Historical Floods on the Spanish Mediterranean Basin: A Methodological Proposal for the Classification of Information at High Spatio–Temporal Resolution—AMICME Database (CE 1035–2022)

Abstract

The uncertainties raised by climate change in the Mediterranean region justify a detailed study on rainfall regime over a long time scale. This study is not just about reconstructing and characterizing climate variability, but also identifying the hydrometeorological episodes of greater severity and low frequency. These phenomena, such as floods and droughts, affect the availability of water resources, generate casualties and have significant impacts on human activity. In this context of global warming, knowledge of past extreme hydrometeorological events has gained importance over time. Moreover, the ability to classify these past extreme events in order to compare them with current ones strengthens research capabilities. For this reason, this paper proposes a multivariable classification system for flood episodes, both historical and recent. The classification considers the physical conditions of a flood, its damage to structures and its social impacts. The proposed methodology has been applied to the AMICME flood database for the Spanish Mediterranean catchment areas from CE 1035 to 2022. This paper shows the application of this methodology for six flood episodes from different centuries and locations. It has been possible to display all the indexed information for the different flood cases of every episode through cartographic summary representations. Results prove the adaptability of the classification system to different hydrographical and historical contexts.