in Flood Hazard and Risk
Bruno Merz, Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz, Jose Delgado, Yeshewa Hundecha & Heidi Kreibich
Changing Flood Risk – A Re-insurer’s Viewpoint
Wolfgang Kron
Projections of Flood Risk in Europe
Christel Prudhomme, Jennifer Williamson, Simon Parry & Jamie Hannaford
Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz is an authority on floods and climate change, works closely with the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change), is a member of the Advisory Board on the Environment of the European Union Seventh Framework Programme, and is the co-editor of Hydrological Sciences Journal. He is a Corresponding Member of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS), Professor of Earth Sciences and Head of the Department of Climate and Water Resources at the Institute for Agricultural and Forest Environment, PAS, Poznan, Poland, and an associate of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Potsdam, Germany.